This, That, and the Other for eustacia_vye by itsbeenvery
* Thank you back-up writer! *
Title: This, That, and the Other
Rating: PG-13 (the odd swear pops up)
Summary: Ginny puts on the old thinkin' cap and considers her relationship with Draco, and finds out some things aren't that complicated and some are.
Disclaimer: All HP stuff belongs to JKR.
AN: To eustacia_vye, I totally forgot to incorporate foreign languages and weddings, along with the angst/fluff you requested. I'm really am very sorry about that, I have no excuse. I'm not sure what I can do to make up for that, but I'll gladly write you another D/G with those things if you'd like. Thank you very much to ali_jayne for beta-reading this on such short notice.
If you saw him now, you’d figure he was the sort of guy smooth operatin’ his way into a mother’s heart and her daughter’s unmentionables. He would seem like he was full of character, confidence, and culture. It was funny that strangers had that impression of him; she personally could not connect the dots between James Bond and Draco Malfoy. They weren’t even in the same colouring book. The fact that people were always talking about him made her angry.
At first it was because people would fawn all over him and talk about how difficult things must have been for him, being flung into such dangerous circumstances at such a tender young age. Who were these people kidding? 16 through 19 might have been young, but they were hardly pure and naïve. Nothing was stolen from them. People cried about lost innocence, but last time she checked, no one was asking their 12 year-old selves if they’d rather lose their life or a limb, which was a hard choice considering losing a limb meant you still had to join their ranks. All glocked up and no place to go. At least she and Draco got to kill people she saw as the enemy, rather than those they saw as family.
Then it was because people would glare at him, spit as he walked by, and whisper in his ear that he was lucky his mother was willing to whore herself out to Snape in exchange for protection that ultimately allowed him to make it through while others did not. She couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t respond, wouldn’t take action and make them wish they had told him of how they often wished Lucius hadn’t died by way of the AK; that they’d prefer he’d been chained up Prometheus-style
That was hard. How do you deal with the knowledge that people you loved and cared for are gone and everyone is happy about it? How their names will be used negatively in history books and without tact in newspapers? She couldn’t say Lucius was a good man, but she knew Draco loved him. And she felt very strongly for Draco.
When they made that first stupid move where clothes flew off as they dove onto bed (and thank god for beds as diving onto the floor would have really killed the mood), she thought things like thinking is for morning-after regret-time and he thought things like neato! because he rated a sub-zero on the Dweebs, Geeks, and Weirdos game of life.
She had trouble making sense of how she went from reluctant to eager, and thinking hard on it meant she had to face her own indifference to some things she should not feel indifferent about. It was easy to deride others for failing to take action or care about the problems of their society, but at the end of the day, she’d not only fallen for such a person, she’d fallen for one who had taken action in the wrong direction. ‘Changed’ was the triple-word score here, but ‘former’ was what people remembered.
Nosey strangers loved to go on and on about how her relationship with Draco was one for the ages, against public opinion, all odds, and their societal rules. These comments were strange, incorrect, and dramatic. There had been numerous relationships between wizards and witches of different classes, or cases where their families had disapproved. Guess what? Those couples went ahead regardless. Scandal isn’t scandal just because someone says it is. If people were going to remark on her relationship, she at least wished they’d get some perspective on what is important and what is not. Wizards and witches may live to 120 (if they didn’t blow themselves up by accident or AK’d when acting before thinking), but they still only lived once.
She believed that, and tried her best to follow that way of thought, but sometimes, she just wanted out. Surely others felt similarly at some point during their relationships. Like when you really hate your beloved and you want him to slip on an icy sidewalk because you won that morning’s argument and Mother Nature owes you. When you want his loser-ass friends to get lost, preferably forever, then go out and find ‘better’ friends for him. And you want to change this, cut out that, and absolutely deny the other.
Everything was perfect, warm and easy at first, when she imagined building a life together with Draco. While it’d be easy to say things weren’t perfect because of events that had taken place before, after, and during the war, it wouldn’t be honest. If she and Draco had grown up as Muggles, and been completely unaware of such events, they’d be in the exact same spot they were now.
This relationship nonsense was much harder because you had to grind away at it each day, forever. Because You and me were meant to be, All you need is love, right? Perhaps not. Love was a bunch of things: a grocery list and you think you know what’s in store, but you get home only to learn you’ve forgotten the damn avocado, which translates to Why didn’t anyone tell me about all this stuff? in Relationship.
Ginny has learned, she is learning, and she will learn. She’ll learn about compromises she wouldn’t imagine making, maturity she didn’t know she had, and how there’s so much more than love in a long-term relationship. Ginny has learned how she can be in turns and all at once strong, foolish, and fair. She is learning that it is important to keep learning; to keep re-adjusting her beliefs, goals, and feelings as she sees fit when things change.
He used to be the type of guy that would piss all over you for no reason and any reason: for being alive, for being this, that, but not the other. You could spot his game a mile off and run circles around him, he was just that obvious. He’s not that guy anymore, and he’s not James Bond. He’s important to her, and that’s what matters.
Title: This, That, and the Other
Rating: PG-13 (the odd swear pops up)
Summary: Ginny puts on the old thinkin' cap and considers her relationship with Draco, and finds out some things aren't that complicated and some are.
Disclaimer: All HP stuff belongs to JKR.
AN: To eustacia_vye, I totally forgot to incorporate foreign languages and weddings, along with the angst/fluff you requested. I'm really am very sorry about that, I have no excuse. I'm not sure what I can do to make up for that, but I'll gladly write you another D/G with those things if you'd like. Thank you very much to ali_jayne for beta-reading this on such short notice.
If you saw him now, you’d figure he was the sort of guy smooth operatin’ his way into a mother’s heart and her daughter’s unmentionables. He would seem like he was full of character, confidence, and culture. It was funny that strangers had that impression of him; she personally could not connect the dots between James Bond and Draco Malfoy. They weren’t even in the same colouring book. The fact that people were always talking about him made her angry.
At first it was because people would fawn all over him and talk about how difficult things must have been for him, being flung into such dangerous circumstances at such a tender young age. Who were these people kidding? 16 through 19 might have been young, but they were hardly pure and naïve. Nothing was stolen from them. People cried about lost innocence, but last time she checked, no one was asking their 12 year-old selves if they’d rather lose their life or a limb, which was a hard choice considering losing a limb meant you still had to join their ranks. All glocked up and no place to go. At least she and Draco got to kill people she saw as the enemy, rather than those they saw as family.
Then it was because people would glare at him, spit as he walked by, and whisper in his ear that he was lucky his mother was willing to whore herself out to Snape in exchange for protection that ultimately allowed him to make it through while others did not. She couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t respond, wouldn’t take action and make them wish they had told him of how they often wished Lucius hadn’t died by way of the AK; that they’d prefer he’d been chained up Prometheus-style
That was hard. How do you deal with the knowledge that people you loved and cared for are gone and everyone is happy about it? How their names will be used negatively in history books and without tact in newspapers? She couldn’t say Lucius was a good man, but she knew Draco loved him. And she felt very strongly for Draco.
When they made that first stupid move where clothes flew off as they dove onto bed (and thank god for beds as diving onto the floor would have really killed the mood), she thought things like thinking is for morning-after regret-time and he thought things like neato! because he rated a sub-zero on the Dweebs, Geeks, and Weirdos game of life.
She had trouble making sense of how she went from reluctant to eager, and thinking hard on it meant she had to face her own indifference to some things she should not feel indifferent about. It was easy to deride others for failing to take action or care about the problems of their society, but at the end of the day, she’d not only fallen for such a person, she’d fallen for one who had taken action in the wrong direction. ‘Changed’ was the triple-word score here, but ‘former’ was what people remembered.
Nosey strangers loved to go on and on about how her relationship with Draco was one for the ages, against public opinion, all odds, and their societal rules. These comments were strange, incorrect, and dramatic. There had been numerous relationships between wizards and witches of different classes, or cases where their families had disapproved. Guess what? Those couples went ahead regardless. Scandal isn’t scandal just because someone says it is. If people were going to remark on her relationship, she at least wished they’d get some perspective on what is important and what is not. Wizards and witches may live to 120 (if they didn’t blow themselves up by accident or AK’d when acting before thinking), but they still only lived once.
She believed that, and tried her best to follow that way of thought, but sometimes, she just wanted out. Surely others felt similarly at some point during their relationships. Like when you really hate your beloved and you want him to slip on an icy sidewalk because you won that morning’s argument and Mother Nature owes you. When you want his loser-ass friends to get lost, preferably forever, then go out and find ‘better’ friends for him. And you want to change this, cut out that, and absolutely deny the other.
Everything was perfect, warm and easy at first, when she imagined building a life together with Draco. While it’d be easy to say things weren’t perfect because of events that had taken place before, after, and during the war, it wouldn’t be honest. If she and Draco had grown up as Muggles, and been completely unaware of such events, they’d be in the exact same spot they were now.
This relationship nonsense was much harder because you had to grind away at it each day, forever. Because You and me were meant to be, All you need is love, right? Perhaps not. Love was a bunch of things: a grocery list and you think you know what’s in store, but you get home only to learn you’ve forgotten the damn avocado, which translates to Why didn’t anyone tell me about all this stuff? in Relationship.
Ginny has learned, she is learning, and she will learn. She’ll learn about compromises she wouldn’t imagine making, maturity she didn’t know she had, and how there’s so much more than love in a long-term relationship. Ginny has learned how she can be in turns and all at once strong, foolish, and fair. She is learning that it is important to keep learning; to keep re-adjusting her beliefs, goals, and feelings as she sees fit when things change.
He used to be the type of guy that would piss all over you for no reason and any reason: for being alive, for being this, that, but not the other. You could spot his game a mile off and run circles around him, he was just that obvious. He’s not that guy anymore, and he’s not James Bond. He’s important to her, and that’s what matters.