The next few weeks passed by in a blur for Ginny. She could tell that people were becoming tense, as if they expected something to happen, but no one had said anything for sure yet. This, in turn, made Ginny tense. She and the D.A. were on their toes, waiting for a signal, a sign… anything.
On top of that, her work load had increased due to the approaching holiday, so she had little time for herself. Not that it mattered, since the only thing she wanted to do was to spend time with Draco, and he was busy as well. He had N.E.W.T.s that year and had been given even more homework that Ginny.
The majority of her time was spent either in the library or the common room with Neville or the other students in her year cramming for tests. The D.A. had gotten together again, but for the express purpose of practicing a new spell for Charms that was giving people trouble.
Ginny found herself going to bed later and later each night and waking up earlier and earlier each morning to work on all of her assignments. She landed herself three more detentions that month for late assignments and one for falling asleep in class. Only one of her detentions had been with the Carrows, but that didn’t make it any easier. She was still completely worn out by the end of the day.
She tried to make time to get away and see Draco, but it always seemed that she had an assignment due the next day. She began to get extremely frustrated with the way her homework was getting in the way. No matter how hard she worked, there was always more.
There were only two days left before spring break when Ginny finally had a free evening. As soon as she realized she could get away she took off for the kitchens. That was her best chance for meeting Draco since it had become a pretty regular spot for them.
Sure enough, when she entered the room, he was there, perched on a cushioned stool. His back was to the door so he didn’t see her come in. Ginny stood quietly for a moment to watch him. He had a mug of some steaming liquid gripped in both of his hands as he stared solemnly into the fire.
Draco sighed heavily and Ginny smiled as she admired the curve of his shoulders, broader that they had been in past years, and the way his hair brushed the back of his neck. Was it even possible for her to have once thought him to be unattractive?
Ginny waved away a house-elf before it could speak and give her away. She quietly walked toward the boy… man, really… that she had come to love in the past few months.
Love. Now that was an interesting thought. She’d once thought she’d been in love with Harry Potter; for several years, in fact. And maybe she had been… in a way. But this that she felt for Draco was so far above and beyond any other feeling that it was in a league of its own. Her relationship with Harry was hardly worth comparing.
Ginny came up behind Draco and reached out, wrapping her arms around his neck. “Hi, there,” she said, kissing the side of his neck.
Draco jumped slightly and grabbed one of her wrists, twisting around to look at her. “Oh, so you finally decided to come and see me,” he snapped. He pulled her arms off of him and stood up off the stool.
Ginny was surprised at his reaction. “Draco?” she asked cautiously. She reached out to touch his arm, but he turned away from her to stare back into the fire.
“You’ve just been too bloody busy for me, haven’t you?” he said crossly. “I’ve been in here every night for three weeks waiting for you, but you never came. Not once in all that time.”
Ginny took a half step back and frowned. “I’ve had homework coming out my ears! I couldn’t just drop it and go for a jaunt! It seemed every time I finished something, there was something else to take its place.” She paused and added more gently, “I wanted to come. I really did.”
Draco rolled his eyes at the ceiling. “And you couldn’t bring it with you?” His face seemed to be made of stone as he continued to glare at the dancing flames. “We could have done our homework together.”
“Draco…” Ginny hesitated, then tried again, hoping she would be able to keep her frustration down. “If I had known you wanted to study with me… But you’ve got your N.E.W.T.s… and Neville’s been helping me in Herbology, and he needed help with Potions. We’ve been studying together.”
Draco made a grunting noise as he turned back to her. “Oh, of course!” he yelled, his eyes flashing angrily. I wouldn’t dream of keeping you from your precious Longbottom! Naturally you’d rather be with him!”
Ginny gasped. What had gotten into him? “Draco. You’re being completely ridiculous…”
“Am I?”
“…I wanted to see you more than anything!”
“Then why didn’t you?” He turned away from her once again and spoke in a deathly cold voice. “If you’d really wanted to, you would have found a way.”
Ginny could see that he was hurt by the way he was holding his arms. He seemed stiff and aloof, his way of blocking out emotion. She reached out and took his hand, relieved when he didn’t pull away. “I’m sorry, Draco.”
He sighed and his shoulders dropped slightly. “I haven’t seen you in three weeks, Ginny,” he said. “Except at those D.A. meetings, and that hardly counts.”
“Come home with me,” Ginny said impulsively. It was a sudden idea, but why not? They would be together every day, and he could meet her parents. “You can spend Easter at the Burrow.” Now that she’d said it, it seemed perfect.
Draco looked down at her with a sneer. “You’re kidding me, right? Why would I want to spend two whole weeks holed up in a shack with a lot of Weasels?”
Ginny was taken aback by his vehemence. “Excuse me? I’m one of that ‘lot of Weasels’, in case you’d forgotten!”
“Well, of course I don’t mind you,” he said, squeezing her fingers. “It’s all the rest of them…”
“They are my family!” Ginny cried, interrupting him as she jerked her hand out of his. “Just because you don’t happen to like them doesn’t mean…”
“Oh, come off it, Ginny!” Draco said loudly. “Our families have hated each other for years. I’m not going to suddenly like the rest of those dirty blood-traitors just because you and I have started seeing each other.”
Ginny’s eyes widened at this. “You still don’t need to be such an arse about it, Malfoy!” she spat. “You could tell me it would be torture and you’d rather die without insulting us!”
“Malfoy now, is it?” Draco asked, one eyebrow raised at her. “What happened to little ferret? That used to be your favourite insult for me.”
“Don’t you change the subject!” She emphasized her words with sharp jabs to his chest. “We’re talking about how you called my family, which includes me, a lot of Weasels and dirty blood-traitors!”
Draco shrugged. “I don’t see why you’re getting so worked up about it. You always knew that I hated your family. I never tried to hide it. In fact, if I remember correctly, which, of course, I do, you hate my family as well.”
“Yes, but I don’t flaunt my dislike like you do!” Ginny countered. “I respect the fact that they are your family, and I think I do pretty well at keeping my thoughts to myself!”
Things were getting extremely out of hand. Ginny could feel all of the stress of the last month building up behind her anger, making it much worse than it normally would have been. She couldn’t seem to make herself calm down, though.
And the way he was looking so… Malfoy-ish about the whole thing. He was wearing his usual smirking mask that kept his feelings hidden and his eyes were cool and expressionless. She couldn’t tell if he was angry or teasing or if there was something else behind his barbs against her family.
Draco sniffed. “Oh, well, thanks for that,” he snapped sarcastically. “But notice, this is the first time I’ve mentioned your family. And you brought them up!”
“Oh, Merlin!” Ginny said, waving her arms exasperatedly. “I was inviting you to spend the holiday with me. Not them! And I certainly never expected you to make nasty comments about them!”
Ginny was reminded of the way Draco had always acted with Ron when he smirked and said, “You opened the door, Weasley. What did you expect? I certainly don’t want to spend that much time cooped up with your rowdy horde of brothers and your Muggle-loving father!”
“Well, I’m sure glad we cleared that up! Good night!” And with that, Ginny spun on her heel and stalked out of the kitchens. She wished she could have slammed the door, but it was too heavy. She settled instead for stomping extra hard.
~///~
Draco watched Ginny go with a scowl on his face. He really hadn’t meant to make her angry. He just couldn’t seem to stop the words that were coming out of his mouth.
This had been building up all month long. What she’d said about the homework had been absolutely right. He’d certainly had a healthy dose of it. He had wondered several times whether the professors were doing it just to be cruel.
Then there had been the Voldemort thing. He’d been a bit apprehensive about going back to Malfoy Manor after his last meeting with Lucius. Another mistake would likely have resulted in more that just a burned hand.
All in all, he’d been under a fair bit of stress. Not to mention he hadn’t seen her in all that time. He’d been in a pretty bad mood to begin with, so when she finally showed up, all the pent up emotion had come rushing to the surface and he’d just snapped.
It was true though, the things he’d said. She had been spending more time with her friends than with him. Even if they had only been studying, the fact remained. It wasn’t fair that they got to see her all the time and he was limited to watching her from across the Great Hall or passing her between classes. As her boyfriend, he felt he was entitled to more of her time.
And of course he didn’t want to spend spring break at the Burrow. Draco grudgingly admitted to himself that he could have gone about it better, but he was still a little upset. He’d never hesitated before to insult the Weasleys, so it didn’t make sense that Ginny would have flipped out at him like she had.
But now he was even more upset. Not only was he frustrated and stressed, now Ginny was angry with him.
Oh, why did I keep going? he berated himself. Why couldn’t I have just been happy that she was finally here? We could have had a nice evening and I had to go berserk and ruin it.
A portion of his mind reminded him that she had argued and yelled right back at him. For every remark that Draco had, Ginny had one in response. So it wasn’t completely his fault.
But she had started out in a good enough mood. “I was the one who brought it to a fight,” Draco mumbled into his mug.
He wished that he had just turned around and kissed her when she’d come up behind him, since that had clearly been what she wanted. He closed his eyes against the memory of her arms wrapped around him. It was really amazing what she could do to his insides when she wasn’t even around.
It suddenly occurred to him, belatedly, that he should have gone after her and apologized. “What an idiot,’ he said, shaking his head at himself.
Draco dejectedly made his way back to the dungeons, determining to speak with Ginny the next day. He wished he could talk to her tonight, but he’d never be able to catch her.
However, as luck would have it, she didn’t appear at breakfast or at any point after breakfast. Or the next day. And then she was gone; back at home for the Easter holiday. There were two whole weeks before he would get another chance.
On top of that, her work load had increased due to the approaching holiday, so she had little time for herself. Not that it mattered, since the only thing she wanted to do was to spend time with Draco, and he was busy as well. He had N.E.W.T.s that year and had been given even more homework that Ginny.
The majority of her time was spent either in the library or the common room with Neville or the other students in her year cramming for tests. The D.A. had gotten together again, but for the express purpose of practicing a new spell for Charms that was giving people trouble.
Ginny found herself going to bed later and later each night and waking up earlier and earlier each morning to work on all of her assignments. She landed herself three more detentions that month for late assignments and one for falling asleep in class. Only one of her detentions had been with the Carrows, but that didn’t make it any easier. She was still completely worn out by the end of the day.
She tried to make time to get away and see Draco, but it always seemed that she had an assignment due the next day. She began to get extremely frustrated with the way her homework was getting in the way. No matter how hard she worked, there was always more.
There were only two days left before spring break when Ginny finally had a free evening. As soon as she realized she could get away she took off for the kitchens. That was her best chance for meeting Draco since it had become a pretty regular spot for them.
Sure enough, when she entered the room, he was there, perched on a cushioned stool. His back was to the door so he didn’t see her come in. Ginny stood quietly for a moment to watch him. He had a mug of some steaming liquid gripped in both of his hands as he stared solemnly into the fire.
Draco sighed heavily and Ginny smiled as she admired the curve of his shoulders, broader that they had been in past years, and the way his hair brushed the back of his neck. Was it even possible for her to have once thought him to be unattractive?
Ginny waved away a house-elf before it could speak and give her away. She quietly walked toward the boy… man, really… that she had come to love in the past few months.
Love. Now that was an interesting thought. She’d once thought she’d been in love with Harry Potter; for several years, in fact. And maybe she had been… in a way. But this that she felt for Draco was so far above and beyond any other feeling that it was in a league of its own. Her relationship with Harry was hardly worth comparing.
Ginny came up behind Draco and reached out, wrapping her arms around his neck. “Hi, there,” she said, kissing the side of his neck.
Draco jumped slightly and grabbed one of her wrists, twisting around to look at her. “Oh, so you finally decided to come and see me,” he snapped. He pulled her arms off of him and stood up off the stool.
Ginny was surprised at his reaction. “Draco?” she asked cautiously. She reached out to touch his arm, but he turned away from her to stare back into the fire.
“You’ve just been too bloody busy for me, haven’t you?” he said crossly. “I’ve been in here every night for three weeks waiting for you, but you never came. Not once in all that time.”
Ginny took a half step back and frowned. “I’ve had homework coming out my ears! I couldn’t just drop it and go for a jaunt! It seemed every time I finished something, there was something else to take its place.” She paused and added more gently, “I wanted to come. I really did.”
Draco rolled his eyes at the ceiling. “And you couldn’t bring it with you?” His face seemed to be made of stone as he continued to glare at the dancing flames. “We could have done our homework together.”
“Draco…” Ginny hesitated, then tried again, hoping she would be able to keep her frustration down. “If I had known you wanted to study with me… But you’ve got your N.E.W.T.s… and Neville’s been helping me in Herbology, and he needed help with Potions. We’ve been studying together.”
Draco made a grunting noise as he turned back to her. “Oh, of course!” he yelled, his eyes flashing angrily. I wouldn’t dream of keeping you from your precious Longbottom! Naturally you’d rather be with him!”
Ginny gasped. What had gotten into him? “Draco. You’re being completely ridiculous…”
“Am I?”
“…I wanted to see you more than anything!”
“Then why didn’t you?” He turned away from her once again and spoke in a deathly cold voice. “If you’d really wanted to, you would have found a way.”
Ginny could see that he was hurt by the way he was holding his arms. He seemed stiff and aloof, his way of blocking out emotion. She reached out and took his hand, relieved when he didn’t pull away. “I’m sorry, Draco.”
He sighed and his shoulders dropped slightly. “I haven’t seen you in three weeks, Ginny,” he said. “Except at those D.A. meetings, and that hardly counts.”
“Come home with me,” Ginny said impulsively. It was a sudden idea, but why not? They would be together every day, and he could meet her parents. “You can spend Easter at the Burrow.” Now that she’d said it, it seemed perfect.
Draco looked down at her with a sneer. “You’re kidding me, right? Why would I want to spend two whole weeks holed up in a shack with a lot of Weasels?”
Ginny was taken aback by his vehemence. “Excuse me? I’m one of that ‘lot of Weasels’, in case you’d forgotten!”
“Well, of course I don’t mind you,” he said, squeezing her fingers. “It’s all the rest of them…”
“They are my family!” Ginny cried, interrupting him as she jerked her hand out of his. “Just because you don’t happen to like them doesn’t mean…”
“Oh, come off it, Ginny!” Draco said loudly. “Our families have hated each other for years. I’m not going to suddenly like the rest of those dirty blood-traitors just because you and I have started seeing each other.”
Ginny’s eyes widened at this. “You still don’t need to be such an arse about it, Malfoy!” she spat. “You could tell me it would be torture and you’d rather die without insulting us!”
“Malfoy now, is it?” Draco asked, one eyebrow raised at her. “What happened to little ferret? That used to be your favourite insult for me.”
“Don’t you change the subject!” She emphasized her words with sharp jabs to his chest. “We’re talking about how you called my family, which includes me, a lot of Weasels and dirty blood-traitors!”
Draco shrugged. “I don’t see why you’re getting so worked up about it. You always knew that I hated your family. I never tried to hide it. In fact, if I remember correctly, which, of course, I do, you hate my family as well.”
“Yes, but I don’t flaunt my dislike like you do!” Ginny countered. “I respect the fact that they are your family, and I think I do pretty well at keeping my thoughts to myself!”
Things were getting extremely out of hand. Ginny could feel all of the stress of the last month building up behind her anger, making it much worse than it normally would have been. She couldn’t seem to make herself calm down, though.
And the way he was looking so… Malfoy-ish about the whole thing. He was wearing his usual smirking mask that kept his feelings hidden and his eyes were cool and expressionless. She couldn’t tell if he was angry or teasing or if there was something else behind his barbs against her family.
Draco sniffed. “Oh, well, thanks for that,” he snapped sarcastically. “But notice, this is the first time I’ve mentioned your family. And you brought them up!”
“Oh, Merlin!” Ginny said, waving her arms exasperatedly. “I was inviting you to spend the holiday with me. Not them! And I certainly never expected you to make nasty comments about them!”
Ginny was reminded of the way Draco had always acted with Ron when he smirked and said, “You opened the door, Weasley. What did you expect? I certainly don’t want to spend that much time cooped up with your rowdy horde of brothers and your Muggle-loving father!”
“Well, I’m sure glad we cleared that up! Good night!” And with that, Ginny spun on her heel and stalked out of the kitchens. She wished she could have slammed the door, but it was too heavy. She settled instead for stomping extra hard.
Draco watched Ginny go with a scowl on his face. He really hadn’t meant to make her angry. He just couldn’t seem to stop the words that were coming out of his mouth.
This had been building up all month long. What she’d said about the homework had been absolutely right. He’d certainly had a healthy dose of it. He had wondered several times whether the professors were doing it just to be cruel.
Then there had been the Voldemort thing. He’d been a bit apprehensive about going back to Malfoy Manor after his last meeting with Lucius. Another mistake would likely have resulted in more that just a burned hand.
All in all, he’d been under a fair bit of stress. Not to mention he hadn’t seen her in all that time. He’d been in a pretty bad mood to begin with, so when she finally showed up, all the pent up emotion had come rushing to the surface and he’d just snapped.
It was true though, the things he’d said. She had been spending more time with her friends than with him. Even if they had only been studying, the fact remained. It wasn’t fair that they got to see her all the time and he was limited to watching her from across the Great Hall or passing her between classes. As her boyfriend, he felt he was entitled to more of her time.
And of course he didn’t want to spend spring break at the Burrow. Draco grudgingly admitted to himself that he could have gone about it better, but he was still a little upset. He’d never hesitated before to insult the Weasleys, so it didn’t make sense that Ginny would have flipped out at him like she had.
But now he was even more upset. Not only was he frustrated and stressed, now Ginny was angry with him.
Oh, why did I keep going? he berated himself. Why couldn’t I have just been happy that she was finally here? We could have had a nice evening and I had to go berserk and ruin it.
A portion of his mind reminded him that she had argued and yelled right back at him. For every remark that Draco had, Ginny had one in response. So it wasn’t completely his fault.
But she had started out in a good enough mood. “I was the one who brought it to a fight,” Draco mumbled into his mug.
He wished that he had just turned around and kissed her when she’d come up behind him, since that had clearly been what she wanted. He closed his eyes against the memory of her arms wrapped around him. It was really amazing what she could do to his insides when she wasn’t even around.
It suddenly occurred to him, belatedly, that he should have gone after her and apologized. “What an idiot,’ he said, shaking his head at himself.
Draco dejectedly made his way back to the dungeons, determining to speak with Ginny the next day. He wished he could talk to her tonight, but he’d never be able to catch her.
However, as luck would have it, she didn’t appear at breakfast or at any point after breakfast. Or the next day. And then she was gone; back at home for the Easter holiday. There were two whole weeks before he would get another chance.
Author notes: Don't kill me!! I felt like the relationship was getting a little too comfortable for the two of them. It was time for a bit of a fight; time for some angst. It really does play a bit of a part though, so please don't be mad that I left them with an unresolved issue. At least this chapter is a bit longer! It's also a turning point for the story. We're starting to build up to the climax; only six chapters after this. Big thanks to Nakita, raye, 4everdandg, and allie889 for your reviews! Loves!
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