'Denzil' wrote Halo on a Pedestal for lielabell
Title: Halo on a Pedestal
Author: Denzil
Rating: PG
Possible Spoilers/Warnings: N/A
Summary: An older Draco and Ginny helping their younger counterparts fall in love by recalling crucial moments from their own lives.
Author's Notes: I would like to thank whoever made this prompt as it was a lot of fun to write, and I hope they are not too disappointed with the fiction. I plan to add to this story in the future, but for now this is all. It doesn’t delve too deeply into the lives of neither Draco and Ginny’s counterparts nor Draco and Ginny themselves. Rather it is only two moments in each of their lives that was considered a turning point. The title comes from my song playlist, in particular the song Halo by Haley James Scott and sung by Bethany Joy Lenz.
Beta: Living Hell
The hallway that had been previously filled with people was now occupied solely by the couple, characterized by their dirty blonde and red hair, respectively. The tension was palpable, and he tried to break it with his next few words.
“I love you.”
It didn’t work. She stiffened, her auburn curls falling past her eyes. “What?”
“I love you.” He repeated, calmly, as if the world had not come to a stop. As if she was not getting engaged in three days, to another man.
“You can’t.” She protested, stifling her hopes that had been crushed a few months ago.
“I do.”
“I don’t.” She said with such false fervor. She couldn’t, not after how he had rejected her. Humiliated her.
“You’re lying.”
“I hate you, Potter. You can’t do this to me. I’m getting engaged in three days.” Her eyes were glistening with unshed tears. “You’ve ruined my life in so many ways. I waited for you. I waited so long…” Her voice died out as she noticed his eyes widening at something behind her.
Violently turning, her hair moving so fast, it came back around to slap her.
“Daddy?” she asked seeing the man in front of her with his perpetual smirk. Her usually confident voice cracked. She was not foolish enough to believe that her father had not heard the love of her life’s confession.
Draco Malfoy felt quite amused at the sight of his daughter speechless. It had to be the first time in years, and he would cherish this moment forever. Surprisingly, he was not at all shocked at the scene. In fact, he had been expecting it. Cedric Potter had taken far too long to admit his feelings for his daughter, and although he did not truly want Potter’s spawn to marry his only daughter, their tortured journey through love was very similar to his and Ginny’s.
Yet he felt disappointed that Devika had not trusted him to understand her plight in love. Her love was much more important to him than his business proposal. How could she put his wishes above her own? Had she not learned anything from his own infamous tale of love?
He could see from her brown eye’s how she was still willing to marry Zabini, when she truly loved Potter. Well it was time for Draco to set things right. It was time to see how much Devika loved Cedric. He would not say anything. Let her go through with the engagement with Zabini. Devika needed to learn to fight for her love, as Draco had fought for his own.
“I will pretend I have heard nothing.” Draco said, in a cool voice, appearing angered but restrained. “The family is currently sitting in the living room. It would be polite if the two of you would join us.”
Swiftly turning, Draco walked away with a smirk on his face. It was time he filled Ginny in on his plan. She would of course agree, and together the couple would show their younger counterparts, the transcendence of love.
~ @ ~
Ginny’s eyes flashed in anger at the sight of her daughter sitting so far away from her love in their sitting room. Draco had filled her in on the circumstances, and Ginny could not believe the foolishness of her daughter. How could she do this? Had she learned nothing in the last twenty-three years of her life?
Well, it didn’t matter. Draco had a plan, and to Ginny it had made great sense. Sitting down a few feet away from her daughter, near the fireplace and her husband Draco, Ginny waited for her cue to begin speaking. The older couple had enlisted help from Hermione to begin the conversation.
“You know Ginny, isn’t your twenty-fifth wedding anniversary coming up this year?” she said.
“Yes, Hermione. Its in two months.”
Her first granddaughter, the ever romantic, Amoretti, promptly picked up on the bait, “Oh grandmamma, won’t you please tell me the story of how you and grandda met?”
Her mother, Ginny’s eldest daughter-in-law, followed in suit. “You know, mum, it has been a long time since I’ve heard you talk about it, and I would love to hear it again.”
“Well I really don’t think it would be appropriate to talk about how Draco and I actually met, or how we fell in love. That was a painful time in our lives, and not at all suitable for young ears.” Ginny whispered, suppressing those painful memories from her past.
Draco, understanding Ginny’s pain, cupped her hand and said, “We could of course talk about how I was an idiot, and didn’t declare my love for Ginny until the day of her wedding with Potter over there.” Draco after saying that looked at Harry gently before giving a pointed look to Cedric Potter, who it seemed, was in a very similar situation, albeit this was closer to his daughter’s engagement rather than her wedding.
“It all started…” Draco began
~ @ ~
Draco brushed past the house elves in the kitchens who were busily setting out the tables with various table settings, plates and cutlery in their hands. So wrapped up in the upcoming nuptials none of them gave him a second glance and for that, Draco was thankful.
It made his job just that bit easier.
Slipping through the Gryffindor-colored corridors and with care to silence his footsteps as he walked up the stairs of the home he had visited many times years before. He walked all the way down the hall all the way to the end until he spotted the room that he knew Ginny loved in this gigantic house.
Pausing for just a few moments, he gathered his thoughts and prepared himself. Once he opened that door, there was no going back. Allowing for a split second to curse himself for doing this (what had he been drinking last night?), he knocked gently on the door and allowed himself in.
“Hermione, did you get a chance to-” she asked, turning around stopping when she saw him.
There she was.
Four years, seven months and twenty two days had passed and she was still the same Ginny Weasley that he’d left behind.
Staring at her from the doorway, he could still clearly remember the sound of her laugh when he made a joke and the way she’d silkily call him names in the mornings. He could remember every single one of her skirts and dresses, how she loved to wear her hair for each occasion, and her collection of stationary from all the vintage shops in town that he would always tease her about.
Most of all, he could remember her smile, and how it would make even the worst days seem far away.
But today she wasn’t smiling. Quite the opposite, actually, she seemed to resent his presence. No surprise.
The t-shirt, pants and flip-flops had been traded in for a simple, yet elegant and expensive robe, nothing but the best for Potter, he supposed.
“Draco.” She said. But the voice did not say it in the way that usually formed goosebumps on his skin. It was almost spat out at him.
“Hello, Ginevra,” he greeted, trying to keep his calm. Draco had never been nervous in his whole life, or at least he’d never shown it… until now. “You look beautiful.”
She ignored his compliment, “What are you doing here?”
“Sight-seeing,” he quipped, though his joke fell on deaf ears.
Ginny’ jaw tightened and she tightened her hold on the necklace he had given her.
Draco Malfoy.
For the last few years her image of him was the one she’d known and fallen in love with - and slowly begun to despise.
The Draco Malfoy who always brought a one-side dimpled smile on her face; the one who she had let run his fingers through her shoulder length hair; the one who had winked at her with his constantly changing silver-gray eyes; the one who refused to wear jeans, but knew he looked hott.
The Draco in front of her was different. His hair had grown to past his ears, his gray eyes were now a striking darker shade below gray, and his clothes could not have been more muggle unless he had been not born a Malfoy.
He’d grown up and he’d changed. She wasn’t even sure if she would have recognized him if it hadn’t been for the dragon tattoo at the base of his neck.
“Don’t make jokes.” She demanded, ignoring his comment beforehand. “What are you doing here?” she repeated.
“I heard about the wedding,” he told her. “Congratulations.”
“Thanks.” She mumbled before diverting her eyes. That had not been what she wanted to hear.
“I guess you’re wondering how I found out, especially since I didn’t get an invitation and all…” he tried not to sound bitter. He understood, of course, why he didn’t get an invitation. “Luna told me.”
“Oh.” Ginny, a look of betrayal reached her face, and she shifted uncomfortably, “I didn’t know you and Luna were still in touch.”
“Well, it’s more like a dinner or a phone call every once in a while with Blaise.” The truth being that Draco had bumped into Pansy, who’d passed on Blaise’s apartment number. He had flooed once, and Luna had answered. She was reluctant to talk about Ginny, but to break the ice, the wedding had eventually come up.
Although he went to Blaise and Luna’s house rarely, they were moments that truly brought joy to Draco’s life. It was the only connection he had to his old life.
“She invited you?” Ginny questioned.
“No… she just happened to mention when it was. There’s only place that would be big enough to hold the wedding of Potter and so…” he trailed off. “Didn’t exactly take Merlin to work it out.”
“So you decided to just invite yourself.” Ginny tried to keep herself calm in his presence.
“I’m not staying.” He confessed. “I just… I just had to see you.”
“Well, you’ve seen me,” Ginny walked towards the door and held it open for him. She waited a couple of seconds until Draco’s eyes narrowed and he walked away from the door to the other side, ignoring the unsubtle comment.
“This isn’t what I wanted to happen,” he said. Ginny slammed the door and, as it closed violently, Draco involuntarily jumped.
“What did you want to happen, Draco?” she yelled. “Come on, tell me. Did you want me to welcome you back and invite you for some cake? Scream at you? Leave Harry at the alter?”
“Of course not!” Draco yelled back. “You think I wanted any of this? I wasn’t even going to come!” then in a quieter voice, “Although leaving Potter at the alter would be funny.” He smirked his smirk.
Ginny felt her knees melt, but then she retook control. “Then why are you here?”
“Because…” he lowered his voice and sighed, “Because I couldn’t sleep. Because… I was drinking in late into the night. I took a flight. I waited. I got on the plane at one thirty and fell asleep. And in the morning, I tried. As hard as I could, but they just don’t let you off a muggle flight midway across the ocean.”
She pinched the bridge of her nose. “So what? You just decided to drop by after five years of no contact?”
“I told you. I don’t know why I’m here, I just am.”
“How did you know I was even in this room?” Ginny decided to ask simple questions first.
“How could I not? You love this room. Every time we came here in the summer, you always picked this room, this corridor, this floor. No one saw me come in. There too preoccupied with getting everything ready.”
“Security is a little lax.” She conceded.
“Listen,” he got her attention back, “I know you don’t want me here so I’ll make it quick. I just wanted to see you… and, um, congratulate you. You and Potter make a nice couple. I guess you were always in love with him anyway so it all worked out for the best.” He tried to be sincere, hoping it was the thing Ginny wanted to hear.
It wasn’t.
She laughed, but it was tinged with bitterness and anger.
“You still don’t get it, do you?” she asked, not waiting for an answer from her before continuing. “My heart never belonged to Harry. It never has. I’ve been madly in love with you ever since you showed up half-naked at the Order’s door carrying Bill’s little girl. I know Harry was part of my life once, but I never truly loved him. It was always you. It still is you.”
“Then why are you marrying him?” he was confused.
“Because he never left me.” She looked accusingly at him.
“Ginny…”
“You know, I’ve thought about this conversation over and over again in my head for years. I wondered when it would happen, what we would say, what would happen next… I never thought for one minute you’d be selfish enough to waltz in here on my wedding day and tell me who I was in love with and how things ‘worked out for the best’.”
“You’re not happy?”
“Oh, right now I’m ecstatic. You know, the man of my dreams standing in front of me two hours before I’m supposed to get married. You always had a knack for timing.” Ginny gave him a cold smile, that brought a shiver in his spine. “I don’t love Harry, Draco, I’m just accepting life.”
“You sound bitter.” he commented.
“You sound surprised.” She told him in reply. “I mean, you’re the one who packed up and left everything behind without even breathing a word to anyone.”
Draco closed his eyes, cursing himself more violently for knocking on the door in the first place.
“This was a mistake.” He turned to leave.
“The only mistake that was made was me not spending more time tracking you down. After a year, everyone told me to give up and move on. Maybe I should have fought harder for you. Is that what you wanted? Was I not fighting enough for you?” Ginny’s words hit him like a knife. Each syllable and tainted memory twisting it in deeper and deeper until Draco felt numb inside.
He didn’t even notice the tears beginning to cascade down her cheeks.
“I’m sorry,” he mumbled softly, blinking back his own tears. Reaching for the doorknob, he had barely touched it when it opened itself and Hermione made her way in.
“Ginny, we’re ready for-” Hermione’s eyes flew to Draco and widened in surprise. She looked between the two. Draco casting his eyes to the floor and Ginny roughly wiping at her own tears. “Draco.” She cleared her throat.
“Hello Hermione.” He struggled to smile at her. The two awkwardly shook hands briefly as a sign of politeness. “It’s been a while.”
“It has.” Hermione flicked her eyes towards Ginny again but the redhead didn’t look back at her. “What are you doing here? I didn’t know you were invited.”
“I was just in town. I thought I’d drop by and…” he glanced at Ginny; Hermione followed her gaze, “congratulate Ginny.” Hermione nodded slowly.
“Are you staying?” The question caused Ginny’ head to snap up.
“No.” Draco said firmly.
Hermione looked between the two again, sensing that she’d obviously disturbed more than a reunion.
“What do you want, Hermione?” Ginny spoke for the first time since Hermione had arrived.
“Um, actually, don’t worry about it. It’s not even important.” Not as important as this, Hermione thought to herself. “I’ll just come back later and let you two finish.”
“We are finished,” Ginny said suddenly. Draco reluctantly nodded.
“Like I said,” Hermione decided to take control of the situation. “I’ll let you two finish. ”
For the past five years, Hermione Weasley had witnessed her sister-in-law fall apart at the loss of her boyfriend. She’d been there for the nights Ginny had wound up in a bar, been there for the tears, the various ‘leads’ she’d found of Draco’s whereabouts, the string of men Ginny had attempted to be with, the awkward moments where Ginny found something that belonged to Draco. She had been there that day Ginny had quit her job as a medi-witch for six months, a job she loved more than herself.
She’d been there twelve months later when Harry came back into the picture. She’d been there when Harry had popped the question a year ago and witnessed the way Ginny always looked uncomfortable whenever the subject of the wedding came up.
But she had never dared to ask Ginny about Draco after the fourth year. He became the unspoken subject that everyone just let linger in the air or pushed to the back of their minds for fear of seeing Ginny! The Uncontrollabe Bag of Burdens again.
And now Draco was back.
Hermione could almost see Ginny eyeing up the mini-bar.
Darting her eyes between Ginny, Draco and the mini-bar, Hermione figured she could risk leaving them alone for a few more minutes.
Besides, what happened between them was so much more important than anything else right now. It had been a long time coming and she would pleasantly deal with anything that happened afterwards if it would just mean Ginny would get over Draco already.
She had nothing against the blonde, in fact at one point he had truly grown to be part of the group.
But she just couldn’t understand it. How he could just… leave.
She wondered if he knew of the devastation he’d left in his wake. Not only Ginny having to be babysat to make sure she wasn’t drinking, but also Blaise. Blaise who had been heartbroken at his departure.
There had also been Harry.
Did Harry know he was back? No, of course not, Draco only wanted to see Ginny. That much was clear.
Hermione had to admit Draco was brave to come back and face everything he’d left behind. To see the broken and embittered woman Ginny had become.
Seeing and experiencing that was punishment enough for the man. He didn’t have to see the boy Ginny was marrying. His best friend or the closest to it so far. The one person who he had let in before Ginny. They had been friends for almost six years, and although their friendship was not like Ron and Harry’s, it had still been sacred in its own way. Hermione suspected the reason Draco had left was because he felt Harry was the one who deserved Ginny.
Draco was of course wrong. Even a fool could see Potter was a mistake Ginny never wanted to revisit again.
Obviously it was a little difficult for him to see that now since their wedding began in little over an hour.
And Hermione? Well Hermione had harbored intense dislike for Draco in the last five years he’d been away. But seeing him standing meekly in front of her just dispelled all those feelings. Things must have changed a lot for Draco to be standing meekly. All that mattered was that he was alive. He was well. He was here.
Realizing that she’d been standing at the doorway for the past few minutes after stating she was leaving, Hermione made movements towards the door. She gave a small wave to Draco, wondering if shutting the door would be the last she’d ever see of him again.
Alone once more, Draco turned back to Ginny.
“I need answers,” she told him simply.
“I don’t have them.”
It didn’t seem to impress Ginny.
“You haven’t come up with a good excuse yet?” Ginny muttered, “You’ve had five years to perfect it.”
He groaned, “Don’t be like this, Ginny. Don’t act like you’re the only one hurt.”
“I am the only one hurt. How can you act like the victim after what you did?”
“What did I do, Ginny?” he asked him, his voice beginning to rise. “What did I possibly do?”
“You left.”
Draco couldn’t help but roll his eyes, irking Ginny further.
“There you go again! Acting like none of this is your fault. It’s all your fault!” She waved her hands around erratically; ignoring the fact she was dressed in a tight dress and her hair had just been fixed. Her angry, red face was a far cry from the happy, if nervous bride she was supposed to be. “This whole wedding thing is because of you!” she pointed a shaking finger at him.
“I didn’t force you to marry Potter; you did that on your own.” He sighed and put his head in his hands. “This isn’t how I wanted this to happen.”
“How did you want it to happen?” Ginny pressed him for an answer, her response thankfully much calmer than when she’d asked him before, “Because I sure as hell have no idea what you’re doing here.”
“This is confusing,” he placed her hands on his hips. “First you’re pissed off at me for coming down, and then you’re telling me you’ve always loved me, and now you’re blaming me and want me to go? Ginny, this is just crazy! I suppose you’re going to blame me for Potter limping down the aisle too?”
He squinted at her with piercing blue eyes. The incident with Voldemort had hardly ever been spoken about between the two, but never forgotten. Potter had been the only casualty, no one had expected him to emerge unscathed, a stray curse directly hitting his leg when Potter had tried to save Draco, slightly impairing his walking ability.
But it was the emotional scars that never healed for the rest of them.
Draco hadn’t been involved in any of the action, having made it out unscathed as it began. Yet Harry’s injury had indirectly been caused by him. Draco could have died, yet instead Harry had been injured.
Ginny remembered that day clearly. Days after the events, when articles had been written and the whole world knew what had happened, Ginny was still waiting for Draco to talk to her.
But he didn’t. He never talked about what happened between him and Potter and she wasn’t sure what to think about it all.
Maybe it was because she wouldn’t understand. She didn’t know how it felt. She wasn’t there.
No-one knew what it was like, though, to be the one on the outside and looking in.
And that’s how she felt for the rest of the year. Disconnected from him. Potter had saved him, and now they weren’t equals anymore. It was as if Draco had felt he was indebted to Potter.
Draco knew it was true. He had felt indebted to Potter. He knew Potter still loved Ginny, and Ginny was spending so much time with him. Fixing him. She was his medi-witch, and she helped him recuperate. They spent so much time together, and Draco was the third wheel. He knew Potter loved Ginny, and in his eyes they seemed like the ideal couple.
Eventually he just had to leave.
“There were three of us in that relationship,” he wondered aloud. Ginny narrowed her eyes at him.
“What?”
“You, me and Potter. That’s what it became. And I know he was my friend and your friend too, and that he needed help… but you were always there because you’re the type of girl that needs to fix people. I wasn’t the only one you fixed.” he noted sadly.
It seemed to render Ginny speechless. She wasn’t shouting anymore.
“I didn’t… I didn’t know you felt that way.” Her voice was quiet now.
“If you’d told me…” she ventured forward but Draco took one step back.
“If I’d told you, you would have been torn between us and I didn’t want you to have to make that choice. I wouldn’t have been able to let you do it because it would mean that I would have to have let you go.”
“You’re crazy,” she barely whispered those words, “to even think that I would choose him over you. Harry didn’t need me. I just thought you wanted me to take care of him. You had suggested it. He could have gotten someone else. I didn’t choose him over you.”
“You did in the end.”
“Because you weren’t here!” How many times did she have to say it before he realized? “If you had just-I thought you were happy. You never seemed upset.”
“Oh, Ginny, I thought you knew me better than that. I tried to be happy, I did, but knowing I couldn’t make you happy killed me, Ginny. It killed me.”
“You could never make me unhappy.”
“I didn’t see it that way. I saw someone who was drifting further and further away from me and I had no idea what to do. Hermione had Ron and Blaise had Luna and you seemed to have Potter, and before I knew it, I was back where I was when I had first joined the Order and it scared me. It scared me because I didn’t want to lose you again like that. I couldn’t put my heart through that sort of pain again and so I did the only thing I could to protect myself. I just thought that if I was the one to leave, if I cut my losses and just disappeared, then I wouldn’t have to see you fall in love with him again and lie about it to me. I could just leave you to it.”
There it was.
The reason Ginny had been waiting for was all laid out in front of her and all she had to do was open her arms and forgive him.
“I wouldn’t have chosen Harry over you. Not again. Not ever.” She told him. “And Harry and I never got together until you’d been gone for three years and even then my heart wasn’t in it.”
He cleared his throat, “Like I said, I didn’t know that.”
“So after… when you left London. Where did you go? I mean you never went straight to California. I called your mother and she said she hadn’t heard from you.”
“South America.” he gave a small shrug, “That’s as far as I could get. I spent six months trying to reset my accounts and beginning a new business and doing odd jobs to pay for a decent life. After a couple of years I managed to pull myself together to some steady employees. I tried to live without magic. It’s harder than you think; reinventing yourself so nobody can see the scars. But it was exciting. It was… the world. Different people everyday. But the loneliness hits you in the face when you least expect it and it takes every thing you have not to give in and go back. I almost got on a plane three times to come back until I realized I probably had nothing back to go to, and that I’d worked too hard to become somebody to give that all up again.”
“Not even a phone call or an email or just a regular wizarding floo in five years?” Ginny sighed, “You knew where I was.”
“You’re not getting it. Calling you or contacting you would have meant coming to terms with what I’d left. I knew that the minute I did I’d want to be with you. Why did you think it took four years for me to get in touch with Blaise?”
“I really wish you would have talked to me.”
“I really wish you would have talked to me too.”
“What happens now? Are you staying or-”
She stepped closer to him, neatening his tie and smoothing down his jacket.
Draco pushed her away. “You are going to go get married.” He told her as confidently as he could, trying not to let the sadness in his voice show. “And you are going to have a happy, long life and beautiful children.” His voice began to falter at the thought of the green eyed, unruly brunette haired children there would be, and not the varied mix he’d always pictured the two of them having.
“And you?” she questioned again. Pressured for an answer, he sighed.
“I’m going to go back to doing what I do best.” he offered her a cocky smirk. “You look so beautiful.”
Surprisingly, he placed both his hands on her shoulders and brought her closer into a hug; the most amount of contact they’d had in five years. She held onto him tightly, willing tears not to fall again and willing her mouth to stop forming the words ‘I want you’ escaping from her lips.
“Stay for the wedding.” She asked him. He shook his head.
“I can’t.”
“Not even for a little while?” he shook his head.
“No.”
“So what do I do now?” she asked. “How can I get married if you’re not there?”
“How can you get married if I am?” he replied.
“And us?”
That was a question he hadn’t quite figured out yet.
He pulled away from her, “You have to let me go.”
“You know I can’t.”
“Then you have to at least pretend to.” Before he stepped fully out of her grasp, she reached up and grabbed his head, kissing his forehead gently and resting her own against it.
“Draco…”
“Goodbye.” He cut her off before she could continue for fear of what she’d say to make him stay.
“I have something for you,” she told him. “Wait here.” He gave a nod as she turned away to her drawers and began rummaging through them. “It’s been here for a while. I didn’t know where to send it so I just-” She turned around but she had just been talking to air. The door was left slightly ajar and she could see a flash of Draco’s figure retreating.
She didn’t go after him. Instead she stared down at the necklace in her hand.
The counterpart to her own. When initiated with a spell, each part provided a moment of happiness from the past the two had undergone together, and when attached together to create a whole, anything could be stored within its magic. An emotion, a thought, a discussion. He had given it to her, and left his part with her when he had left. When each held the piece, the counterpart could be found easily.
She’d wanted to give this to him again personally, whenever she saw him again.
But it was too late.
Placing it around her neck, close to her own piece and her heart. Suddenly she noticed he had left something to. It was a gold envelope containing her wedding invitation with no personal message. Also inside was an old, folded and slightly aged piece of paper. Ginny recognized it immediately. Of course she did, she had discarded it after-shaking her head, she couldn’t suppress her smile as she read the familiar words.
‘True love cannot be found where it truly does not exist, Nor can it be hidden where it truly does’
‘You will never know true happiness until you have truly loved,
and you will never understand what pain really is until you have lost it’
~ @ ~
“What happened next, grandmamma?” Amoretti questioned.
“Nothing much. I stayed in my room and cried. Harry somehow found out Draco had been there and had left. He called off the wedding. I didn’t see Draco until a month later. The whole thing was very complicated.”
“You must have been an idiot, father, to wait so long to get married with mum,” Damien answered. “I could never have beaten around the bush like that for so long to marry Anastasia.”
“You know, Damien, your mother and grandmother have still not forgiven you for eloping right after your graduation.” Draco smirked at his eldest son.
“Oh please, that was ten years ago. Either way mum, how did you guys finally decide to get married?”
“I think it was just one day when our friends got just so tired of us skirting around each other. Harry, Blaise, Luna, and Hermione plotted to get us stuck together in a room, and well we talked…”
“Actually,” Draco grinned, “we fought and threw things and wow… I remember that awful lamp you threw at my head. I was bleeding, and Ginny felt just so awful after that and decided to kiss…”
“Isn’t it time for bed for you little ones,” Ginny cut in, glaring daggers at Draco, “Why don’t we all go upstairs? Hermione, Amori, and Damien come with me… Harry, Ron, and the rest of you go with Draco… Devika and Cedric, you guys stay here… we’ll be back soon.”
As subtly as they could, the family members tried to leave, which wasn’t very subtle.
Cedric laughed when all of the family was out of earshot and said, “Merlin, our family needs to learn the art of subtlety. You do know why they went through that whole story, don’t you Dev?”
“Yes I understood my parent’s manipulation. It doesn’t mean anything to me Cedric. I don’t love you.”
“But your parent’s have given their approval and I know my parents will too. What’s the problem?”
“You’re the PROBLEM!” she screamed. “ I told you I loved you and you scoffed in my face, and now you expect me to take you back, like you haven’t torn my heart and stomped all over it? What do you think I am?”
Taking steps toward her, he cupped her face and played with a piece of her hair. The closeness caused her to feel shivers go up her back but she stood her ground and tried to withstand his charm: “I think you’re a woman whose anger makes me smile, whose eyes make me melt, and if I could, I would ravish you right now, Devika. I know I made some mistakes, but I want to rectify them.”
“Well I wouldn’t want you to waste your time, Cedric.” She stepped back, “I’ll never forgive you, no matter what my parents say.” And Devika walked out of the room, leaving Cedric alone with a look of despair that he had finally lost something that perhaps he would never get back.
~ @ ~
“Draco, I can’t do this anymore. You can’t be the one for me. I can’t take you back.”
“You didn’t marry Potter.” He said.
“So what? It isn’t a victory for you. I couldn’t do that to him, Draco. I couldn’t marry him, if I didn’t love him.”
“You were going to…”
“And thanks to you, I realized my mistake and didn’t, but that doesn’t mean I love you. You tore my heart, Draco! You left it to die in a wretched state. Whenever I look at you, I remember the person I became when you left. I hate you!” with her heart beating fast, and her words all spoken out, Ginny began to leave the room.
~ @ ~
He grabs her hand, grasps it hard and pulls out his wand. She looks alarmed, but he waves it and music begins to play and suddenly music fills the room as the lights go out. She looks up, remembering the song. It was their song! She comes to a feeling of peace, and he knows that in that moment, that if he plays his cards right, he will receive his true love.
In his most charmful mannerism, he nervously spits out, trying to protect himself from a violent refusal, “Would you like to dance?”
She looks at him and can’t refuse. He leads her to the middle of the room and pulls her close to him. They wrap their arms around each other and begin to sway to the rhythm of their hearts beating in concert to one another.
Suddenly they both decide to speak, and end up laughing at the coincidence, and continue to stare at each other eyes, until he can’t take it anymore:
“I love you.”
Tears spring into her eyes. “I think I love you, too.”
He bends his head down towards hers and their lips connect. The kiss is soft at first but as the seconds pass, it deepens. She feels as if the wind had been knocked out of her, as her legs gave way to the pleasure of the kiss. She leans fully into him to keep from falling down; he holds her tightly, never wanting to let her go.
Eventually, their kiss breaks off.
“I can’t forgive you just like that.” She says.
“I know.” Was all he says.
“I want to understand what’s happening between us.”
“Okay.”
“You can’t force me to do stuff.”
“I won’t.”
“It’ll take me some time.”
“I understand, and I want you to know that no matter how much time it takes, I’ll always be here for you and I won’t ever leave you again. I promise.”
“I wish it was only that simple.”
“It is that simple.” He comforts her. He holds her.
Putting his forehead to hers, they stand there, eyes closed, taking in this new step in their relation.
~ @ ~
Ginny peaked into the room, and saw the couple standing there, together, so obviously in love. She sighed and turned away from the sight, right into Draco’s arms.
Ginny looked up to him and said, “How’d you know he’d do what he did?”
“Because he reminds me so much of myself, Ginny. He’ll make our daughter happy. I can tell.”
“I can, too.” Looking up, with her hands in Draco’s hair, she pulled him into a unforgettable kiss, and he returned it with a passion she’d always expected of him. Electricity jolted through her and him, from his mouth to hers, and when finally it could last no longer, they both let go to search for breath and say together, “I love you.”
Smirking his smirk, Draco said, “How did I get so lucky to get a woman like you, Ginevra?”
Smiling her own smile, she said, “It helps that you’re hott!”
And together, the couple walked back up the stairs to the rest of their family, knowing that all was right in the world and no matter what in the end, true love would overcome.
ORIGINAL REQUEST:
BRIEFLY describe what you’d like to recieve: An older Draco and Ginny surrounded by the younger members of their family, at a family reunion or something, being asked to tell favorite stories about their life.
The tone/mood of the fic: Happy.
A theme/element/line of dialogue/object you want in your fic: I'd like it to be a bunch of little stories inside of a big one.
Canon or AU? Canon would be nice.
Rating of the fic you want: Any would be fine.
Deal breakers (what don’t you want): Nothing comes to mind.
Author: Denzil
Rating: PG
Possible Spoilers/Warnings: N/A
Summary: An older Draco and Ginny helping their younger counterparts fall in love by recalling crucial moments from their own lives.
Author's Notes: I would like to thank whoever made this prompt as it was a lot of fun to write, and I hope they are not too disappointed with the fiction. I plan to add to this story in the future, but for now this is all. It doesn’t delve too deeply into the lives of neither Draco and Ginny’s counterparts nor Draco and Ginny themselves. Rather it is only two moments in each of their lives that was considered a turning point. The title comes from my song playlist, in particular the song Halo by Haley James Scott and sung by Bethany Joy Lenz.
Beta: Living Hell
The hallway that had been previously filled with people was now occupied solely by the couple, characterized by their dirty blonde and red hair, respectively. The tension was palpable, and he tried to break it with his next few words.
“I love you.”
It didn’t work. She stiffened, her auburn curls falling past her eyes. “What?”
“I love you.” He repeated, calmly, as if the world had not come to a stop. As if she was not getting engaged in three days, to another man.
“You can’t.” She protested, stifling her hopes that had been crushed a few months ago.
“I do.”
“I don’t.” She said with such false fervor. She couldn’t, not after how he had rejected her. Humiliated her.
“You’re lying.”
“I hate you, Potter. You can’t do this to me. I’m getting engaged in three days.” Her eyes were glistening with unshed tears. “You’ve ruined my life in so many ways. I waited for you. I waited so long…” Her voice died out as she noticed his eyes widening at something behind her.
Violently turning, her hair moving so fast, it came back around to slap her.
“Daddy?” she asked seeing the man in front of her with his perpetual smirk. Her usually confident voice cracked. She was not foolish enough to believe that her father had not heard the love of her life’s confession.
Draco Malfoy felt quite amused at the sight of his daughter speechless. It had to be the first time in years, and he would cherish this moment forever. Surprisingly, he was not at all shocked at the scene. In fact, he had been expecting it. Cedric Potter had taken far too long to admit his feelings for his daughter, and although he did not truly want Potter’s spawn to marry his only daughter, their tortured journey through love was very similar to his and Ginny’s.
Yet he felt disappointed that Devika had not trusted him to understand her plight in love. Her love was much more important to him than his business proposal. How could she put his wishes above her own? Had she not learned anything from his own infamous tale of love?
He could see from her brown eye’s how she was still willing to marry Zabini, when she truly loved Potter. Well it was time for Draco to set things right. It was time to see how much Devika loved Cedric. He would not say anything. Let her go through with the engagement with Zabini. Devika needed to learn to fight for her love, as Draco had fought for his own.
“I will pretend I have heard nothing.” Draco said, in a cool voice, appearing angered but restrained. “The family is currently sitting in the living room. It would be polite if the two of you would join us.”
Swiftly turning, Draco walked away with a smirk on his face. It was time he filled Ginny in on his plan. She would of course agree, and together the couple would show their younger counterparts, the transcendence of love.
~ @ ~
Ginny’s eyes flashed in anger at the sight of her daughter sitting so far away from her love in their sitting room. Draco had filled her in on the circumstances, and Ginny could not believe the foolishness of her daughter. How could she do this? Had she learned nothing in the last twenty-three years of her life?
Well, it didn’t matter. Draco had a plan, and to Ginny it had made great sense. Sitting down a few feet away from her daughter, near the fireplace and her husband Draco, Ginny waited for her cue to begin speaking. The older couple had enlisted help from Hermione to begin the conversation.
“You know Ginny, isn’t your twenty-fifth wedding anniversary coming up this year?” she said.
“Yes, Hermione. Its in two months.”
Her first granddaughter, the ever romantic, Amoretti, promptly picked up on the bait, “Oh grandmamma, won’t you please tell me the story of how you and grandda met?”
Her mother, Ginny’s eldest daughter-in-law, followed in suit. “You know, mum, it has been a long time since I’ve heard you talk about it, and I would love to hear it again.”
“Well I really don’t think it would be appropriate to talk about how Draco and I actually met, or how we fell in love. That was a painful time in our lives, and not at all suitable for young ears.” Ginny whispered, suppressing those painful memories from her past.
Draco, understanding Ginny’s pain, cupped her hand and said, “We could of course talk about how I was an idiot, and didn’t declare my love for Ginny until the day of her wedding with Potter over there.” Draco after saying that looked at Harry gently before giving a pointed look to Cedric Potter, who it seemed, was in a very similar situation, albeit this was closer to his daughter’s engagement rather than her wedding.
“It all started…” Draco began
~ @ ~
Draco brushed past the house elves in the kitchens who were busily setting out the tables with various table settings, plates and cutlery in their hands. So wrapped up in the upcoming nuptials none of them gave him a second glance and for that, Draco was thankful.
It made his job just that bit easier.
Slipping through the Gryffindor-colored corridors and with care to silence his footsteps as he walked up the stairs of the home he had visited many times years before. He walked all the way down the hall all the way to the end until he spotted the room that he knew Ginny loved in this gigantic house.
Pausing for just a few moments, he gathered his thoughts and prepared himself. Once he opened that door, there was no going back. Allowing for a split second to curse himself for doing this (what had he been drinking last night?), he knocked gently on the door and allowed himself in.
“Hermione, did you get a chance to-” she asked, turning around stopping when she saw him.
There she was.
Four years, seven months and twenty two days had passed and she was still the same Ginny Weasley that he’d left behind.
Staring at her from the doorway, he could still clearly remember the sound of her laugh when he made a joke and the way she’d silkily call him names in the mornings. He could remember every single one of her skirts and dresses, how she loved to wear her hair for each occasion, and her collection of stationary from all the vintage shops in town that he would always tease her about.
Most of all, he could remember her smile, and how it would make even the worst days seem far away.
But today she wasn’t smiling. Quite the opposite, actually, she seemed to resent his presence. No surprise.
The t-shirt, pants and flip-flops had been traded in for a simple, yet elegant and expensive robe, nothing but the best for Potter, he supposed.
“Draco.” She said. But the voice did not say it in the way that usually formed goosebumps on his skin. It was almost spat out at him.
“Hello, Ginevra,” he greeted, trying to keep his calm. Draco had never been nervous in his whole life, or at least he’d never shown it… until now. “You look beautiful.”
She ignored his compliment, “What are you doing here?”
“Sight-seeing,” he quipped, though his joke fell on deaf ears.
Ginny’ jaw tightened and she tightened her hold on the necklace he had given her.
Draco Malfoy.
For the last few years her image of him was the one she’d known and fallen in love with - and slowly begun to despise.
The Draco Malfoy who always brought a one-side dimpled smile on her face; the one who she had let run his fingers through her shoulder length hair; the one who had winked at her with his constantly changing silver-gray eyes; the one who refused to wear jeans, but knew he looked hott.
The Draco in front of her was different. His hair had grown to past his ears, his gray eyes were now a striking darker shade below gray, and his clothes could not have been more muggle unless he had been not born a Malfoy.
He’d grown up and he’d changed. She wasn’t even sure if she would have recognized him if it hadn’t been for the dragon tattoo at the base of his neck.
“Don’t make jokes.” She demanded, ignoring his comment beforehand. “What are you doing here?” she repeated.
“I heard about the wedding,” he told her. “Congratulations.”
“Thanks.” She mumbled before diverting her eyes. That had not been what she wanted to hear.
“I guess you’re wondering how I found out, especially since I didn’t get an invitation and all…” he tried not to sound bitter. He understood, of course, why he didn’t get an invitation. “Luna told me.”
“Oh.” Ginny, a look of betrayal reached her face, and she shifted uncomfortably, “I didn’t know you and Luna were still in touch.”
“Well, it’s more like a dinner or a phone call every once in a while with Blaise.” The truth being that Draco had bumped into Pansy, who’d passed on Blaise’s apartment number. He had flooed once, and Luna had answered. She was reluctant to talk about Ginny, but to break the ice, the wedding had eventually come up.
Although he went to Blaise and Luna’s house rarely, they were moments that truly brought joy to Draco’s life. It was the only connection he had to his old life.
“She invited you?” Ginny questioned.
“No… she just happened to mention when it was. There’s only place that would be big enough to hold the wedding of Potter and so…” he trailed off. “Didn’t exactly take Merlin to work it out.”
“So you decided to just invite yourself.” Ginny tried to keep herself calm in his presence.
“I’m not staying.” He confessed. “I just… I just had to see you.”
“Well, you’ve seen me,” Ginny walked towards the door and held it open for him. She waited a couple of seconds until Draco’s eyes narrowed and he walked away from the door to the other side, ignoring the unsubtle comment.
“This isn’t what I wanted to happen,” he said. Ginny slammed the door and, as it closed violently, Draco involuntarily jumped.
“What did you want to happen, Draco?” she yelled. “Come on, tell me. Did you want me to welcome you back and invite you for some cake? Scream at you? Leave Harry at the alter?”
“Of course not!” Draco yelled back. “You think I wanted any of this? I wasn’t even going to come!” then in a quieter voice, “Although leaving Potter at the alter would be funny.” He smirked his smirk.
Ginny felt her knees melt, but then she retook control. “Then why are you here?”
“Because…” he lowered his voice and sighed, “Because I couldn’t sleep. Because… I was drinking in late into the night. I took a flight. I waited. I got on the plane at one thirty and fell asleep. And in the morning, I tried. As hard as I could, but they just don’t let you off a muggle flight midway across the ocean.”
She pinched the bridge of her nose. “So what? You just decided to drop by after five years of no contact?”
“I told you. I don’t know why I’m here, I just am.”
“How did you know I was even in this room?” Ginny decided to ask simple questions first.
“How could I not? You love this room. Every time we came here in the summer, you always picked this room, this corridor, this floor. No one saw me come in. There too preoccupied with getting everything ready.”
“Security is a little lax.” She conceded.
“Listen,” he got her attention back, “I know you don’t want me here so I’ll make it quick. I just wanted to see you… and, um, congratulate you. You and Potter make a nice couple. I guess you were always in love with him anyway so it all worked out for the best.” He tried to be sincere, hoping it was the thing Ginny wanted to hear.
It wasn’t.
She laughed, but it was tinged with bitterness and anger.
“You still don’t get it, do you?” she asked, not waiting for an answer from her before continuing. “My heart never belonged to Harry. It never has. I’ve been madly in love with you ever since you showed up half-naked at the Order’s door carrying Bill’s little girl. I know Harry was part of my life once, but I never truly loved him. It was always you. It still is you.”
“Then why are you marrying him?” he was confused.
“Because he never left me.” She looked accusingly at him.
“Ginny…”
“You know, I’ve thought about this conversation over and over again in my head for years. I wondered when it would happen, what we would say, what would happen next… I never thought for one minute you’d be selfish enough to waltz in here on my wedding day and tell me who I was in love with and how things ‘worked out for the best’.”
“You’re not happy?”
“Oh, right now I’m ecstatic. You know, the man of my dreams standing in front of me two hours before I’m supposed to get married. You always had a knack for timing.” Ginny gave him a cold smile, that brought a shiver in his spine. “I don’t love Harry, Draco, I’m just accepting life.”
“You sound bitter.” he commented.
“You sound surprised.” She told him in reply. “I mean, you’re the one who packed up and left everything behind without even breathing a word to anyone.”
Draco closed his eyes, cursing himself more violently for knocking on the door in the first place.
“This was a mistake.” He turned to leave.
“The only mistake that was made was me not spending more time tracking you down. After a year, everyone told me to give up and move on. Maybe I should have fought harder for you. Is that what you wanted? Was I not fighting enough for you?” Ginny’s words hit him like a knife. Each syllable and tainted memory twisting it in deeper and deeper until Draco felt numb inside.
He didn’t even notice the tears beginning to cascade down her cheeks.
“I’m sorry,” he mumbled softly, blinking back his own tears. Reaching for the doorknob, he had barely touched it when it opened itself and Hermione made her way in.
“Ginny, we’re ready for-” Hermione’s eyes flew to Draco and widened in surprise. She looked between the two. Draco casting his eyes to the floor and Ginny roughly wiping at her own tears. “Draco.” She cleared her throat.
“Hello Hermione.” He struggled to smile at her. The two awkwardly shook hands briefly as a sign of politeness. “It’s been a while.”
“It has.” Hermione flicked her eyes towards Ginny again but the redhead didn’t look back at her. “What are you doing here? I didn’t know you were invited.”
“I was just in town. I thought I’d drop by and…” he glanced at Ginny; Hermione followed her gaze, “congratulate Ginny.” Hermione nodded slowly.
“Are you staying?” The question caused Ginny’ head to snap up.
“No.” Draco said firmly.
Hermione looked between the two again, sensing that she’d obviously disturbed more than a reunion.
“What do you want, Hermione?” Ginny spoke for the first time since Hermione had arrived.
“Um, actually, don’t worry about it. It’s not even important.” Not as important as this, Hermione thought to herself. “I’ll just come back later and let you two finish.”
“We are finished,” Ginny said suddenly. Draco reluctantly nodded.
“Like I said,” Hermione decided to take control of the situation. “I’ll let you two finish. ”
For the past five years, Hermione Weasley had witnessed her sister-in-law fall apart at the loss of her boyfriend. She’d been there for the nights Ginny had wound up in a bar, been there for the tears, the various ‘leads’ she’d found of Draco’s whereabouts, the string of men Ginny had attempted to be with, the awkward moments where Ginny found something that belonged to Draco. She had been there that day Ginny had quit her job as a medi-witch for six months, a job she loved more than herself.
She’d been there twelve months later when Harry came back into the picture. She’d been there when Harry had popped the question a year ago and witnessed the way Ginny always looked uncomfortable whenever the subject of the wedding came up.
But she had never dared to ask Ginny about Draco after the fourth year. He became the unspoken subject that everyone just let linger in the air or pushed to the back of their minds for fear of seeing Ginny! The Uncontrollabe Bag of Burdens again.
And now Draco was back.
Hermione could almost see Ginny eyeing up the mini-bar.
Darting her eyes between Ginny, Draco and the mini-bar, Hermione figured she could risk leaving them alone for a few more minutes.
Besides, what happened between them was so much more important than anything else right now. It had been a long time coming and she would pleasantly deal with anything that happened afterwards if it would just mean Ginny would get over Draco already.
She had nothing against the blonde, in fact at one point he had truly grown to be part of the group.
But she just couldn’t understand it. How he could just… leave.
She wondered if he knew of the devastation he’d left in his wake. Not only Ginny having to be babysat to make sure she wasn’t drinking, but also Blaise. Blaise who had been heartbroken at his departure.
There had also been Harry.
Did Harry know he was back? No, of course not, Draco only wanted to see Ginny. That much was clear.
Hermione had to admit Draco was brave to come back and face everything he’d left behind. To see the broken and embittered woman Ginny had become.
Seeing and experiencing that was punishment enough for the man. He didn’t have to see the boy Ginny was marrying. His best friend or the closest to it so far. The one person who he had let in before Ginny. They had been friends for almost six years, and although their friendship was not like Ron and Harry’s, it had still been sacred in its own way. Hermione suspected the reason Draco had left was because he felt Harry was the one who deserved Ginny.
Draco was of course wrong. Even a fool could see Potter was a mistake Ginny never wanted to revisit again.
Obviously it was a little difficult for him to see that now since their wedding began in little over an hour.
And Hermione? Well Hermione had harbored intense dislike for Draco in the last five years he’d been away. But seeing him standing meekly in front of her just dispelled all those feelings. Things must have changed a lot for Draco to be standing meekly. All that mattered was that he was alive. He was well. He was here.
Realizing that she’d been standing at the doorway for the past few minutes after stating she was leaving, Hermione made movements towards the door. She gave a small wave to Draco, wondering if shutting the door would be the last she’d ever see of him again.
Alone once more, Draco turned back to Ginny.
“I need answers,” she told him simply.
“I don’t have them.”
It didn’t seem to impress Ginny.
“You haven’t come up with a good excuse yet?” Ginny muttered, “You’ve had five years to perfect it.”
He groaned, “Don’t be like this, Ginny. Don’t act like you’re the only one hurt.”
“I am the only one hurt. How can you act like the victim after what you did?”
“What did I do, Ginny?” he asked him, his voice beginning to rise. “What did I possibly do?”
“You left.”
Draco couldn’t help but roll his eyes, irking Ginny further.
“There you go again! Acting like none of this is your fault. It’s all your fault!” She waved her hands around erratically; ignoring the fact she was dressed in a tight dress and her hair had just been fixed. Her angry, red face was a far cry from the happy, if nervous bride she was supposed to be. “This whole wedding thing is because of you!” she pointed a shaking finger at him.
“I didn’t force you to marry Potter; you did that on your own.” He sighed and put his head in his hands. “This isn’t how I wanted this to happen.”
“How did you want it to happen?” Ginny pressed him for an answer, her response thankfully much calmer than when she’d asked him before, “Because I sure as hell have no idea what you’re doing here.”
“This is confusing,” he placed her hands on his hips. “First you’re pissed off at me for coming down, and then you’re telling me you’ve always loved me, and now you’re blaming me and want me to go? Ginny, this is just crazy! I suppose you’re going to blame me for Potter limping down the aisle too?”
He squinted at her with piercing blue eyes. The incident with Voldemort had hardly ever been spoken about between the two, but never forgotten. Potter had been the only casualty, no one had expected him to emerge unscathed, a stray curse directly hitting his leg when Potter had tried to save Draco, slightly impairing his walking ability.
But it was the emotional scars that never healed for the rest of them.
Draco hadn’t been involved in any of the action, having made it out unscathed as it began. Yet Harry’s injury had indirectly been caused by him. Draco could have died, yet instead Harry had been injured.
Ginny remembered that day clearly. Days after the events, when articles had been written and the whole world knew what had happened, Ginny was still waiting for Draco to talk to her.
But he didn’t. He never talked about what happened between him and Potter and she wasn’t sure what to think about it all.
Maybe it was because she wouldn’t understand. She didn’t know how it felt. She wasn’t there.
No-one knew what it was like, though, to be the one on the outside and looking in.
And that’s how she felt for the rest of the year. Disconnected from him. Potter had saved him, and now they weren’t equals anymore. It was as if Draco had felt he was indebted to Potter.
Draco knew it was true. He had felt indebted to Potter. He knew Potter still loved Ginny, and Ginny was spending so much time with him. Fixing him. She was his medi-witch, and she helped him recuperate. They spent so much time together, and Draco was the third wheel. He knew Potter loved Ginny, and in his eyes they seemed like the ideal couple.
Eventually he just had to leave.
“There were three of us in that relationship,” he wondered aloud. Ginny narrowed her eyes at him.
“What?”
“You, me and Potter. That’s what it became. And I know he was my friend and your friend too, and that he needed help… but you were always there because you’re the type of girl that needs to fix people. I wasn’t the only one you fixed.” he noted sadly.
It seemed to render Ginny speechless. She wasn’t shouting anymore.
“I didn’t… I didn’t know you felt that way.” Her voice was quiet now.
“If you’d told me…” she ventured forward but Draco took one step back.
“If I’d told you, you would have been torn between us and I didn’t want you to have to make that choice. I wouldn’t have been able to let you do it because it would mean that I would have to have let you go.”
“You’re crazy,” she barely whispered those words, “to even think that I would choose him over you. Harry didn’t need me. I just thought you wanted me to take care of him. You had suggested it. He could have gotten someone else. I didn’t choose him over you.”
“You did in the end.”
“Because you weren’t here!” How many times did she have to say it before he realized? “If you had just-I thought you were happy. You never seemed upset.”
“Oh, Ginny, I thought you knew me better than that. I tried to be happy, I did, but knowing I couldn’t make you happy killed me, Ginny. It killed me.”
“You could never make me unhappy.”
“I didn’t see it that way. I saw someone who was drifting further and further away from me and I had no idea what to do. Hermione had Ron and Blaise had Luna and you seemed to have Potter, and before I knew it, I was back where I was when I had first joined the Order and it scared me. It scared me because I didn’t want to lose you again like that. I couldn’t put my heart through that sort of pain again and so I did the only thing I could to protect myself. I just thought that if I was the one to leave, if I cut my losses and just disappeared, then I wouldn’t have to see you fall in love with him again and lie about it to me. I could just leave you to it.”
There it was.
The reason Ginny had been waiting for was all laid out in front of her and all she had to do was open her arms and forgive him.
“I wouldn’t have chosen Harry over you. Not again. Not ever.” She told him. “And Harry and I never got together until you’d been gone for three years and even then my heart wasn’t in it.”
He cleared his throat, “Like I said, I didn’t know that.”
“So after… when you left London. Where did you go? I mean you never went straight to California. I called your mother and she said she hadn’t heard from you.”
“South America.” he gave a small shrug, “That’s as far as I could get. I spent six months trying to reset my accounts and beginning a new business and doing odd jobs to pay for a decent life. After a couple of years I managed to pull myself together to some steady employees. I tried to live without magic. It’s harder than you think; reinventing yourself so nobody can see the scars. But it was exciting. It was… the world. Different people everyday. But the loneliness hits you in the face when you least expect it and it takes every thing you have not to give in and go back. I almost got on a plane three times to come back until I realized I probably had nothing back to go to, and that I’d worked too hard to become somebody to give that all up again.”
“Not even a phone call or an email or just a regular wizarding floo in five years?” Ginny sighed, “You knew where I was.”
“You’re not getting it. Calling you or contacting you would have meant coming to terms with what I’d left. I knew that the minute I did I’d want to be with you. Why did you think it took four years for me to get in touch with Blaise?”
“I really wish you would have talked to me.”
“I really wish you would have talked to me too.”
“What happens now? Are you staying or-”
She stepped closer to him, neatening his tie and smoothing down his jacket.
Draco pushed her away. “You are going to go get married.” He told her as confidently as he could, trying not to let the sadness in his voice show. “And you are going to have a happy, long life and beautiful children.” His voice began to falter at the thought of the green eyed, unruly brunette haired children there would be, and not the varied mix he’d always pictured the two of them having.
“And you?” she questioned again. Pressured for an answer, he sighed.
“I’m going to go back to doing what I do best.” he offered her a cocky smirk. “You look so beautiful.”
Surprisingly, he placed both his hands on her shoulders and brought her closer into a hug; the most amount of contact they’d had in five years. She held onto him tightly, willing tears not to fall again and willing her mouth to stop forming the words ‘I want you’ escaping from her lips.
“Stay for the wedding.” She asked him. He shook his head.
“I can’t.”
“Not even for a little while?” he shook his head.
“No.”
“So what do I do now?” she asked. “How can I get married if you’re not there?”
“How can you get married if I am?” he replied.
“And us?”
That was a question he hadn’t quite figured out yet.
He pulled away from her, “You have to let me go.”
“You know I can’t.”
“Then you have to at least pretend to.” Before he stepped fully out of her grasp, she reached up and grabbed his head, kissing his forehead gently and resting her own against it.
“Draco…”
“Goodbye.” He cut her off before she could continue for fear of what she’d say to make him stay.
“I have something for you,” she told him. “Wait here.” He gave a nod as she turned away to her drawers and began rummaging through them. “It’s been here for a while. I didn’t know where to send it so I just-” She turned around but she had just been talking to air. The door was left slightly ajar and she could see a flash of Draco’s figure retreating.
She didn’t go after him. Instead she stared down at the necklace in her hand.
The counterpart to her own. When initiated with a spell, each part provided a moment of happiness from the past the two had undergone together, and when attached together to create a whole, anything could be stored within its magic. An emotion, a thought, a discussion. He had given it to her, and left his part with her when he had left. When each held the piece, the counterpart could be found easily.
She’d wanted to give this to him again personally, whenever she saw him again.
But it was too late.
Placing it around her neck, close to her own piece and her heart. Suddenly she noticed he had left something to. It was a gold envelope containing her wedding invitation with no personal message. Also inside was an old, folded and slightly aged piece of paper. Ginny recognized it immediately. Of course she did, she had discarded it after-shaking her head, she couldn’t suppress her smile as she read the familiar words.
‘True love cannot be found where it truly does not exist, Nor can it be hidden where it truly does’
‘You will never know true happiness until you have truly loved,
and you will never understand what pain really is until you have lost it’
~ @ ~
“What happened next, grandmamma?” Amoretti questioned.
“Nothing much. I stayed in my room and cried. Harry somehow found out Draco had been there and had left. He called off the wedding. I didn’t see Draco until a month later. The whole thing was very complicated.”
“You must have been an idiot, father, to wait so long to get married with mum,” Damien answered. “I could never have beaten around the bush like that for so long to marry Anastasia.”
“You know, Damien, your mother and grandmother have still not forgiven you for eloping right after your graduation.” Draco smirked at his eldest son.
“Oh please, that was ten years ago. Either way mum, how did you guys finally decide to get married?”
“I think it was just one day when our friends got just so tired of us skirting around each other. Harry, Blaise, Luna, and Hermione plotted to get us stuck together in a room, and well we talked…”
“Actually,” Draco grinned, “we fought and threw things and wow… I remember that awful lamp you threw at my head. I was bleeding, and Ginny felt just so awful after that and decided to kiss…”
“Isn’t it time for bed for you little ones,” Ginny cut in, glaring daggers at Draco, “Why don’t we all go upstairs? Hermione, Amori, and Damien come with me… Harry, Ron, and the rest of you go with Draco… Devika and Cedric, you guys stay here… we’ll be back soon.”
As subtly as they could, the family members tried to leave, which wasn’t very subtle.
Cedric laughed when all of the family was out of earshot and said, “Merlin, our family needs to learn the art of subtlety. You do know why they went through that whole story, don’t you Dev?”
“Yes I understood my parent’s manipulation. It doesn’t mean anything to me Cedric. I don’t love you.”
“But your parent’s have given their approval and I know my parents will too. What’s the problem?”
“You’re the PROBLEM!” she screamed. “ I told you I loved you and you scoffed in my face, and now you expect me to take you back, like you haven’t torn my heart and stomped all over it? What do you think I am?”
Taking steps toward her, he cupped her face and played with a piece of her hair. The closeness caused her to feel shivers go up her back but she stood her ground and tried to withstand his charm: “I think you’re a woman whose anger makes me smile, whose eyes make me melt, and if I could, I would ravish you right now, Devika. I know I made some mistakes, but I want to rectify them.”
“Well I wouldn’t want you to waste your time, Cedric.” She stepped back, “I’ll never forgive you, no matter what my parents say.” And Devika walked out of the room, leaving Cedric alone with a look of despair that he had finally lost something that perhaps he would never get back.
~ @ ~
“Draco, I can’t do this anymore. You can’t be the one for me. I can’t take you back.”
“You didn’t marry Potter.” He said.
“So what? It isn’t a victory for you. I couldn’t do that to him, Draco. I couldn’t marry him, if I didn’t love him.”
“You were going to…”
“And thanks to you, I realized my mistake and didn’t, but that doesn’t mean I love you. You tore my heart, Draco! You left it to die in a wretched state. Whenever I look at you, I remember the person I became when you left. I hate you!” with her heart beating fast, and her words all spoken out, Ginny began to leave the room.
~ @ ~
He grabs her hand, grasps it hard and pulls out his wand. She looks alarmed, but he waves it and music begins to play and suddenly music fills the room as the lights go out. She looks up, remembering the song. It was their song! She comes to a feeling of peace, and he knows that in that moment, that if he plays his cards right, he will receive his true love.
In his most charmful mannerism, he nervously spits out, trying to protect himself from a violent refusal, “Would you like to dance?”
She looks at him and can’t refuse. He leads her to the middle of the room and pulls her close to him. They wrap their arms around each other and begin to sway to the rhythm of their hearts beating in concert to one another.
Suddenly they both decide to speak, and end up laughing at the coincidence, and continue to stare at each other eyes, until he can’t take it anymore:
“I love you.”
Tears spring into her eyes. “I think I love you, too.”
He bends his head down towards hers and their lips connect. The kiss is soft at first but as the seconds pass, it deepens. She feels as if the wind had been knocked out of her, as her legs gave way to the pleasure of the kiss. She leans fully into him to keep from falling down; he holds her tightly, never wanting to let her go.
Eventually, their kiss breaks off.
“I can’t forgive you just like that.” She says.
“I know.” Was all he says.
“I want to understand what’s happening between us.”
“Okay.”
“You can’t force me to do stuff.”
“I won’t.”
“It’ll take me some time.”
“I understand, and I want you to know that no matter how much time it takes, I’ll always be here for you and I won’t ever leave you again. I promise.”
“I wish it was only that simple.”
“It is that simple.” He comforts her. He holds her.
Putting his forehead to hers, they stand there, eyes closed, taking in this new step in their relation.
~ @ ~
Ginny peaked into the room, and saw the couple standing there, together, so obviously in love. She sighed and turned away from the sight, right into Draco’s arms.
Ginny looked up to him and said, “How’d you know he’d do what he did?”
“Because he reminds me so much of myself, Ginny. He’ll make our daughter happy. I can tell.”
“I can, too.” Looking up, with her hands in Draco’s hair, she pulled him into a unforgettable kiss, and he returned it with a passion she’d always expected of him. Electricity jolted through her and him, from his mouth to hers, and when finally it could last no longer, they both let go to search for breath and say together, “I love you.”
Smirking his smirk, Draco said, “How did I get so lucky to get a woman like you, Ginevra?”
Smiling her own smile, she said, “It helps that you’re hott!”
And together, the couple walked back up the stairs to the rest of their family, knowing that all was right in the world and no matter what in the end, true love would overcome.
ORIGINAL REQUEST:
BRIEFLY describe what you’d like to recieve: An older Draco and Ginny surrounded by the younger members of their family, at a family reunion or something, being asked to tell favorite stories about their life.
The tone/mood of the fic: Happy.
A theme/element/line of dialogue/object you want in your fic: I'd like it to be a bunch of little stories inside of a big one.
Canon or AU? Canon would be nice.
Rating of the fic you want: Any would be fine.
Deal breakers (what don’t you want): Nothing comes to mind.