Ginny Weasley Joins the Circus

Ginny was 16 the first time she went to a circus. Of course, it was her father who took her. He took her and Fred and George, and Harry and Ron. Hermione went too, but she had been to Muggle circuses before.

“You can’t breathe a word of this to your mum,” her father warned them all. “She doesn’t understand Muggle things.”

“How is this a Muggle thing?” Fred questioned. “You said your cousin ran it.”

“Well, he does,” her dad explained. “Phil . . . well, you’ll see.”

They let Harry and Hermione handle the money thing, as Muggle money was a bit confusing really, and followed them onto the London tubes. Ginny thought her father was a bit over excited, but his enthusiasm caught on, and they were all in high spirits by the time they arrived.

Their seats were directly in front of the center ring, and as Ginny took in the acts, she wondered why Muggles didn’t suspect anything.

“They think it’s just an illusion,” Hermione explained during the intermission when Ginny questioned her about the two men who rode their motorcycles around in a circular steel cage. “I mean, I’ve been here with my mum and dad before we knew about Hogwarts and all, and we never suspected.”

Ginny was mesmerized by the high wire and trapeze acts.

“That’s Phil’s daughter,” her father whispered as the girl soared through the air.

After the show they went to meet Phil, who told him it was getting harder and harder to run the show. “My own children don’t want to stay. Amie’s going off to Italy next year, and I don’t know what I’ll do.”

Amie, the girl who had been flying through the air, nodded. “It’s time for me to join the wizarding world, dad.”

“What about Muggles?” Hermione asked. “I’ve been to lots of circuses where they did tricks.”
Phil smiled sadly. “As far as I know, all three of the main circuses here in Britain are run by Wizards. It’s just that, with times being what they are, it’s not very respectable to join the Muggle world.”

When Ginny went back to Hogwarts in the fall for her sixth year, the memory of the circus stayed with her, although she didn’t tell anyone about it. Instead, she began her studies for the next year’s N.E.W.T.s, helped the trio strategize against the Dark Lord, played Quidditch, and somehow ended up going to the Yule Ball with Draco Malfoy.

She wasn’t quite sure how it happened. One minute she was studying in the library, Hermione excused herself to the loo, and Draco pounced.

“Are you going with me to the Ball?”

“Excuse me?” she asked, looking up.

“The Yule Ball.”

“Why would I go with you?”

“Because I’m asking!” he snapped, rolling his eyes.

Ginny eyed him. She had turned down several invitations in hopes that Philip Savoy would ask her to the dance, but rumor had it he had invited Millicent Bulstrode. She couldn’t understand that, as Philip was not only the best looking bloke in Ravenclaw, but probably the best looking in the seventh year, and maybe even in the whole school, and Millicent, well, she had lost a bit of weight, but that was about it. “Sure, why not?”

“What was he doing?” Hermione hissed when she entered the room.

“He asked me to the dance.”

“What?” her eyebrows shot up.

Ginny nodded. “I said yes.”

That was how it began. The next six months were intense, and when Harry finally defeated the Dark Lord for good, they decided to make their relationship public. The relationship had been full of passionate secret meetings, stolen kisses, and the big one – Ginny’s decision to lose her virginity to him. So when he presented her with an enormous engagement ring, she eagerly accepted.

“I want to get married soon,” Draco said, swinging his long pale hair out of his silver eyes. “I’m ready to start my new life.”

Of course he was. His father was gone, the fortune was his, and he wanted to rebuild his image.

“Well, I’ll be done with school in a year,” Ginny agreed. “Maybe we-”

“You don’t need to finish that,” he argued. “You’ll never have to work a day in your life!”

“Of course I have to finish. I haven’t learned everything yet.”

“What do you need it for?” he countered, using his fingers to stroke her neck, something he had learned that always made her cave in. “You’ll have everything you need. You’ll never have to worry about another thing again.”

Ginny frowned. “But I want to finish school.”

“Come on, Gin. You don’t need it. I’m going to take care of you. I want to start over, and I want you by my side. Let’s get married soon. Like in a couple of weeks.”

“But I can’t!”

“Yes you can. You just turned 17. I love you. I need you.”

“Draco, I’m going to finish school before I get married.”

“Fine.”

His face was hard and cold, and Ginny wondered if this was the first time in his life he hadn’t gotten what he wanted.

Draco didn’t come by. He didn’t reply to her owls. He didn’t answer her Floo calls. Nothing. As far as Ginny knew, they were still engaged, but five days before she was to return to Hogwarts, the Daily Prophet announced that Malfoy Holdings had now gone international, and Draco Malfoy, CEO, was now in China setting up shop. From there he would be heading to Australia, Africa, and then the Americas.

Ginny stared at the article, her eyes falling on Draco’s smirking picture, and realized why her mum and dad had been so quiet when she had joined them. When she packed her trunks for school, she pulled the obscenely large diamond off her finger and placed in her bureau.

The school year passed like a dream. Ginny drifted from class to class, studying mechanically for her N.E.W.T.s, playing Quidditch on autopilot, and graduated with no fuss at all. She had no desire to date, no career interests, nothing. That was why three days after Fred and Angelina announced their engagement and two weeks before Fleur and Bill’s first child was due, Ginny Weasley packed her bags and joined the circus.

Phil was glad to have her, and for the first time in a year, she felt some remote sense of happiness. She took over Amie’s old job as trapeze artist. She did the flying trapeze act with some distant relative as the Amazing Santiago Siblings, transfigured to look as if they were from South America, and charmed do be able to do all sorts of impressive tricks. She was the main star of the aerial ballet, performing as the luscious blond Gwendolynn, the contortionist from Tibet, the high wire performer from Egypt, and the lion tamer from the Serengeti.

She performed for nearly a year, trying to forget about Draco. But she couldn’t. She told herself that it wasn’t her fault; after all, he was splashed on the cover of the Daily Prophet at least once a week, featured as Britian’s most eligible bachelor in Wizard magazine, given the cover of Playwitch one month, and then the cover of Wizard Business the next.

Ginny should have been able to get over him. Not in one single picture did he ever look as sad as she felt. He was having a grand time, trotting the globe, picking up each and every witch he fancied. At least, that’s how the magazines portrayed him.

But Ginny had other things to think about. They were heading for London, and guaranteed a week’s worth of sell out shows. She hadn’t performed for a crowd as huge as what was promised.

“You’ll be fine,” Phil assured her. “You’re great. Besides, you’re a witch!”

She nodded and inspected her costume in the mirror. The costume for the aerial ballet was her absolute favorite. The sexily cut white fabric with deep blue sequins stood out against her flame colored hair. “Thanks.”

By the night of the last show in London, Ginny had decided that the bigger the crowd, the better it was. She took her final bows and went behind the curtains.

“Someone to see you love,” a fellow performer told her.

Ginny nodded, not at all surprised. Often times, young Muggle men, and occasionally old ones managed to sneak backstage and propose to her or profess their undying love.

Quickly she headed towards the reception area, and stopped short when she saw the unmistakable blond form of Draco Malfoy leering at her.

“Well, well, well. They told me you had run off to the Muggle world and I didn’t believe them. I had to see it for myself.”

“What are you doing here?” Ginny demanded, squelching her emotions.

“Looking for you, obviously,” he drawled.

“Well, you found me. Have a nice evening.” She turned on her heel and held her head high as she marched back to her dressing trailer. She had just sat down at her vanity when the door opened.

“Aren’t you going to talk to me?” Draco asked her, making himself comfortable.

“No. Please leave.” She tried her best to ignore him, concentrating on taking off her stage makeup.

“I’m not going to leave yet. I have something to tell you.”

She stayed silent, waiting, hoping he was here to tell her he loved her, and simultaneously wanting him to grovel so she could stomp on his heart the way he done her.

“I wanted to explain to you what happened.”

“Draco, that was nearly two years ago. Forget about it.”

“I can’t.”

Ginny finished rubbing the Muggle face cream into her skin and turned to glare at him. “Try.”

“I have tried. I spent nearly two years running around the globe, but I couldn’t out run you.”

“I think,” she said, her voice forced into even tones, “you are about two years too late.”

“Really?” he demanded, sitting up straight. “Is that how you feel?”

She sucked in a deep breath. Here she was, face to face with the fantasies that overtook her each time she saw him smirking up from the pages of some magazine, some bloody bint hanging onto his arm. “That is exactly how I feel.”

“Right then. Well, I’ll tell you anyways, and then I’ll leave. I thought I had everything planned out, and my plans included you at my side. I was raised an only child, and I know that this is no excuse, but I was – I am – selfish. I never asked you what you wanted. I loved then, and I still love you now. There’s no one like you, and believe me, I’ve looked.” The mask of blankness was slipping off his face, and Ginny could momentarily see the vulnerability underneath it.

“Are you done?” she demanded.

“What?’

“Anything else you’re dying to tell me?”

His surprise quickly turned to hurt, then anger, and he put up his mask of no emotion again. “No, I guess not.”

“Good. There’s an apparation point at the far corner of the main trailer.” She turned back to her mirror.

Without a word, Draco picked himself up off the couch and opened the door of her trailer.

The door hadn’t even closed yet when her tears began to fall. Oh sweet Circe, she did love him still. Pretending to be a Muggle, school, careers, none of them held her interest when she didn’t have Draco.

“WAIT!”

She dove for her door as Draco froze in his footsteps. “Wait,” she shouted again. She was running across the dirt before she could stop herself, the heels of her insanely large stilettos digging into the soil. “Please!”

She threw caution into the wind and launched herself into him. “Don’t go. Please don’t leave me again.”

As they tumbled to the ground, Draco wrapped his arms around her. “I didn’t know what I was going to do without you.”

“Ginny! Are you alright?” Phil asked, coming out to see what the commotion was about.

“I’ve never been better,” she told him, standing back up.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

This is my, my,” she glanced at Draco. “My ex-fiancé. He came for a visit.”

“I think I’d prefer fiancé,” Draco told her with a smile.

“Does this mean I’m going to have to find a new star?” Phil asked, a small smile on his face.

“I hope so,” Draco told him.

“I’m not so sure,” a smile crept over Ginny’s face. “He might just be interested in putting on a pair of tights and helping us out with the trapeze act!”