Into the Light, Into the Dark (1/3)
Pairing: Draco/Ginny
Rating: R
Summary: When Ginny is rejected by Harry in the most humiliating way, she turns to an unexpected choice. But are his feelings enough to protect her from Harry, and is she strong enough to help him change?
Hey, will you stay, awhile?
My smile will not mislead you.
Cause I've been alone, my faith turned to stone
Still there's something in you that I believe in.
Close to your peers, I go wild and fierce
Still I let you be, I feel you next to me
Cause inside I feel a wind that starts to blow
I'm taken in your undertow
Everything is fine...I'm lonely all the time.
Cause all I want to do is be there for the things that you're going through,
Is it good for you? Is it good for you?
Cause you haunt my nights where I don't know where my life should go,
Is it good for you? Is it good for you?
Hey, child, please stay awhile
My smile will not mislead you.
Cause I've been without, I go wild with doubt.
I grab at you; I can't stop grabbing at you.
Cause I feel you cross my mind in disarray, intoxicated ricochet.
There's nothing wrong, just don't take too long
Cause all I want to do is be there for the things that you're going through,
Is it good for you? Is it good for you?
Cause you haunt my nights where I don't know where my life should go,
Is it good for you? Is it good for you?
Good for You by Third Eye Blind
"Harry, will you be my boyfriend?"
"Ginny, you know I would never love you the way you'd want me to. You're like a sister to me."
Ginny played the scene over and over in her head. This...rejection was too much to bear. Unlike the other times when she'd glance with a look asking, "Will you? Do you?" this time she'd given voice to her feelings and in front of the school...
10 Minutes Earlier
She missed dinner to prepare. Clothes and makeup wasn't easy growing up in a family of boys, but she did the best she could with glamours and magazines. Then she waited, waited in her room to steady her mind and waited in the hall until Harry was about to leave the dining hall.
When she saw him stand and wave goodbye to her brother and Hermione, she walked in with a kind of tunnel vision, heading straight for him and seeing no one else. But she didn't care because this was her moment.
"Hello, Harry," she began timidly. He looked her up and down, at her outfit under opened regular school robe and her painted face.
"Uh, hi, Ginny. How are you?" A slight blush came over his surprised face. "You missed dinner."
"I'm fine," she replied, looking over his shoulder at Ron. "I wasn't hungry." Ron was speechless from his sister's exotic display of herself and just ended up resorting to meaningless gestures and incomplete words. Hermione watched him amusedly while giving Ginny sympathetic smiles.
"Are you sure you're fine? You don't...uh, look okay...not that you appear bad or anything, I just mean you don't look well," Harry stumbled over his words.
"Yeah, well, I wanted to try a new look. Do you like?" Harry didn't have time for a reply as she quickly continued, "Anyway, I wanted to ask you something." The faculty, their conversation finished, left the hall to go to their respective offices and rooms, paying no attention to the wayward Gryffindor girl, while for all the world the other students stopped piling out of the room and listened as intently possible. Ginny could feel the tension of the student body pressing in on her, pressing her to speak.
Then, Ginny spoke.
"Do you love me?" She took a hold of his hand in both of her own and gazed searchingly in his emerald-green eyes. "Harry, will you be my boyfriend?"
Everyone froze. Even Ron stopped his jerking and flat out fainted, leaving Hermione to tend to him. A darker blush covered Harry's face now; it made his scar just about disappear. Then the red faded and was replaced by an expression of empathy and finality.
Harry placed his free hand over hers and said, "Ginny, you know I would never love you the way you'd want. You are the sister of one of my best friends and so, like a sister to me. So please, never ask me again. I doubt you'll ever get me to change my feelings." His reply was clear and audible over the hush of the room even though he spoke softly and gently.
The statement hit Ginny like a tidal wave, visibly crumpling her. It crashed against the innocent shores of her heart. She staggered back, grasping the folds of her robe over her clothes, when she became aware of the other students. Practically all the students from each house was there; Ravenclaw girls pointed and whispered amongst themselves, Hufflepuff boys looked slightly embarrassed themselves, Gryffindors were sympathetic, and Slytherins howled with laughter in wild abandon. Ginny's eyes glistened with unshed tears as they darted back and forth as she withdraw from Harry. When she disentangled her hands from his, she turned and ran as far and as fast as she could.
"Ginny, wait! Come back!" Harry shouted after her, but she'd already turned out into the hall.
As he turned around to face his friends, Hermione vaguely commented " Boys are so blind," and she took a bite of a crimson red apple.
Present
After running into the hall, Ginny had ducked into an old, rarely used classroom on the third floor, away from the dormitories and away from Harry. She knew she would be sought for, either by her brother and his friends or...or anyone else and she didn't want to deal with any of them. No one could possibly understand her...
And then again her thoughts turned to Harry. Oh how she despised him now! The emotions she'd been repressing since her humiliation came flooding to the foreground andlet loose a sob, releasing the sorrow of her broken heart in pure, wild animal energy. She fell to her knees, and realized her heart was now as cold as the stone floor.
"A loveless heart can never be warm," she said to the air. But outside the door, one person heard her mournful cries and the melancholic statement and he entered the room quietly without her knowing it.
"But a heart that knows love can be easily burned," a familiar voice cut through the dark as the figure emerged from the shadows.
Ginny instantly turned towards the voice, her eyes narrowed to murderous slits. "Malfoy! What the hell do you want, to mock and tease me about how The Boy Who Lived rejected me in front of the whole school? Or how I was the one to throw myself at him dressed like this? If so, go ahead, I don't care anymore. I'm dead inside anyway."
Malfoy didn't reply. Truth to be told, her admission shocked him more than anything ever had, and his father was a Death Eater. Instead, he knelt beside her and a small smirk played on his lips. Then, rather unexpectedly to them both, he ever so slowly pushed a stray strand of autumn-shaded hair from her eyes. Ginny didn't flinch at his touch, but did still his hand with her own. "It seems our resident Weasel Princess has a bit of angst," Draco drawled. "I guess it goes to prove everyone has a dark side.""
"Sod off, Malfoy."
"No, Virginia, dear, I think not. I didn't follow you for nothing, but I also didn't follow you to do what you seem to think I would."
"You saw what happened. I could hear you laughing." Ginny didn't trust Malfoy, but then she certainly didn't trust anyone else.
He stood solemnly. "No, you didn't. I didn't laugh at you. My entire house did, yes, but I didn't."
"Why should I believe you?" At this point, Ginny wanted to slash out at any and everyone like an alley cat backed into a corner by the neighbor's dog.
"You have my word as a Malfoy," he insisted. He would not let his word be called into question.
"Is that worth the same as the word of a Slytherin?" Ginny spat the insult with a razor-sharp tongue that she satisfactorily saw hit its mark.
Draco's expression changed slightly as a shadow of emotion passed over his face but was soon replaced by the mask he'd adopted since childhood. His will was strong, but remarks like that did stir the stronger, primal emotions to the surface. Usually he'd act on those impulses with biting retorts, attacking not physically but verbally. Those attacks could cut a person down faster than any fist thrown or spell cast.
However, this time he refrained from responding out of anger. He simply stated, "Let it all out if you'd like, Ginny. I can take."
Ginny finally saw that he didn't come for malevolent reasons and relented. She perceptibly became a scared Sixth year, mirroring her younger First year self when she was just a child taken advantage by Tom Riddle. Draco could see this transformation and she knew it. "What do you want, Draco?" was all she said as she let her head fall forward with the tears that slowly slipped down her cheeks.
His first name. That's what she called him. Not by his accursed surname that brought, and bought, infamy and riches, but by the name given him alone. Another shadow came and caused his heart to jump, just a bit, but was once more suppressed, the doing of which took longer than before.
Ginny lifted her head and glanced at Draco slightly during the silence. She was taken aback a bit when she heard a sound stick in his throat.
When he'd, after some time, composed himself, he began, "As I said earlier, I had a reason for seeking you out. You can do what you want after I've said my peace, but please don't interrupt me till then." Draco took a deep breath and steadied his thoughts. It's been awhile since I've done this, he thought to himself.
"As you should well know, I hate your family and I hate your friends. Especially Potter, but he isn't exactly in good standing with you, either," he stated with a smirk. "Except for you, Virginia. There is definitely something different with you that...draws me to you." Draco paused to gauge her reaction, but she was staring blankly through window at the full moon. He sighed and continued, "I know you think I'm an insensitive, manipulative prat with an ego the size of which you've never seen, which I admit to being, but I'm other things, too. The name Malfoy brings with it pride and promises. And all kinds of darkness. Your saying my first name was a beacon of light for my unruly spirit in a shady world. Poetic, aren't I?"
Ginny absorbed all she could. Her mind was overflowing with thoughts. She doubted she was even hearing him clearly, but she didn't dare stop him just yet.
Still, on he went. "This began even before tonight. You haunt me and it unsettles me to know that I don't want you to stop. And when I saw you earlier, bearing your heart to that incompetent git, I felt a pull to come to you." He kneeled beside her once more, guiding her face towards his with his graceful fingers that softly cupped her chin. "I can't explain it any better. And I'm not sure that I want to..."
Just as he stood to leave, Ginny said, "...because you don't want to get hurt. Like I was."
He stopped in his tracks. "I didn't mean it like that." Draco wasn't facing her, but he could feel that she was standing now and the firm grasp of her hand on his arm proved that she was right behind him. He turned, gray meeting brown, and said, "For what it's worth, I'm sorry."
"Don't be." Her kiss was supple and sudden with a sense of urgency. Draco was, at first, taken by surprise, but soon responded and returned the kiss. Ginny found his lips were warm and gentler than he'd ever let on.
She broke the kiss and asked, quite innocently, "Did you feel that?"
"What, besides your lips on mine?" Draco encircled her waist with his arms and she laid her head on his chest.
"Yes." She lay her right hand over his heart and felt the beat quicken and the breath shorten. She smiled to herself. She was intoxicated with this Malfoy. "I felt...peaceful."
Draco thought for a moment, then whispered in to her ear, "I did, too."
"I see what you mean. Words shouldn't describe it, or it's lost, because lonely hearts speak it best."
"We'll find a way, Ginny. I'll be there for you, anytime you need me."
"I know, and I believe you. But is it good for us?"
Rating: R
Summary: When Ginny is rejected by Harry in the most humiliating way, she turns to an unexpected choice. But are his feelings enough to protect her from Harry, and is she strong enough to help him change?
Hey, will you stay, awhile?
My smile will not mislead you.
Cause I've been alone, my faith turned to stone
Still there's something in you that I believe in.
Close to your peers, I go wild and fierce
Still I let you be, I feel you next to me
Cause inside I feel a wind that starts to blow
I'm taken in your undertow
Everything is fine...I'm lonely all the time.
Cause all I want to do is be there for the things that you're going through,
Is it good for you? Is it good for you?
Cause you haunt my nights where I don't know where my life should go,
Is it good for you? Is it good for you?
Hey, child, please stay awhile
My smile will not mislead you.
Cause I've been without, I go wild with doubt.
I grab at you; I can't stop grabbing at you.
Cause I feel you cross my mind in disarray, intoxicated ricochet.
There's nothing wrong, just don't take too long
Cause all I want to do is be there for the things that you're going through,
Is it good for you? Is it good for you?
Cause you haunt my nights where I don't know where my life should go,
Is it good for you? Is it good for you?
Good for You by Third Eye Blind
"Harry, will you be my boyfriend?"
"Ginny, you know I would never love you the way you'd want me to. You're like a sister to me."
Ginny played the scene over and over in her head. This...rejection was too much to bear. Unlike the other times when she'd glance with a look asking, "Will you? Do you?" this time she'd given voice to her feelings and in front of the school...
10 Minutes Earlier
She missed dinner to prepare. Clothes and makeup wasn't easy growing up in a family of boys, but she did the best she could with glamours and magazines. Then she waited, waited in her room to steady her mind and waited in the hall until Harry was about to leave the dining hall.
When she saw him stand and wave goodbye to her brother and Hermione, she walked in with a kind of tunnel vision, heading straight for him and seeing no one else. But she didn't care because this was her moment.
"Hello, Harry," she began timidly. He looked her up and down, at her outfit under opened regular school robe and her painted face.
"Uh, hi, Ginny. How are you?" A slight blush came over his surprised face. "You missed dinner."
"I'm fine," she replied, looking over his shoulder at Ron. "I wasn't hungry." Ron was speechless from his sister's exotic display of herself and just ended up resorting to meaningless gestures and incomplete words. Hermione watched him amusedly while giving Ginny sympathetic smiles.
"Are you sure you're fine? You don't...uh, look okay...not that you appear bad or anything, I just mean you don't look well," Harry stumbled over his words.
"Yeah, well, I wanted to try a new look. Do you like?" Harry didn't have time for a reply as she quickly continued, "Anyway, I wanted to ask you something." The faculty, their conversation finished, left the hall to go to their respective offices and rooms, paying no attention to the wayward Gryffindor girl, while for all the world the other students stopped piling out of the room and listened as intently possible. Ginny could feel the tension of the student body pressing in on her, pressing her to speak.
Then, Ginny spoke.
"Do you love me?" She took a hold of his hand in both of her own and gazed searchingly in his emerald-green eyes. "Harry, will you be my boyfriend?"
Everyone froze. Even Ron stopped his jerking and flat out fainted, leaving Hermione to tend to him. A darker blush covered Harry's face now; it made his scar just about disappear. Then the red faded and was replaced by an expression of empathy and finality.
Harry placed his free hand over hers and said, "Ginny, you know I would never love you the way you'd want. You are the sister of one of my best friends and so, like a sister to me. So please, never ask me again. I doubt you'll ever get me to change my feelings." His reply was clear and audible over the hush of the room even though he spoke softly and gently.
The statement hit Ginny like a tidal wave, visibly crumpling her. It crashed against the innocent shores of her heart. She staggered back, grasping the folds of her robe over her clothes, when she became aware of the other students. Practically all the students from each house was there; Ravenclaw girls pointed and whispered amongst themselves, Hufflepuff boys looked slightly embarrassed themselves, Gryffindors were sympathetic, and Slytherins howled with laughter in wild abandon. Ginny's eyes glistened with unshed tears as they darted back and forth as she withdraw from Harry. When she disentangled her hands from his, she turned and ran as far and as fast as she could.
"Ginny, wait! Come back!" Harry shouted after her, but she'd already turned out into the hall.
As he turned around to face his friends, Hermione vaguely commented " Boys are so blind," and she took a bite of a crimson red apple.
Present
After running into the hall, Ginny had ducked into an old, rarely used classroom on the third floor, away from the dormitories and away from Harry. She knew she would be sought for, either by her brother and his friends or...or anyone else and she didn't want to deal with any of them. No one could possibly understand her...
And then again her thoughts turned to Harry. Oh how she despised him now! The emotions she'd been repressing since her humiliation came flooding to the foreground andlet loose a sob, releasing the sorrow of her broken heart in pure, wild animal energy. She fell to her knees, and realized her heart was now as cold as the stone floor.
"A loveless heart can never be warm," she said to the air. But outside the door, one person heard her mournful cries and the melancholic statement and he entered the room quietly without her knowing it.
"But a heart that knows love can be easily burned," a familiar voice cut through the dark as the figure emerged from the shadows.
Ginny instantly turned towards the voice, her eyes narrowed to murderous slits. "Malfoy! What the hell do you want, to mock and tease me about how The Boy Who Lived rejected me in front of the whole school? Or how I was the one to throw myself at him dressed like this? If so, go ahead, I don't care anymore. I'm dead inside anyway."
Malfoy didn't reply. Truth to be told, her admission shocked him more than anything ever had, and his father was a Death Eater. Instead, he knelt beside her and a small smirk played on his lips. Then, rather unexpectedly to them both, he ever so slowly pushed a stray strand of autumn-shaded hair from her eyes. Ginny didn't flinch at his touch, but did still his hand with her own. "It seems our resident Weasel Princess has a bit of angst," Draco drawled. "I guess it goes to prove everyone has a dark side.""
"Sod off, Malfoy."
"No, Virginia, dear, I think not. I didn't follow you for nothing, but I also didn't follow you to do what you seem to think I would."
"You saw what happened. I could hear you laughing." Ginny didn't trust Malfoy, but then she certainly didn't trust anyone else.
He stood solemnly. "No, you didn't. I didn't laugh at you. My entire house did, yes, but I didn't."
"Why should I believe you?" At this point, Ginny wanted to slash out at any and everyone like an alley cat backed into a corner by the neighbor's dog.
"You have my word as a Malfoy," he insisted. He would not let his word be called into question.
"Is that worth the same as the word of a Slytherin?" Ginny spat the insult with a razor-sharp tongue that she satisfactorily saw hit its mark.
Draco's expression changed slightly as a shadow of emotion passed over his face but was soon replaced by the mask he'd adopted since childhood. His will was strong, but remarks like that did stir the stronger, primal emotions to the surface. Usually he'd act on those impulses with biting retorts, attacking not physically but verbally. Those attacks could cut a person down faster than any fist thrown or spell cast.
However, this time he refrained from responding out of anger. He simply stated, "Let it all out if you'd like, Ginny. I can take."
Ginny finally saw that he didn't come for malevolent reasons and relented. She perceptibly became a scared Sixth year, mirroring her younger First year self when she was just a child taken advantage by Tom Riddle. Draco could see this transformation and she knew it. "What do you want, Draco?" was all she said as she let her head fall forward with the tears that slowly slipped down her cheeks.
His first name. That's what she called him. Not by his accursed surname that brought, and bought, infamy and riches, but by the name given him alone. Another shadow came and caused his heart to jump, just a bit, but was once more suppressed, the doing of which took longer than before.
Ginny lifted her head and glanced at Draco slightly during the silence. She was taken aback a bit when she heard a sound stick in his throat.
When he'd, after some time, composed himself, he began, "As I said earlier, I had a reason for seeking you out. You can do what you want after I've said my peace, but please don't interrupt me till then." Draco took a deep breath and steadied his thoughts. It's been awhile since I've done this, he thought to himself.
"As you should well know, I hate your family and I hate your friends. Especially Potter, but he isn't exactly in good standing with you, either," he stated with a smirk. "Except for you, Virginia. There is definitely something different with you that...draws me to you." Draco paused to gauge her reaction, but she was staring blankly through window at the full moon. He sighed and continued, "I know you think I'm an insensitive, manipulative prat with an ego the size of which you've never seen, which I admit to being, but I'm other things, too. The name Malfoy brings with it pride and promises. And all kinds of darkness. Your saying my first name was a beacon of light for my unruly spirit in a shady world. Poetic, aren't I?"
Ginny absorbed all she could. Her mind was overflowing with thoughts. She doubted she was even hearing him clearly, but she didn't dare stop him just yet.
Still, on he went. "This began even before tonight. You haunt me and it unsettles me to know that I don't want you to stop. And when I saw you earlier, bearing your heart to that incompetent git, I felt a pull to come to you." He kneeled beside her once more, guiding her face towards his with his graceful fingers that softly cupped her chin. "I can't explain it any better. And I'm not sure that I want to..."
Just as he stood to leave, Ginny said, "...because you don't want to get hurt. Like I was."
He stopped in his tracks. "I didn't mean it like that." Draco wasn't facing her, but he could feel that she was standing now and the firm grasp of her hand on his arm proved that she was right behind him. He turned, gray meeting brown, and said, "For what it's worth, I'm sorry."
"Don't be." Her kiss was supple and sudden with a sense of urgency. Draco was, at first, taken by surprise, but soon responded and returned the kiss. Ginny found his lips were warm and gentler than he'd ever let on.
She broke the kiss and asked, quite innocently, "Did you feel that?"
"What, besides your lips on mine?" Draco encircled her waist with his arms and she laid her head on his chest.
"Yes." She lay her right hand over his heart and felt the beat quicken and the breath shorten. She smiled to herself. She was intoxicated with this Malfoy. "I felt...peaceful."
Draco thought for a moment, then whispered in to her ear, "I did, too."
"I see what you mean. Words shouldn't describe it, or it's lost, because lonely hearts speak it best."
"We'll find a way, Ginny. I'll be there for you, anytime you need me."
"I know, and I believe you. But is it good for us?"