Chapter Six

The next morning an owl dropped a package to Ginny during the morning Owl Post. It was wrapped in shiny green paper and didn’t have a note. Everyone at the table around her was gawking and she was a lovely shade of pink. She didn’t dare look over at Draco. Ron had gotten tired of the suspense of what it was and told her to either open it or he would. She gave him a look that clearly warned him against such an action but she slowly began to unwrap the package. Inside, was a velvet box of deep green. Her heart was beating so hard that she expected it to burst right through her chest and land in Neville’s oatmeal. She opened the small box and put a hand up to her mouth in surprise. It was a silver ring with two teardrop stones set together to make a heart shape. One stone was a dark green emerald and the other was a red ruby. She lifted it out of the box and slid it onto her finger. She chanced a quick glance over to the Slytherin’s table but Draco wasn’t there. She knew that everyone was dying to know who sent her the gorgeous ring. She wasn’t going to tell though so she quickly left the dining hall before they drove her nuts.

She was breathless as she rushed out. She almost yelled when someone grabbed her from behind. The strong arms pulled her behind the big door.

“Do you like it?” Draco whispered in her ear, giving her goosebumps.

Ginny turned in his arms and pressed her soft lips to his. “It’s beautiful,” she breathed against his mouth.

He smiled and told her to read the inscription on the inside then he left. Ginny waited a few seconds and then peeked out from behind the door. She had been acting strange enough lately without someone catching her coming out. Nobody was around so she hurried off to the girls’ bathroom. She took the ring off and held it up to the light. She could just make out three words, ‘I like you.” Ginny looked up and stared at herself in the mirror. What are we, still in grammar school? She looked at the ring again and it read “Ok, ok, I really like you.” Ginny laughed and watched as it changed again before her eyes. The letters just started rearranging themselves and when they stopped it was finally the words she wanted to see, ‘I love you...Draco’.

“Oh, that’s so sweet....” and then sobbing filled the air.

Ginny turned around to see Moaning Myrtle floating behind her. She was crying her poor dead eyes out. Ginny tried to pat her on the back but, of course, her hand went right through the ghostly girl.

“Th...thanks. I wish somebody would give me a ...hiccup...ring like that...sniff.” Myrtle said as she faded into vapor and then was completely gone. Ginny could hear sniffling coming from the ghost’s favorite stall. She slipped the ring back onto her finger and offered a goodbye as she left the room. She floated on a cloud for the rest of the day.

A couple of days passed with much the same routine. They would pass in the hallways and accidentally collide or brush up against each other. They would make eyes at each other in the dining hall from across the room. She sent him an owl with a note that made the impenetrable Draco Malfoy blush. Pansy tried her best to see what it said. He finally ate the damn thing so everyone would stop trying to take it from him. Ron spent every meal glowering at her. She thought he probably knew what was going on but she didn’t really care. She left the dinner table, three nights after their hospital stay, at the same time as him and casually went through the double doors by his side.

“I love you too, even if you are the spawn of the devil.” Then she grinned at his shocked expression and slipped a note into his hand. She thought she was discreet but eyes were watching their every move.

Later, two people were arguing down in the dungeon.

“I am warning you to stay away from that trashy snit!” Blaise was hissing in Draco’s face. She had caught him leaving the dorms and it was really late.

“Are you threatening me?” He countered with anger flashing in his eyes and his fists clenched by his side.

She decided that this conversation was not going the way she had hoped and switched tactics.

“No, Draco darling. I just, you know,” She said in a sultry voice as she moved to wrap her arms around his neck, “care about you.”

He flung her arms off of his shoulders. The look he gave her could have cut through a steel wall. She was through playing games now.

“You are taking me to the Yule Ball tomorrow night. I already told Pansy that you were. She thinks you asked me a long time ago, and I’m tired of waiting for you to ask. If you don’t, I will tell everyone about your nasty little girlfriend.” She said with a smirk, which was quickly erased by his chilling rebuttal.

“I don’t care if you tell all of our friends. I don’t care if you tattoo it onto Snape’s ass the next time you’re kissing it to get a better grade.” At this her face twisted into a mask of hate, “And I could care less if you write to the Minister of Magic himself and he uses a muggle airplane to write it in the air over Malfoy Mansion. I am not going to the Yule Ball with you.” He stomped off then but during his speech he had realized something. He had never asked Ginny to the ball.

Ginny had realized this too. She was hoping that he would ask her tonight. Her note had asked him to meet her at the end of the dark corridor they had taken before, at midnight. She was anxiously awaiting his arrival. She yawned sleepily and wondered what time it was. It seemed like she had been waiting a long time. She sat down on the floor and thought that she’d wait just a little longer for him.

Draco looked down at the beautiful girl sleeping in the corner of the hall. He thought she resembled every picture of an angel he had ever seen. ‘Why was she with him?’ he asked himself. She was kind and he was mean. She was good and he was bad. She made him feel good though and it was a new feeling for him to experience. He bent down on his haunches and reached out to caress her face. She blinked her eyes for a minute and then his heart melted as recognition lit up her face. She smiled at him and held out her hand. He pulled her off the floor and into his arms.

“Hey stranger,” she said as she hugged him tight, “What took you so long?”

He pulled out the key and with one arm still holding her to him, he opened the door behind her back. They eased into the dark stairway and the wall closed back up. It was dark but she wasn’t afraid. He would protect her from anything and anyone. He lifted her light form up into his arms and carried her to the secret room. After they entered their hide-away, he sat down on the divan with her in his lap. He lit up the room with a word and a fire sprung up in the grate. She snuggled up close to him and he stroked her hair. They sat like that for a long time in companionable silence.

Draco finally broke the spell, “Ginny, will you go to the ball with me tomorrow?” He spoke almost hesitantly, he was afraid she would turn him down. Having a romance in secret with your archenemy was one thing. Having all of your friends and family know was a whole other quidditch game.

She looked up at him, “I thought maybe you had already asked somebody else before we...um...well, got together. I didn’t think you were ever going to ask me, so I asked Goyle to go with me.”

She almost died laughing at the look on his face. Then she pulled his head down to hers and pressed her lips to his. When they came up for air she said that she’d love to go with him. As long as he wouldn’t be embarrassed to be seen with a Weasley. He didn’t realize how tense he was until she said yes. It felt like an intense weight had been lifted from his chest. He smiled and it transformed his face into beauty that can’t be described. Ginny couldn’t breathe from the sheer happiness she felt.

Draco sighed into her hair. “I have a secret to tell you.”

Ginny leaned back to look up at him. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know about the skeletons in the Malfoy closet. She didn’t want to know if he still peed the bed that’s for sure. Then she had a horrible thought, if he says this was all some joke that him and his pals conjured up, she was going to kill him. Draco watched her face and the emotions that flashed across it. He thought he better spit it out quick because she looked like she was going to explode.

“You probably don’t remember, but not too long after school started this year, I ah...helped you pick up some books in the hallway that you dropped. Well, um...I pushed Crabbe into you that day just so you would drop them and I could help you.” He wasn’t looking at her as he spoke. He was looking at her hair that he was winding around his finger over and over. “I ...uh well...had been watching you ever since I saw you at Kingscross when we boarded the Express. You just looked so tall and beautiful. It was like I’d never seen you before. You changed so much over the summer. I always thought you were pretty, but you just took my breath away. I started thinking about you all the time. Every time I would look at you though, you‘d be looking at Potter.” He grinned then and looked up at her. “I haven’t seen you looking at him lately though. You’ve been too busy ravishing me with your eyes.”

She laughed and wiped away a tear or two. They were just from laughing so hard though, she wouldn’t cry from a Malfoy speech. “I’ve got a secret too. I’ve been watching you ever since that day in the hallway. I knew I shouldn’t be. Ron hates you. Harry hates you. Hermione hates you....”

He stopped her then, “I get the point.”

Ginny smiled, “But I couldn’t make myself hate you anymore. Harry has always been my hero.” She laid a silky hand against his cheek then when he looked sad. “But you are better than twenty Harry Potters. You are Draco Malfoy, and you are mine.”

They kissed then and it was like the first time. It was fresh and exciting and felt just right. It was almost dawn when Draco woke her up to go back to their dorms. They had lain in each other’s arms all night. He knew that today would mark a change in their relationship. Today he was coming out of the closet. He had a feeling that people wouldn’t be more shocked if he was coming out with Neville as they would be to see Ginny on his arm.

He grinned a wicked grin as he returned to his dorm. He did like to make a grand entrance. Tonight should prove interesting if nothing else. He found himself whistling to himself as he walked down the hall.