Chapter Twenty-One:
The light of the television flickered but she had a hard time actually making out the image on the screen. Ginny found herself rubbing at her eyes for the fifth time in as many minutes in an effort to bring the screen into focus.
“Eyes bothering you?”
She turned her head to meet his gaze, her brain taking another second or two to catch up to what he said. “I think I squinted and focused them so much this week that I was beginning to think they’d fall out of my head.”
Draco nodded silently, though his expression looked like he wanted to laugh and just didn’t have the energy to do so. For all that this last set of lessons was nowhere near as physically demanding as the others they’d experienced since her arrival, the mental focus required had been just as draining. The fact that the completion of their marksmanship training signaled the near end of their mission preparations remained a palpable weight in the air around them. It felt almost like they had just gotten started, like she had arrived only the day before to ask for his help and that it was entirely too soon to be thinking about putting all their training to work in obtaining the final Horcrux. At the same time, they were both more than aware of how vital it was to complete their mission as soon as possible. If Voldemort and the Death Eaters truly went on the offensive while the Dark Lord still had the protection of even a single Horcrux, it could all be over.
Even having been completely aware of this from the start, the teens had left unsaid the feeling that their mission might prove impossible. It was strange to think that they had found a way around the anti-magic wards surrounding Nagini’s hiding place; that they were finally in a position to go after the snake. It was something else altogether to acknowledge that there could very well be some trap or obstacle awaiting them at the cave that they had no idea about. Still, they had come so far, and had in fact come to the end of what they could do to prepare themselves based on what they knew.
It was now time to do what they had been sent here to do in the first place, what they had been preparing for: sneaking into Voldemort’s most important safe house and stealing the Dark Lord’s pet and the last external piece of his soiled soul. Everything else in the Order’s long term plans hinged on this, on them. It was more responsibility and danger than either had faced before, but in all the time they had been working together, neither had spoken about it except in the abstract. The air became heavier and heavier in the tastefully decorated living room until their lungs burned as much as their eyes and they both felt the sudden need to speak.
“Can you believe-”
“What do you think-”
They looked at each other with a weary laugh for a moment before Draco shook his head and gestured for her to continue. She smiled faintly and found that now that she had time to think about what she was going to say that she had to swallow and pause before she could make the words come out.
“It doesn’t feel real, does it? That we’re almost done, I mean. I keep trying to imagine what it will be like to have this all over with, to not have to think and plan and worry about it every day. To not have to wonder what’s going to happen, or if I’ll survive it all.”
A strange cold sensation developed in the pit of his stomach at her words. The blond couldn’t quite ignore the sudden intense urge to lock her into her small room upstairs and leave her there for the rest of their mission. He did his best to brush aside the odd feelings but from the curious and slightly concerned look on her face, he was pretty sure he hadn’t hidden it all as well as he’d hoped.
Ginny had to bite off the question on the tip of her tongue at the unsettling lack of expression on her partner’s face. She’d caught him giving her an unusual look every once in a while since they’d first started weapons training. This was the first time however, that he had looked so utterly blank and more than confusing her, she felt a surge of inarguable concern. She wanted so badly to reach out to him, to ask him what he was thinking about, to make sure he was okay. And yet having gotten to know him as she had during their partnership, she knew he was a very private individual and only got angry and defensive if asked for personal information he hadn’t volunteered. Because of this, and the small niggling fear of what he would say if she asked, she looked pointedly away and let him decide what to say or not say.
The blond took the opportunity to shove aside the disconcerting feelings and redirect the conversation. Unfortunately, he was too focused on taking the conversation in the opposite direction and didn’t take the time to think about what he was saying before he actually asked the question.
“What are you going to do after we’re done?”
He felt himself stiffen before the words even finished leaving his mouth. The idea of his stay at the Tonks’ being over, of not seeing his friends, or watching TV, or racing a sports car left him feeling distinctly unbalanced. Before he had a chance to find his footing again, she knocked him metaphorically off his feet with her answer.
“I’m going to go back to school, I think. What about you? You can finally go back to your life again, are you going to manage the family estates or something?”
The words ‘your life’ echoed in his head for several seconds and he nearly blurted out that he had a life now more so than he ever had before. He managed to gain control of himself just in time and instead shifted things back in her direction. “How are you going to go to school? Haven’t you missed most of sixth year by now?”
Ginny bit her lip to keep from repeating her question, knowing that he was dodging it for a reason and deciding once again to let him keep whatever was bothering him to himself. “I’ve missed a lot, but Dumbledore said he would get me a tutor to help me catch up over the summer so I can take seventh year with the rest of my class. And Ron and Harry and Hermione, of course, since they’ve been spending all their time getting ready and training with Moody and Tonks.” For the first time since they had started talking, she felt herself getting genuinely excited as she continued. “You should come back too. I’m sure the Headmaster would get you a tutor as well and then we could all finish up. That way, if you don’t take over the estates, you’ll have some other options too.”
The wizard didn’t miss her not so subtle attempt to get him to tell her something more of his plans, but as he had no idea what those plans were going to be, he ignored her yet again and only responded with a non-committal noise and a less than subtle comment of his own. “My arms are a little sore from holding that rifle so long but I think I can manage to lift the phone, how about some pizza tonight?”
The redhead sent him a light-hearted glare but her upswing in mood at the thought of her housemate possibly joining her at Hogwarts withstood his blatant evasion and she couldn’t make the expression anything but friendly. “Sure, that sounds good.”
Draco nodded and went to get the phone, but as he was ordering their dinner he found her mood becoming somewhat contagious. A smile threatened to break out on his face and he wasn’t sure if it had more to do with the grin the witch shot him as she began to search through the channels for something to watch or the thought she had conjured with her suggestion. Could he go back to Hogwarts, and would he even want to? It wasn’t something that he had given a lot - if any - thought to since he had decided to stop biding his time and get on with his life at the Tonks’. He wasn’t sure how returning to school would go for him. He had spent too much time in the Muggle world to really feel comfortable in Slytherin House anymore. And the thought of hanging out with any spineless Hufflepuffs or nerdy Ravenclaws, let alone any brainless Gryffindors was more than he could stomach.
His eyes drifted over to the witch sitting on the couch as he hung up the phone and situated himself in an armchair. It was because they had been through so much together, having already experienced things that even most Muggleborns wouldn’t know about let alone have done. It was only the fact that they were participating in something their classmates, maybe even their professors, wouldn’t understand. Yes, that was the only reason he could see himself easily spending his time with her back at Hogwarts. She smiled at him again as she found an episode of Top Gear for them to watch.
He felt the smile threaten again and let a bit of it escape as he locked his eyes on the screen and tried to make his mind focus on the car being discussed. She was pretty, that’s what kept making him want to smile when she looked at him tonight. And for the last week or so if he was honest with himself. And he was, there was no reason not to be. She was pretty, it was a fact. He was male, he had eyes, he’d noticed her looks long before he had admitted it to his friends a few days before. Aaron, Blake and Carren had been more than vocal about their opinion of her looks since Ginny had arrived at the Tonks’ so he knew he wasn’t alone. Though why they had to harp on it so much all the time he didn’t understand and was quite frankly a bit annoyed with at this point.
The fact was, she was pretty so any smirk or smile that might find itself on his face as a result of her similar expression was perfectly understandable. Their having developed so much in common over her stay in the Muggle world and the mutual understanding and camaraderie that had grown between them was completely unrelated. That he could, with the right amount of pressure and trick questions, have possibly admitted to his friends the day before that he liked her as a person and that he sometimes enjoyed her company didn’t mean anything at all. It certainly didn’t have any bearing on his opinion of her looks. Or rather, his opinion of her looks didn’t have any bearing on his enjoying her company. He was sure of it, no matter what Carren implied.
End Chapter Twenty-One
The light of the television flickered but she had a hard time actually making out the image on the screen. Ginny found herself rubbing at her eyes for the fifth time in as many minutes in an effort to bring the screen into focus.
“Eyes bothering you?”
She turned her head to meet his gaze, her brain taking another second or two to catch up to what he said. “I think I squinted and focused them so much this week that I was beginning to think they’d fall out of my head.”
Draco nodded silently, though his expression looked like he wanted to laugh and just didn’t have the energy to do so. For all that this last set of lessons was nowhere near as physically demanding as the others they’d experienced since her arrival, the mental focus required had been just as draining. The fact that the completion of their marksmanship training signaled the near end of their mission preparations remained a palpable weight in the air around them. It felt almost like they had just gotten started, like she had arrived only the day before to ask for his help and that it was entirely too soon to be thinking about putting all their training to work in obtaining the final Horcrux. At the same time, they were both more than aware of how vital it was to complete their mission as soon as possible. If Voldemort and the Death Eaters truly went on the offensive while the Dark Lord still had the protection of even a single Horcrux, it could all be over.
Even having been completely aware of this from the start, the teens had left unsaid the feeling that their mission might prove impossible. It was strange to think that they had found a way around the anti-magic wards surrounding Nagini’s hiding place; that they were finally in a position to go after the snake. It was something else altogether to acknowledge that there could very well be some trap or obstacle awaiting them at the cave that they had no idea about. Still, they had come so far, and had in fact come to the end of what they could do to prepare themselves based on what they knew.
It was now time to do what they had been sent here to do in the first place, what they had been preparing for: sneaking into Voldemort’s most important safe house and stealing the Dark Lord’s pet and the last external piece of his soiled soul. Everything else in the Order’s long term plans hinged on this, on them. It was more responsibility and danger than either had faced before, but in all the time they had been working together, neither had spoken about it except in the abstract. The air became heavier and heavier in the tastefully decorated living room until their lungs burned as much as their eyes and they both felt the sudden need to speak.
“Can you believe-”
“What do you think-”
They looked at each other with a weary laugh for a moment before Draco shook his head and gestured for her to continue. She smiled faintly and found that now that she had time to think about what she was going to say that she had to swallow and pause before she could make the words come out.
“It doesn’t feel real, does it? That we’re almost done, I mean. I keep trying to imagine what it will be like to have this all over with, to not have to think and plan and worry about it every day. To not have to wonder what’s going to happen, or if I’ll survive it all.”
A strange cold sensation developed in the pit of his stomach at her words. The blond couldn’t quite ignore the sudden intense urge to lock her into her small room upstairs and leave her there for the rest of their mission. He did his best to brush aside the odd feelings but from the curious and slightly concerned look on her face, he was pretty sure he hadn’t hidden it all as well as he’d hoped.
Ginny had to bite off the question on the tip of her tongue at the unsettling lack of expression on her partner’s face. She’d caught him giving her an unusual look every once in a while since they’d first started weapons training. This was the first time however, that he had looked so utterly blank and more than confusing her, she felt a surge of inarguable concern. She wanted so badly to reach out to him, to ask him what he was thinking about, to make sure he was okay. And yet having gotten to know him as she had during their partnership, she knew he was a very private individual and only got angry and defensive if asked for personal information he hadn’t volunteered. Because of this, and the small niggling fear of what he would say if she asked, she looked pointedly away and let him decide what to say or not say.
The blond took the opportunity to shove aside the disconcerting feelings and redirect the conversation. Unfortunately, he was too focused on taking the conversation in the opposite direction and didn’t take the time to think about what he was saying before he actually asked the question.
“What are you going to do after we’re done?”
He felt himself stiffen before the words even finished leaving his mouth. The idea of his stay at the Tonks’ being over, of not seeing his friends, or watching TV, or racing a sports car left him feeling distinctly unbalanced. Before he had a chance to find his footing again, she knocked him metaphorically off his feet with her answer.
“I’m going to go back to school, I think. What about you? You can finally go back to your life again, are you going to manage the family estates or something?”
The words ‘your life’ echoed in his head for several seconds and he nearly blurted out that he had a life now more so than he ever had before. He managed to gain control of himself just in time and instead shifted things back in her direction. “How are you going to go to school? Haven’t you missed most of sixth year by now?”
Ginny bit her lip to keep from repeating her question, knowing that he was dodging it for a reason and deciding once again to let him keep whatever was bothering him to himself. “I’ve missed a lot, but Dumbledore said he would get me a tutor to help me catch up over the summer so I can take seventh year with the rest of my class. And Ron and Harry and Hermione, of course, since they’ve been spending all their time getting ready and training with Moody and Tonks.” For the first time since they had started talking, she felt herself getting genuinely excited as she continued. “You should come back too. I’m sure the Headmaster would get you a tutor as well and then we could all finish up. That way, if you don’t take over the estates, you’ll have some other options too.”
The wizard didn’t miss her not so subtle attempt to get him to tell her something more of his plans, but as he had no idea what those plans were going to be, he ignored her yet again and only responded with a non-committal noise and a less than subtle comment of his own. “My arms are a little sore from holding that rifle so long but I think I can manage to lift the phone, how about some pizza tonight?”
The redhead sent him a light-hearted glare but her upswing in mood at the thought of her housemate possibly joining her at Hogwarts withstood his blatant evasion and she couldn’t make the expression anything but friendly. “Sure, that sounds good.”
Draco nodded and went to get the phone, but as he was ordering their dinner he found her mood becoming somewhat contagious. A smile threatened to break out on his face and he wasn’t sure if it had more to do with the grin the witch shot him as she began to search through the channels for something to watch or the thought she had conjured with her suggestion. Could he go back to Hogwarts, and would he even want to? It wasn’t something that he had given a lot - if any - thought to since he had decided to stop biding his time and get on with his life at the Tonks’. He wasn’t sure how returning to school would go for him. He had spent too much time in the Muggle world to really feel comfortable in Slytherin House anymore. And the thought of hanging out with any spineless Hufflepuffs or nerdy Ravenclaws, let alone any brainless Gryffindors was more than he could stomach.
His eyes drifted over to the witch sitting on the couch as he hung up the phone and situated himself in an armchair. It was because they had been through so much together, having already experienced things that even most Muggleborns wouldn’t know about let alone have done. It was only the fact that they were participating in something their classmates, maybe even their professors, wouldn’t understand. Yes, that was the only reason he could see himself easily spending his time with her back at Hogwarts. She smiled at him again as she found an episode of Top Gear for them to watch.
He felt the smile threaten again and let a bit of it escape as he locked his eyes on the screen and tried to make his mind focus on the car being discussed. She was pretty, that’s what kept making him want to smile when she looked at him tonight. And for the last week or so if he was honest with himself. And he was, there was no reason not to be. She was pretty, it was a fact. He was male, he had eyes, he’d noticed her looks long before he had admitted it to his friends a few days before. Aaron, Blake and Carren had been more than vocal about their opinion of her looks since Ginny had arrived at the Tonks’ so he knew he wasn’t alone. Though why they had to harp on it so much all the time he didn’t understand and was quite frankly a bit annoyed with at this point.
The fact was, she was pretty so any smirk or smile that might find itself on his face as a result of her similar expression was perfectly understandable. Their having developed so much in common over her stay in the Muggle world and the mutual understanding and camaraderie that had grown between them was completely unrelated. That he could, with the right amount of pressure and trick questions, have possibly admitted to his friends the day before that he liked her as a person and that he sometimes enjoyed her company didn’t mean anything at all. It certainly didn’t have any bearing on his opinion of her looks. Or rather, his opinion of her looks didn’t have any bearing on his enjoying her company. He was sure of it, no matter what Carren implied.
End Chapter Twenty-One
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