Century #20
Prompt: Family
Words: 359
"You know," he said in a low voice, breath gusting slightly on her collarbone, "our families aren't that different."
He moved on in the next instant, vanishing into the crowd before she had time to retort, which was all very well really, since she was too busy goggling to think of one. And honestly, was there one, other than, "you're crazy"?
This was Draco Malfoy - she was Ginny Weasley, and he was saying their families weren't different? And why was he saying so to her anyway? They didn't even know each-other - she could count the times they'd interacted on one hand. He had to be crazy, right?
Still, it stuck in her head. She never quite forgot that unexplained moment, even if she never pursued him to ask him about it. It colored her perceptions of him ever so slightly, as she wondered on and on what it could mean, why he'd felt the need to tell her.
When Percy left, for the first time she thought she might see it, but the comparison so clear to him still remained elusive to Ginny. It was like a word on the tip of her tongue, that she eventually forgot she ever wanted to say, and it wasn't until after the final battle that she remembered again.
She'd regained Percy, filled that hole and Fred had opened a new one that would never close. And she saw them across the room - huddled together, alone and hated and somehow all alive, his mother's hands trembling and his father's lips twitching at the corners. He looked down only, at his plate, but for one moment.
He glanced up, his eyes met hers, and for a second he smiled with such a terrible sort of relieved joy that her heart skipped and she felt it all over again, his breath on her skin and his words quiet but necessary to utter.
The smile dropped off his face but it was evident in all his being after that, and Ginny finally understood. It didn't really change anything, and yet it did - she shivered and smiled her own sad smile, and curled closer into her own circle, exactly the same but larger.
Words: 359
"You know," he said in a low voice, breath gusting slightly on her collarbone, "our families aren't that different."
He moved on in the next instant, vanishing into the crowd before she had time to retort, which was all very well really, since she was too busy goggling to think of one. And honestly, was there one, other than, "you're crazy"?
This was Draco Malfoy - she was Ginny Weasley, and he was saying their families weren't different? And why was he saying so to her anyway? They didn't even know each-other - she could count the times they'd interacted on one hand. He had to be crazy, right?
Still, it stuck in her head. She never quite forgot that unexplained moment, even if she never pursued him to ask him about it. It colored her perceptions of him ever so slightly, as she wondered on and on what it could mean, why he'd felt the need to tell her.
When Percy left, for the first time she thought she might see it, but the comparison so clear to him still remained elusive to Ginny. It was like a word on the tip of her tongue, that she eventually forgot she ever wanted to say, and it wasn't until after the final battle that she remembered again.
She'd regained Percy, filled that hole and Fred had opened a new one that would never close. And she saw them across the room - huddled together, alone and hated and somehow all alive, his mother's hands trembling and his father's lips twitching at the corners. He looked down only, at his plate, but for one moment.
He glanced up, his eyes met hers, and for a second he smiled with such a terrible sort of relieved joy that her heart skipped and she felt it all over again, his breath on her skin and his words quiet but necessary to utter.
The smile dropped off his face but it was evident in all his being after that, and Ginny finally understood. It didn't really change anything, and yet it did - she shivered and smiled her own sad smile, and curled closer into her own circle, exactly the same but larger.