Seasons: Fic: No Challenge
Title: Seasons:
Summary: A season by season narrative of how Ginny and Draco's relationship came to be. This is meant to be a look back on this time in their lives from the future.
Characters/Pairings: Draco Malfoy, Ginny Weasley, assorted others.
Genre: Romance, Narrative
Rating/Warnings: PG? AU
A/N: For the very late Puff Fic Exchange. Spring should be coming shortly.
Word Count: 1011
Winter
…Ginny…
It had all started very slowly; I wasn’t even aware of what was happening at the time. It was so strange, to even accept him as a friend, especially when no one else believed his good intentions. Even I didn’t, at first, but I believe in second chances. I was working as a healer-in-training’s apprentice at St. Mungo’s. I shadowed the trainee healer Fuller during the day, and took educational workshops in the evening. I was starting out at the bottom but had every intention of finishing at the top.
Harry and I are no longer together. I realized that being together was no more than a childhood dream; when I looked at Harry I saw someone vulnerable and struggling to be brave, someone who knew what he had to do and would do it no matter what. I wanted to comfort him and it was when I realized that he didn’t need me for that anymore things fell apart. I wanted a challenge.
I saw Harry frequently, and my brothers, too, more than I liked. I wanted to become a Healer not only because it was important to me, but I needed a little distance from my family to become my own woman. I did, eventually, but it didn’t happen easily because of how often I saw them. Being a member of the Order, I see them nearly every day at headquarters.
I almost didn’t join, but in the end it was Hermione who persuaded me. We’d remained close friends after Hogwarts, but there were always some things she couldn’t share because of her involvement with the Order. She was a Potions Masters’ apprentice at the time and was and always will be brilliantly talented. She expressed how important it was to have Healers on staff, though I was nowhere near a Healer. After telling me the kinds missions she’s been working on, she confessed she’d recruited me because she needed help, and there weren’t too many safe sources for her to turn to.
She knew my answer would be nothing but a resounding yes after that. And I loved it, really. My life was more exciting then it had been in ages, but less scary then my first year at Hogwarts. I hoped I would never again encounter something like that, but I knew that it was very likely I would. It seemed as if the war would never end, no matter how tirelessly we worked.
…Draco…
When I look back on it all, I am shocked at how I have been transformed. All credit goes to her, of course. After Hogwarts, I was focused on joining the Death Eaters. I found it a wonderful prospect, the ability to contain and control such power at the expense of others’. What a world it would be if it contained only the most pure, the most elite.
Of course, Father was my way in. Mother refused to accept it, denied me many of the pleasantries and privileges I’d grown up with. She bribed me with money, houses, women, possessions if I refused the offer. I am an adult; I could choose for myself. But the path I was on was the easy one, not the right one. The Dark Lord himself had decided it was my destiny, and who was I to refuse something I wholeheartedly believed to be the truth?
I wouldn’t deny that I was scared. Even Father seemed on edge. He walked the line between being a proud father and an ashamed one. He did not want me to see the inner working of the Dark Lord’s most elite. He had made his choice years ago and regretted it immensely, but he was proud because of my bravery, my unwillingness to give up and run far far away as mother suggested.
One night, years ago, I was up late, unable to sleep. Father had been summoned that afternoon, in the middle of our traditional Sunday brunch. Three a.m. the next morning, I realize he hasn’t returned. I checked the Manor in its entirety after finding his side of the bed empty and Mother in some sort of potion-induced sleep that left her comatose. I returned to my bedroom, grabbed my wand, and was outside in a flash. I started with the back yard and worked my way around to the front. I shined my light back and forth in a sweeping figure eight, listening for any sound.
I found him a few minutes later, entangled in the bushes on the side of the Manor, the snow nearly covering him. It looked as if he had been unable to control his apparition. He was bruised, badly; green and purple contusions marked his face and arms. His hands and neck were raw and scarred, and he was whimpering. I called out to him, but he was unresponsive. His skin was blue and his teeth were chattering uncontrollably. My only thoughts were alternately to help him and to find the son of a bitch who did this and kill them. It must have been a wizard; no mere muggle could have done this. I uttered the only two spell I could think of. I performed Ennervate and a warming charm and he woke up. I mean, his eyes opened. He could barely speak, the only word he could say was my name. I thought he was going to die.
I felt like a kid again; I was crying and I didn’t know what to do to help him. I could only think of one person who could: his comrade in arms, fellow Death Eater, and my former potions professor. I cast a patronus charm to send him an emergency message. I didn’t know if he would be home, or at Hogwarts, but I hoped it would be able to find him. It took off, lighting up the sky with the sun as it rose, and I waited. I counted, and conjured water for my father to drink.
Severus Snape arrived within twenty minutes. I helped move my father into a spare bedroom, and was sent away immediately so Snape could work his magic. If I had learned anything from being the King of Slytherin for seven years it was that as a leader you demand respect and create fear in your followers, but you never do anything that might turn them against you. Apparently Voldemort thought he could do what he wanted and his followers would come crawling back for more. I think it was then when I began to have second thoughts about what I was getting into.
Kat//Hufflepuff
Summary: A season by season narrative of how Ginny and Draco's relationship came to be. This is meant to be a look back on this time in their lives from the future.
Characters/Pairings: Draco Malfoy, Ginny Weasley, assorted others.
Genre: Romance, Narrative
Rating/Warnings: PG? AU
A/N: For the very late Puff Fic Exchange. Spring should be coming shortly.
Word Count: 1011
Winter
…Ginny…
It had all started very slowly; I wasn’t even aware of what was happening at the time. It was so strange, to even accept him as a friend, especially when no one else believed his good intentions. Even I didn’t, at first, but I believe in second chances. I was working as a healer-in-training’s apprentice at St. Mungo’s. I shadowed the trainee healer Fuller during the day, and took educational workshops in the evening. I was starting out at the bottom but had every intention of finishing at the top.
Harry and I are no longer together. I realized that being together was no more than a childhood dream; when I looked at Harry I saw someone vulnerable and struggling to be brave, someone who knew what he had to do and would do it no matter what. I wanted to comfort him and it was when I realized that he didn’t need me for that anymore things fell apart. I wanted a challenge.
I saw Harry frequently, and my brothers, too, more than I liked. I wanted to become a Healer not only because it was important to me, but I needed a little distance from my family to become my own woman. I did, eventually, but it didn’t happen easily because of how often I saw them. Being a member of the Order, I see them nearly every day at headquarters.
I almost didn’t join, but in the end it was Hermione who persuaded me. We’d remained close friends after Hogwarts, but there were always some things she couldn’t share because of her involvement with the Order. She was a Potions Masters’ apprentice at the time and was and always will be brilliantly talented. She expressed how important it was to have Healers on staff, though I was nowhere near a Healer. After telling me the kinds missions she’s been working on, she confessed she’d recruited me because she needed help, and there weren’t too many safe sources for her to turn to.
She knew my answer would be nothing but a resounding yes after that. And I loved it, really. My life was more exciting then it had been in ages, but less scary then my first year at Hogwarts. I hoped I would never again encounter something like that, but I knew that it was very likely I would. It seemed as if the war would never end, no matter how tirelessly we worked.
…Draco…
When I look back on it all, I am shocked at how I have been transformed. All credit goes to her, of course. After Hogwarts, I was focused on joining the Death Eaters. I found it a wonderful prospect, the ability to contain and control such power at the expense of others’. What a world it would be if it contained only the most pure, the most elite.
Of course, Father was my way in. Mother refused to accept it, denied me many of the pleasantries and privileges I’d grown up with. She bribed me with money, houses, women, possessions if I refused the offer. I am an adult; I could choose for myself. But the path I was on was the easy one, not the right one. The Dark Lord himself had decided it was my destiny, and who was I to refuse something I wholeheartedly believed to be the truth?
I wouldn’t deny that I was scared. Even Father seemed on edge. He walked the line between being a proud father and an ashamed one. He did not want me to see the inner working of the Dark Lord’s most elite. He had made his choice years ago and regretted it immensely, but he was proud because of my bravery, my unwillingness to give up and run far far away as mother suggested.
One night, years ago, I was up late, unable to sleep. Father had been summoned that afternoon, in the middle of our traditional Sunday brunch. Three a.m. the next morning, I realize he hasn’t returned. I checked the Manor in its entirety after finding his side of the bed empty and Mother in some sort of potion-induced sleep that left her comatose. I returned to my bedroom, grabbed my wand, and was outside in a flash. I started with the back yard and worked my way around to the front. I shined my light back and forth in a sweeping figure eight, listening for any sound.
I found him a few minutes later, entangled in the bushes on the side of the Manor, the snow nearly covering him. It looked as if he had been unable to control his apparition. He was bruised, badly; green and purple contusions marked his face and arms. His hands and neck were raw and scarred, and he was whimpering. I called out to him, but he was unresponsive. His skin was blue and his teeth were chattering uncontrollably. My only thoughts were alternately to help him and to find the son of a bitch who did this and kill them. It must have been a wizard; no mere muggle could have done this. I uttered the only two spell I could think of. I performed Ennervate and a warming charm and he woke up. I mean, his eyes opened. He could barely speak, the only word he could say was my name. I thought he was going to die.
I felt like a kid again; I was crying and I didn’t know what to do to help him. I could only think of one person who could: his comrade in arms, fellow Death Eater, and my former potions professor. I cast a patronus charm to send him an emergency message. I didn’t know if he would be home, or at Hogwarts, but I hoped it would be able to find him. It took off, lighting up the sky with the sun as it rose, and I waited. I counted, and conjured water for my father to drink.
Severus Snape arrived within twenty minutes. I helped move my father into a spare bedroom, and was sent away immediately so Snape could work his magic. If I had learned anything from being the King of Slytherin for seven years it was that as a leader you demand respect and create fear in your followers, but you never do anything that might turn them against you. Apparently Voldemort thought he could do what he wanted and his followers would come crawling back for more. I think it was then when I began to have second thoughts about what I was getting into.
Kat//Hufflepuff