a/n: This one’s for Bob Seger.
Disclaiming! *G*
Ginny Weasley sat in a corner of the little pub and watched the man enter through a side door. He was covered from head to toe in a heavy black cloak, and not even his gender was evident but she instinctively knew it was him. He was as silent as a cat stalking its prey, his movements smooth and designed to blend into the crowd so as not to call attention to himself, but she’d known this man for a very long time, and knew all his tricks to go unobserved. She’d used the same tricks herself, on more than one occasion. Anyone else would have missed him entirely.
She stayed seated in her dim little niche, sipping the fire whiskey she’d gotten from the bar when she entered and continued to watch the man carry out his business oblivious to her observance. She’d had the advantage as he didn’t know to look for her as she’d known to look for him.
He leaned over the bar and spoke quietly into the barkeep’s ear. Ginny watched as he slid his hand across the bar, lifting it to reveal a small envelope only for a second before the barkeep covered it with his own hand and slid it over the edge and under the counter. Only when he turned to go did the man notice her in the far corner of the room. Even though she couldn’t see his eyes, she felt them boring into her. She knew she’d been spotted and inclined her head slightly at the figure in the cloak. With the barest nod in return, the man turned back to the barkeep and said something short, then began weaving though the tables to where she sat and seated himself across from her.
After a few moments, a plump waitress brought over a glass and a bottle and left it on the table. The man poured himself a drink, and then replenished Ginny’s glass as well. Unable to bear the silence anymore, Ginny snapped, “Would you take that damned hood off Draco, so I can see your face?”
He reached up and pushed the hood back off his head, letting it fall on his shoulders. Grinning at her he said, “Better?”
“Hell no," she replied. “You’re just as good looking as ever. I was hoping you’d gotten wrinkles or gone bald or something.”
Running his hand over the mass of white blond, he smirked. “Perish the thought, love. And might I say you look just as ravishing as ever.”
Ginny gave him a malevolent look.
“Are you here to try to take me in?” he asked, swinging the topic from the endurance of their mutual good looks to the reason of her presence so abruptly it left Ginny startled for a moment.
She’d always had to struggle to match quips with him. She had always been a second too late with her witty replies, a beat off with her sarcastic retorts. She scrambled to regain her composure from his quick change of tact and said, “If I were, would you be surprised?”
“Frankly yes. I can’t imagine that the great and wonderful Potter would send his best friend’s sweet and innocent little sister after the big bad Death Eater Malfoy.” He leaned in closer and leered at Ginny. “Or perhaps he knows now that you’re not as sweet and innocent as you make out to be, aye, Gin?”
“Shut it, Malfoy. What Harry knows or doesn’t know about me is irrelevant to my ability to do my job. And most definitely none of your business,” she said.
“Or perhaps you’ve finally gotten your heart's desire? Did Harry finally notice you’re a girl, Ginny? Did he finally see what’s been right there under his nose, waiting for him all these years? Or maybe I should say, most of these years. I’d like to be vain enough to think that there we at least a couple there that you’d forgotten Potter’s name,” he said, with a momentary wince that Ginny wasn’t sure she’d actually seen in the first place. He’d never been one to allow even a glimpse at his true emotions. And after all these years, why would he care if she still carried a torch for Harry?
Feeling the sting of his barbs finally penetrating her thick skin, she hissed, “You’ve not the foggiest notion what my heart’s desire is Malfoy. And your vanity has never been a question of what you’d like; it’s always been what you demanded to have.”
“You wound me Gin, you really do. One would think we weren’t friends anymore.”
“We were never friends, Malfoy. We were a lot of things, but never friends.”
“Ah yes, a lot of things,” he echoed, then once again changed topic on her. “So why did they send you, Ginny?”
This time she was ready for him, seeing his tactic was going to be bait and switch. “Because they’re desperate and running out of ideas. They thought they had you cornered in Berlin, but you were too quick for them. How did you get out of there without anyone seeing you, anyway?”
He shrugged. “I just turned around and walked out once I spotted the aurors. It was really just idiotic of Harry to send Granger. I was a bit insulted. Did he think I would forget what the Mudblood looked like?”
“Hermione is a Weasley now. And I don’t know why Harry sent her, I told him not to. Still, I thought you might have risked it, being so close to accomplishing your goal there,” Ginny replied.
“I’ve always known when it’s time to play and when it’s time to quit the game. And you’re not so different. If you were, you wouldn’t be so good at what you do. I heard about you trapping Zabini in Bulgaria. I heard about you spearheading the capture of Flint and you single handedly brought in Bulstrode,” he said, saluting her with his drink before knocking it back in one swallow.
“Yes, and I’ll just bet you heard how I let Parkinson slip through my fingers in Vienna, too,” she said, staring down into the amber liquid in her glass.
“The point is, Gin,” he said, leaning across the table toward her in earnest, “You're damn good at what you do, as good as I am at what I do. Considering our past, you shouldn’t be here and I see from the look on your face that you know that. So why would you let them send you?”
“Because they can’t catch you, Malfoy. And Harry knew I’d know how to find you. I’m sure he’s sitting in his office right now praying that I’ll do the ‘right thing’ and bring you in,” she said.
“Do you think you can bring me in, Ginny?” he asked.
She sat up suddenly at the words. Staring him directly in the eye she replied “Don’t doubt me, Malfoy. I can be quite ruthless, ask your boy Blaise. And I was taught by the most ruthless bastard known to the wizarding world.”
Draco chuckled. “Oh stop. You’re going to make me blush. On that note though, you have to know, Red, that I never meant to hurt you.”
Ginny cringed mentally at the use of the old familiar nickname. No one else had ever been allowed to call her that. She felt her temper flare that he had the audacity to use it now. “Didn’t you? Well let me ask you then, Draco, just what did you mean to do?”
Draco blanched a bit from her forthrightness. He hadn’t really expected her to tear up or get all sentimental like other women might at the mention of their past. He had taught her better than to allow her emotions to get in the way of whatever it was that had to be done. But he had expected that the quick change in subject once again, and the personal nature of it might cause her to withdraw and while she was regrouping, he’d have a few extra minutes to think of how to get out of this mess. Instead she had bellied up to the bar and challenged him on it. He was amused to feel some inner sense of pride in her boldness.
“I only meant to amuse myself at first. Then I meant to teach you something about life. I think I did that. You can’t argue that part of what makes you so good at catching Death Eaters is that you were in love with one for better than two years, can you?” He was pleased to see her swallow hard at the mention of her feelings ... now to go in for the kill. “What I never meant to do was two things. I never meant to hurt you, like I said, but I never meant to fall in love with you either.”
Ginny gazed at him steadily for what felt like the longest minutes of his life. He could see the confusion behind her eyes, although to anyone else, the slight softening would have been undetectable. He reached across the table to cover her hand with his. He thought the contact of skin might be just enough to push her over the edge and into making the decision to let him leave, the goal he had been working towards ever since he had spotted her in the pub.
Instead of having the effect he intended, Draco touching Ginny’s hand snapped her back to attention. She knew him too well. He would never touch her in such a blatant display of affection and open emotion if it were not calculated. This incensed her. It was not so much that he was trying to manipulate her; she’d learned many years ago to accept that manipulation was simply a part of what Draco was. It was that she had allowed herself to be manipulated.
Draco saw the hardness creep back into Ginny’s eyes. As she withdrew her hand from his, he knew he’d lost.
“You just disgust me. Turning on the charm, just enough to get you by. Really I’m surprised. No kisses? No declarations of pining away for me? Wait, no, that’s just not your style, is it. You, you aim higher than that. Were you next going to suggest a quick romp in bed for old time’s sake?”
He smirked. “Well, now that you mention it, I’ve never found anyone who could do that little thing you did with your tongue on my-“
She cut him off. “You’re still the same, Malfoy.”
“So are you, Red, so are you,” he said, and he felt sad that this red haired woman in front of him had been his once and that she’d never be again. He was also sad to see the look in her eyes that he so often saw in his own when he looked into a mirror. He’d been the one to put that look there, and though she’d never know, he was dreadfully sorry for that.
Ginny felt as though this whole episode had been some sort of a test for her. And she’d failed it. Even though she’d managed not to fall for his tricks, it had been a near thing, and Merlin help her, she couldn’t help but feel the small ache of longing for what would never be again when she looked into those cool gray eyes of his. After all this time, he could still tug at her emotions.
She pushed her chair back and suddenly rose. He looked up at her and asked, “Where are you going? I thought you were here to take me in.”
“Maybe I’ll just tell them you never showed, Malfoy. Maybe I just needed to see you. Maybe you needed to see me too. To see if anything had changed.”
“And has it? Changed, I mean?” he asked,
Ginny twisted her mouth up in a wry smile and said, “Some things never change.”
With a wicked grin, Draco nodded at Ginny, pulled the hood of his cloak back up over his head, and walked out of the pub, leaving Ginny to polish off the rest of the whiskey in her glass as she tried to think of what she was going to tell Harry.
Disclaiming! *G*
Ginny Weasley sat in a corner of the little pub and watched the man enter through a side door. He was covered from head to toe in a heavy black cloak, and not even his gender was evident but she instinctively knew it was him. He was as silent as a cat stalking its prey, his movements smooth and designed to blend into the crowd so as not to call attention to himself, but she’d known this man for a very long time, and knew all his tricks to go unobserved. She’d used the same tricks herself, on more than one occasion. Anyone else would have missed him entirely.
She stayed seated in her dim little niche, sipping the fire whiskey she’d gotten from the bar when she entered and continued to watch the man carry out his business oblivious to her observance. She’d had the advantage as he didn’t know to look for her as she’d known to look for him.
He leaned over the bar and spoke quietly into the barkeep’s ear. Ginny watched as he slid his hand across the bar, lifting it to reveal a small envelope only for a second before the barkeep covered it with his own hand and slid it over the edge and under the counter. Only when he turned to go did the man notice her in the far corner of the room. Even though she couldn’t see his eyes, she felt them boring into her. She knew she’d been spotted and inclined her head slightly at the figure in the cloak. With the barest nod in return, the man turned back to the barkeep and said something short, then began weaving though the tables to where she sat and seated himself across from her.
After a few moments, a plump waitress brought over a glass and a bottle and left it on the table. The man poured himself a drink, and then replenished Ginny’s glass as well. Unable to bear the silence anymore, Ginny snapped, “Would you take that damned hood off Draco, so I can see your face?”
He reached up and pushed the hood back off his head, letting it fall on his shoulders. Grinning at her he said, “Better?”
“Hell no," she replied. “You’re just as good looking as ever. I was hoping you’d gotten wrinkles or gone bald or something.”
Running his hand over the mass of white blond, he smirked. “Perish the thought, love. And might I say you look just as ravishing as ever.”
Ginny gave him a malevolent look.
“Are you here to try to take me in?” he asked, swinging the topic from the endurance of their mutual good looks to the reason of her presence so abruptly it left Ginny startled for a moment.
She’d always had to struggle to match quips with him. She had always been a second too late with her witty replies, a beat off with her sarcastic retorts. She scrambled to regain her composure from his quick change of tact and said, “If I were, would you be surprised?”
“Frankly yes. I can’t imagine that the great and wonderful Potter would send his best friend’s sweet and innocent little sister after the big bad Death Eater Malfoy.” He leaned in closer and leered at Ginny. “Or perhaps he knows now that you’re not as sweet and innocent as you make out to be, aye, Gin?”
“Shut it, Malfoy. What Harry knows or doesn’t know about me is irrelevant to my ability to do my job. And most definitely none of your business,” she said.
“Or perhaps you’ve finally gotten your heart's desire? Did Harry finally notice you’re a girl, Ginny? Did he finally see what’s been right there under his nose, waiting for him all these years? Or maybe I should say, most of these years. I’d like to be vain enough to think that there we at least a couple there that you’d forgotten Potter’s name,” he said, with a momentary wince that Ginny wasn’t sure she’d actually seen in the first place. He’d never been one to allow even a glimpse at his true emotions. And after all these years, why would he care if she still carried a torch for Harry?
Feeling the sting of his barbs finally penetrating her thick skin, she hissed, “You’ve not the foggiest notion what my heart’s desire is Malfoy. And your vanity has never been a question of what you’d like; it’s always been what you demanded to have.”
“You wound me Gin, you really do. One would think we weren’t friends anymore.”
“We were never friends, Malfoy. We were a lot of things, but never friends.”
“Ah yes, a lot of things,” he echoed, then once again changed topic on her. “So why did they send you, Ginny?”
This time she was ready for him, seeing his tactic was going to be bait and switch. “Because they’re desperate and running out of ideas. They thought they had you cornered in Berlin, but you were too quick for them. How did you get out of there without anyone seeing you, anyway?”
He shrugged. “I just turned around and walked out once I spotted the aurors. It was really just idiotic of Harry to send Granger. I was a bit insulted. Did he think I would forget what the Mudblood looked like?”
“Hermione is a Weasley now. And I don’t know why Harry sent her, I told him not to. Still, I thought you might have risked it, being so close to accomplishing your goal there,” Ginny replied.
“I’ve always known when it’s time to play and when it’s time to quit the game. And you’re not so different. If you were, you wouldn’t be so good at what you do. I heard about you trapping Zabini in Bulgaria. I heard about you spearheading the capture of Flint and you single handedly brought in Bulstrode,” he said, saluting her with his drink before knocking it back in one swallow.
“Yes, and I’ll just bet you heard how I let Parkinson slip through my fingers in Vienna, too,” she said, staring down into the amber liquid in her glass.
“The point is, Gin,” he said, leaning across the table toward her in earnest, “You're damn good at what you do, as good as I am at what I do. Considering our past, you shouldn’t be here and I see from the look on your face that you know that. So why would you let them send you?”
“Because they can’t catch you, Malfoy. And Harry knew I’d know how to find you. I’m sure he’s sitting in his office right now praying that I’ll do the ‘right thing’ and bring you in,” she said.
“Do you think you can bring me in, Ginny?” he asked.
She sat up suddenly at the words. Staring him directly in the eye she replied “Don’t doubt me, Malfoy. I can be quite ruthless, ask your boy Blaise. And I was taught by the most ruthless bastard known to the wizarding world.”
Draco chuckled. “Oh stop. You’re going to make me blush. On that note though, you have to know, Red, that I never meant to hurt you.”
Ginny cringed mentally at the use of the old familiar nickname. No one else had ever been allowed to call her that. She felt her temper flare that he had the audacity to use it now. “Didn’t you? Well let me ask you then, Draco, just what did you mean to do?”
Draco blanched a bit from her forthrightness. He hadn’t really expected her to tear up or get all sentimental like other women might at the mention of their past. He had taught her better than to allow her emotions to get in the way of whatever it was that had to be done. But he had expected that the quick change in subject once again, and the personal nature of it might cause her to withdraw and while she was regrouping, he’d have a few extra minutes to think of how to get out of this mess. Instead she had bellied up to the bar and challenged him on it. He was amused to feel some inner sense of pride in her boldness.
“I only meant to amuse myself at first. Then I meant to teach you something about life. I think I did that. You can’t argue that part of what makes you so good at catching Death Eaters is that you were in love with one for better than two years, can you?” He was pleased to see her swallow hard at the mention of her feelings ... now to go in for the kill. “What I never meant to do was two things. I never meant to hurt you, like I said, but I never meant to fall in love with you either.”
Ginny gazed at him steadily for what felt like the longest minutes of his life. He could see the confusion behind her eyes, although to anyone else, the slight softening would have been undetectable. He reached across the table to cover her hand with his. He thought the contact of skin might be just enough to push her over the edge and into making the decision to let him leave, the goal he had been working towards ever since he had spotted her in the pub.
Instead of having the effect he intended, Draco touching Ginny’s hand snapped her back to attention. She knew him too well. He would never touch her in such a blatant display of affection and open emotion if it were not calculated. This incensed her. It was not so much that he was trying to manipulate her; she’d learned many years ago to accept that manipulation was simply a part of what Draco was. It was that she had allowed herself to be manipulated.
Draco saw the hardness creep back into Ginny’s eyes. As she withdrew her hand from his, he knew he’d lost.
“You just disgust me. Turning on the charm, just enough to get you by. Really I’m surprised. No kisses? No declarations of pining away for me? Wait, no, that’s just not your style, is it. You, you aim higher than that. Were you next going to suggest a quick romp in bed for old time’s sake?”
He smirked. “Well, now that you mention it, I’ve never found anyone who could do that little thing you did with your tongue on my-“
She cut him off. “You’re still the same, Malfoy.”
“So are you, Red, so are you,” he said, and he felt sad that this red haired woman in front of him had been his once and that she’d never be again. He was also sad to see the look in her eyes that he so often saw in his own when he looked into a mirror. He’d been the one to put that look there, and though she’d never know, he was dreadfully sorry for that.
Ginny felt as though this whole episode had been some sort of a test for her. And she’d failed it. Even though she’d managed not to fall for his tricks, it had been a near thing, and Merlin help her, she couldn’t help but feel the small ache of longing for what would never be again when she looked into those cool gray eyes of his. After all this time, he could still tug at her emotions.
She pushed her chair back and suddenly rose. He looked up at her and asked, “Where are you going? I thought you were here to take me in.”
“Maybe I’ll just tell them you never showed, Malfoy. Maybe I just needed to see you. Maybe you needed to see me too. To see if anything had changed.”
“And has it? Changed, I mean?” he asked,
Ginny twisted her mouth up in a wry smile and said, “Some things never change.”
With a wicked grin, Draco nodded at Ginny, pulled the hood of his cloak back up over his head, and walked out of the pub, leaving Ginny to polish off the rest of the whiskey in her glass as she tried to think of what she was going to tell Harry.
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