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“Ginny! There’s a letter for you by the door, an owl just delivered it,” Molly informed her daughter casually, bristling past her in the kitchen on the way to some other household task.
Ginny took her pruned hands out of the sink, the soap dripping down her forearm onto her socks. She scrunched up her nose in disgust at the sensation, quickly finding her wand to dry everything off.
Her mother was out of the room by then, not paying any mind to Ginny’s sock issue, but she called out after her anyways, “who is the letter from?”
“How should I know?” Molly’s raised voice carried through the whole house despite the voluminous size of the Burrow. Ginny often wondered if it was charmed so that Molly could be heard no matter where her children were.
Ginny resigned herself to the fact that her mother would be of no service for information and headed towards the table beside the front entrance. She found a black envelope waiting for her, closed perfectly with a golden wax seal. There was a large ‘G’ imprinted on the wax that Ginny was almost certain she recognized from six months ago when a similar letter had found its way to her.
Quickly she ripped the top of the envelope, not even bothering trying to peel the wax off. If it was from who she believed it was from then she had no care in the world for being gentle with it.
It was at that precise moment, when Ginny read the letter and her face turned to shock, that Hermione, Ron and Harry stumbled through the entrance of the Burrow. They were laughing, which was always refreshing to see given all that they’d had to endure over the years. She supposed three years post war, trauma was a little easier to swallow on the day to day.
Hermione noticed her first, “oh Ginny I didn’t know you’d be here! What have you got in your hand?” Ginny didn’t bother hiding the letter, allowing Hermione to peek over her shoulder and discover the great insult that it hid in its contents. “Oh my goodness!”
Ginny had been clenching her jaw and it cracked when she moved it, she barely noticed, “can you believe this?”
“What is it?” Ron was always nosey, but he was the first to tell people to leave him alone about his own business.
Ginny slammed the stupid letter, the stupid black envelope and the stupid gold wax seal back onto the table. “I’ve been uninvited to Draco Malfoy’s wedding.”
Harry’s eyes were as round as saucers, the lenses of his glasses making the green look like marbles. “Why?”
“I wish I knew, Astoria personally has revoked my invitation.” She turned on her heel, ignoring the three sets of eyes following her carefully and made her way back to the kitchen. She needed some tea, something to calm her down. Ginny did always have a temper, and being rejected by a shallow socialite appeared to be one of her triggers.
She wasn’t surprised when she heard the scraping of three chairs at the kitchen table behind her. She took four mugs down from the cupboard before she placed the kettle on the stove and turned the burner on. “I mean the nerve of that woman!”
Hermione seemed to be the only one understanding the audacity of the situation, “it’s a social faux pas, I can’t imagine why she would think nobody would notice your absence.” Ginny was pretty sure it was because whenever the Golden Trio of the Second Wizarding War was anywhere, nobody cared about any of the other veterans but she kept her lips closed.
“I’m not quite sure why we all have to be there in the first place,” Ron told them honestly, snacking on one of the dinner rolls that Molly had left out on the table from the night before.
Hermione rolled her eyes, a common occurrence in their friendship, “because it’s social protocol. Anybody who wants to keep a good name in the papers invites the ‘social elite’ as Rita Skeeter dubbed us. Plus, it’s Draco’s wedding so we should go.”
Harry’s lips were pursed in thought. The kettle whistled behind her so Ginny moved back to the stove, picking up the old metal tin by the handle before pouring everybody a cup.
She didn’t care much for the rise in social importance since the war had ended for her and her friends. Harry, Ron and Hermione got it the worst, but anybody that revolved around their circles were fodder for the daily prophet machine. Harry couldn’t sneeze without having his face plastered over the front page every morning. One time Ron said if he knew he would be stalked he wouldn’t have bothered destroying any of those Horcruxes. Hermione had smacked him with a pillow to the gut.
“I don’t see why we have to go,” Ron added as Ginny placed the steaming mug in front of him. She didn’t ask if any of them walked milk or sugar, they all got it black.
Hermione explained with certainty that Ginny was sure came from having already explained herself a thousand times, “we want to foster a better and more accepting world for our future children Ron, so playing nice with others is part of that.”
Harry blew at the steam, sending it across the table in Ron’s direction, but he didn’t take a drink. Ginny watched his glasses fog up, trying not to laugh. “It’s polite,” he tacked onto the end.
Ron looked unimpressed but didn’t ask any more questions, he was going whether he wanted to or not.
“The real question,” Hermione supplied as she got up to search for the milk in the fridge, “is why was Ginny uninvited?”
“Yeah,” Ron nodded like he’d never thought of this before, “what did you do to get kicked out Gin?”
“Nothing!” She told them earnestly. Ginny had been a saint for the last three years since Voldemort had been slain, she hadn’t even spoken to Draco in almost six months. Since his wedding announcement actually.
Harry’s eyebrow rose a little too skeptically for her liking. “Must have been something.”
“Drink your tea Potter,” she told him with a huff.
“Did you cause a ruckus and piss off Astoria Greengrass?” Ron asked as if she was known for causing commotion around town. Ginny definitely knew how to have a good time, and sure she was prone to a temper and sometimes her filter didn’t work but Ginny wasn’t a menace by any means. Certainly not to Astoria Greengrass. Ginny couldn’t see how she herself was the problem.
She shook her head, fingers twiddling on the handle of her blue ceramic mug, “I’ve never even met the woman.”
Hermione had returned to the table, using her wand to stir around the milk in her cup. She had her thinking face on, “perhaps she found out about when you punched Draco.”
Ginny bit back the laugh from the memory, Draco’s blood dripping down his face as he tried to stumble away from her screaming. She had a lot of fond emotions attached to that particular incident, none of which she was willing to admit, but Ginny knew that was probably not the reason because Draco wouldn’t have mentioned it to his Bride-to-Be.
“Maybe but you also punched Draco in the face,” Harry commented, finally sipping his tea. Ginny watched him realize that it was still too hot to actually drink and felt sympathy for his poor tongue.
Hermione hummed, “that’s true. Oh I know, you can go as Harry’s plus one anyways!”
That was devious, but Ginny kind of liked the idea of breaking into the wedding just to be spiteful. Perhaps she was the problem.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea Hermione,” Harry said honestly, “we don’t want to ruin Astoria’s day.” Ginny sighed because Harry was always so kind, even without a reason to care about Astoria’s feelings, he did. It was a shame the two of them hadn’t worked out, but that tends to happen when one member of the party discovers that they’re gay. Ginny had gotten over her feelings for him pretty quickly after that.
“Don’t worry about me,” Ginny told them in hopes that perhaps they could just drop the conversation and move on, “I’ll figure it all out.”
-o-
By ‘figure it out’ she meant that she was going to sneak into the wedding anyway because Ginny could not let go of this grudge. What had she done that had pissed Astoria Greengrass off so much that she’d been thrown out to the wolves on this celebratory day?
Perhaps there were a few instances from her past that Astoria wouldn’t approve of, but Ginny hadn’t squealed and she doubted Draco would’ve either.
They didn’t hire security for their wedding venue, or if they did Ginny should tell them to get a refund for the service because it was terrible. A side door to the building had been propped open by workers bringing in trays of cooking supplies so Ginny merely had to slip in when none of them were looking and bam. She was in.
She had worn an old blue dress from the back of her closet that she thought would make it easier for her to hide, not too bright that everybody spotted her but not too dull that she looked frumpy. She couldn’t place why she cared about how she looked at a wedding she had to break into but the facts were the facts.
Hermione and Ron were standing near the back of the seat aisles. They’d done fabulous work turning whatever old building this was into a wedding venue. It had dark gray stones and tapestries littering every wall. A large crest above the door gave Ginny the indication that this was an old Greengrass owned property. Dumb, rich, pureblood families and their manors.
Ginny used one of these tapestries to conceal herself, the back of the artwork a lot more scratchy than its smoother exterior. “Hermione!” She whispered harshly, catching the other woman off guard.
Bright eyed and defensive Hermione spun around, searching for the source of her name for a full minute before she spotted Ginny. If it took Hermione that long to find her then Astoria was useless. “Jesus Ginny what are you doing here?”
“I snuck in obviously,” she watched guests flutter in, completely oblivious to her presence.
Ron had joined them looking amused, “I thought Harry vetoed that.”
“Yeah well Harry isn’t my Dad,” Ginny bit back, “where is he anyways?”
All three sets of eyes caught sight of him at the same time, tossing his head back in laughter at something Blaise Zabini said. Hermione and Ron’s matching expressions of confusion were enough to let Ginny know that none of them knew if Harry was trying to flirt or if Blaise was actually funny.
Hermione stopped watching Harry and focused back on her, “so what’s your plan then?”
She sucked in air between her teeth, scrunching up her shoulders, “I don’t have one.”
“Ginvera!” Hermione exclaimed quietly. Ginny wondered if she’d been taking points from Molly on how to berate people with a singular word, she was too good at it.
Ron, excited as hell for whatever was about to occur, told them both, “this is now my favorite event of the year.”
Ginny sighed, scratching at her arm where the tapestry chaffed her, “I think I should just talk to Draco. I need to know.”
“This hardly seems like the time,” Hermione insisted, gesturing to the hoards of people gathered for the ceremony. It was truly shocking how many witches and wizards were invited to this damn event and Ginny had been barred. Absolutely rude.
“I’m going in, wish me luck!” Ginny used her wand to cast a concealment charm over herself and stepped out from behind the tapestry. Ron told her to break a leg, Hermione reluctantly sent her well wishes and then Ginny was off.
Finding where the Groom was getting ready should have been more difficult given the vast size of this manor but it wasn’t because she spotted Goyle coming out of a room down the corridor almost immediately. He was in Draco's wedding party so he was the best lead she had. Goyle leaned halfway out the door obviously trying to leave but something in the room had caught his attention before he could complete his quest.
She inched forward, careful not to be seen and peered into the crack of the door. Draco stood inside, she knew it was him before she could see the blinding white hair he rarely gelled back anymore. Goyle said something else and then the door was shut, her view completely obstructed.
Ginny listened for his footsteps to grow more faint and then nonexistent before she exposed herself to the openness of the hallway. This was probably a stupid plan, he might not be alone, she could get dragged out by Theo Nott and whatever other Slytherin friends he managed to keep, but she couldn’t persuade herself not to knock on the door.
A beat of silence and then the turning of metal until finally Ginny was face-to-face with Draco Malfoy for the first time in six months. She wouldn’t say she felt relief, but she felt something that was not instant anger and repulsion.
Draco did not seem to be happy to see her, but he also wasn’t angry. She took that as a good sign, pushing against his chest until he was far enough in the room she could close the door behind them.
“What the bloody hell are you doing?” His suit jacket was still hanging over the chair in the corner, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, faded Dark Mark on display for them both. Ginny tried not to stare at it, he always complained when he caught her, but it was difficult. The dark mark was a more welcomed view than his face because if she had to look at him too long she might break.
“I want to know why my invitation to your wedding was revoked!” She planted her hands on her hips, her feet on the ground. She stared passed his face to the wall, hoping he wouldn’t notice, but she had terrible resolve so her gaze slipped where it so desperately wanted to.
His jaw was set in a hard line, his cool gray eyes softer than she expected. He looked as chiseled and handsome as ever which was so frustrating that Ginny almost wished her breaking his nose had stuck a little bit.
He shook his head, parting his mouth a little in surprise. That stupid mouth, Ginny could curse it a million times and it still would never be enough. “So you’ve broken into my wedding to ask why you weren’t invited to said wedding?”
“Yes,” she answered with haste, “why are you just repeating facts back to me.”
“Have you not considered perhaps that is why you were no longer invited?” He sounded so calm, cool and collected. As if what he said was so logical that it was foolish Ginny hadn’t thought of it herself.
She huffed in annoyance, “Astoria had no way of knowing I would do such a thing, dumb answer. Next!”
He started to adjust the tie around his neck as if it was about to strangle him. She noticed that he was more fidgety than usual, she squinted at him hoping that years of her Mother’s accusatory stares would rub off on her somehow.
“She may have seen a memory of mine.” He admitted, his gaze fixated on the potted plant behind her. Ginny checked, it was a plastic fern, nothing much to look at in her opinion.
“Which one?” Ginny moved so that her face was in his direct line of sight, breaking him out of whatever he and the fern had going on.
Draco was annoyed by it, crossing his arms over his chest as he peered down at her. “I don’t owe you an explanation.” She squinted again, right at his face and he clicked his tongue against the side of his cheek before, ultimately, caving. “One of us.”
There were a handful of them to shift through in her own head, she wondered which one he’d chosen to show her and for what reason he would do that. “Did she expect you to be a virgin?”
“No!” Draco’s voice was an octave higher than she was used to, he was trying to conceal something. Ginny didn’t know how he had managed to fake not being a death eater for so long because he was a terrible liar. Or perhaps she just paid too much attention to him. Easier to blame his short-comings though than her own.
“Is Pansy Parkinson here?” She waited, watching sternly as he slowly nodded. “So Astoria is just prejudiced against me! This hurt Draco, I thought we were friends.” That might have been a bit of a stretch but Ginny had to use all the tools in her basket if she wanted to yank the truth from him.
After Dumbledore had been killed by Snape, Draco had taken off running and most people expected him to hole up with his family and commit war crimes. Ginny certainly had. What they hadn’t expected was for Draco to seek out Harry Potter and ask for his help. He explained the entire Dumbledore death, Snape vow, Dark Mark situation in as much detail as he could. He never wanted to be a Death Eater, he knew Voldemort might punish his family for his jumping ship but, as if a switch had flipped, he chose to join the good side.
It had been a year of reluctant allyship between him and most of the Order, including Ginny, and then three more of genuine camaraderie. Some people, like Ron, refused to associate with him if they could help it. Ginny had tried to ignore him but something about their easy conversation and antagonistic banter drew her in to the point that Ginny would consider Draco a friend in the loosest of terms.
Perhaps secret fuck buddies also would have been acceptable.
“Friends?” He questioned her before emitting a rigid laugh that surprised her. She didn’t know what was so particularly funny. “Ginny, we are not friends.”
“Ouch,” She rested a hand over her heart.
He grabbed her wrist and lowered her arm back down to her side like her gesture was so bothersome he couldn’t bear to look at it. Wouldn’t be the first time he tried to halt her shenanigans, potentially could be the last.
“Astoria got jealous of you, so she revoked the invitation.” He explained it cautiously, more words caught on the tip of his tongue. She pursed her lips, Ginny didn’t like not understanding, she didn’t like feeling stupid.
She was considering how to cuss him out properly for keeping things from her when a thought sprung to her mind that she had to get the answer to, “how did she see a memory anyways?”
Draco looked uncomfortable as he pulled his tie far away from his neck. He tried to run his fingers through his hair, a nervous habit he had developed, but the gel wouldn’t allow it to move a muscle. “I was taking out memories to keep for myself and she found them. My family has a pensive, as you can imagine, so she used it to snoop.”
Ginny withheld her eye roll at ‘as you can imagine’ and instead tried to stay focused on her goal, “and why were you taking out memories of me?”
He shook his head with his eyes glued to the floor, he was still so much taller than her. Ginny kept waiting for her growth spurt but it didn’t look like it was going to happen. “Ginny, don’t make me tell you.”
“I can’t make you do anything,” she told him, feigning innocence, “but I’m not leaving your wedding until I have the truth.”
“You are such a nuisance,” he turned around and began pacing, his second biggest habit for when he got nervous that she was sure he had to resort to because his hair was immovable. “If I tell you, don’t react alright?” She didn’t bother agreeing to that rule because frankly, they both knew she wasn’t going to listen to it.
Draco sat down on the chair that was holding his suit jacket, “I was taking the memories out so I could look at them later if I ever wanted to remember them. Then I was going to have you obliviated from my head.”
Ginny waited to see if he would say something else mind-bendingly stupid but he sat there silent. Was he trying to prank her? He seemed serious, none of his usual lying tics visible to her. So if he truly meant what he said, that he was going to literally erase her from his head - she had only one response.
She started to laugh.
Draco sat up straight in surprise at this, then he slouched in indignation because she apparently wasn’t taking it seriously. Ginny was, but what other way was she supposed to respond to something like that?
“It is not funny,” he deadpanned, biting out every word as he spoke.
Ginny caught her breath, trying to steady her fluttering heartbeat with a hand pressed against her sternum. “No I know, I know. It’s just fucking stupid is what is it.”
“Excuse me?” He stood up to tower over her once more, offended that she’d insulted his million dollar idea. Ginny usually considered him a smart person too, but nobody is perfect.
She shrugged, she meant what she said so there was no point in trying to grovel to stop his quickening anger. “You care about me so much you took our memories out and put them in vials just in case you wanted them later, but you hate me so much you were going to obliviate me. It’s stupid.”
“That is not-” he stopped himself from speaking without thinking. He’d gotten much better at that, Ginny on the other hand hadn’t picked up the skill. “I took the memories out because I care about you and I was going to obliviate you because I love you and Astoria found out about it.”
There was nothing in the world that could’ve prepared Ginny for that shocking declaration and he said it as casually as one would announce the time. Her mouth dropped to the floor, catching every bug in the room on the way down. Draco merely looked at her, waiting, his eyes cold as steel, his hands resting casually at his sides. Ginny didn’t know what he was thinking and that thought kind of scared her.
“You want to run that by me again?” She finally asked, her voice a little dry from the growingly stale room air.
Draco wet his lips with a lick of his tongue, if she didn’t know better she would assume he was doing it on purpose. Hell, given what she’d just discovered maybe she didn’t know better at all and he was trying to drive her batty.
His eyes bore into hers, grating into her skull with every passing second. “I love you Ginny Weasley, sorry to break it to you. Astoria happened to steal the one memory from my collection that all but confirmed it. She didn’t want you making a scene at the wedding, and despite me telling her you didn’t love me back, she uninvited you.”
It was a lot to process, that Draco Malfoy, her sometimes friend, sometimes sex partner, had fallen in love with her without her noticing. “Is that why you stopped talking to me six months ago? Found a new girl to love and didn’t want the old one?”
Draco scoffed, “don’t be daft.” Ginny tried not to let her offended expression come out but she failed. Draco didn’t particularly seem to notice however, he just continued to speak. “I don’t love Astoria.”
Ginny’s arms flailed around her wildly, “then what’s all this then?” She was, of course, referring to the massive manor filled with hundreds of people, imported flowers and personalized D & A cupcakes for their upcoming nuptials.
“Politics,” he said flippantly, beginning to pace again. Oh right, politics, how had she forgotten that super normal thing that everybody has to deal with?
“Draco I want to understand what is going on inside that head of yours but you’re making it impossible at this point.” She pushed out an arm to halt him where he stood, the physical contact between them nothing new but as electrifying as always. Ginny gripped his forearm tighter, her stomach fluttering as his eyes turned darker.
He took in a long deep breath, “Astoria is a handpicked wife courtesy of my Mother’s desire to give the Malfoy name meaning again. She’s pleasant enough, we get along. She’s materialistic and cares more about her appearance than I do.” Which is saying something , Ginny thinks but doesn’t say. She does have some self control. “The only thing she’s asked of me, truly, is that I never speak to you again.”
A stone sank in her stomach, she hadn’t been happy with the silence between them over the last six months but it wasn’t completely out of the ordinary for them to not speak for weeks on end. Such was the nature of their relationship. But to never get to speak ever again? Never laugh as he grew aggravated with her teasing? Never punch him in the arm for insulting her taste in Christmas decorations? Ginny didn’t know if she was alright with that.
“What memory did she see?” If Astoria saw a memory that told her Draco was in love with her, Ginny had to know which it was. She ran back all their past interactions in her head like flipping through a notebook but nothing screamed up at her from the pages. She was observant, but even if she wasn’t Ginny knew she wasn’t going to forget Draco Malfoy confessing his heart to her.
His eyes flicked across her face, searching for her true emotions but Ginny wasn’t even sure what she was feeling - so good luck to him with that. Finally he said, “remember when you broke my nose?”
There is no way Hermione was right.
Ginny did but she wanted the whole story front to back so she told him, “refresh my memory.”
Draco nodded, “there was a birthday party for Luna Lovegood about two years ago give or take. Everybody was incredibly intoxicated and annoying and I was dragged along by a certain somebody.” His pointed look did nothing but make her lower body heat up, she ignored it. “Eventually you and me snuck off to some dumb closet, we were snogging and doing other things,” his reluctance to talk openly about sex was always something Ginny thought was endearing, “but then we heard people calling for us and we thought we’d been caught so you punched me in the face.”
Ginny’s smile crept up her face without warning at the memory. It never failed to please her. Draco had been so startled by her assault he’d hardly known what had happened for a full minute afterwards. At first he thought she was mad that he had stuck his hand down her pants but in reality she was creating an excuse.
“You told everybody we’d gotten into an argument and left the room so we wouldn’t cause a scene but things had escalated. It worked surprisingly. I was in incredible pain but our dirty little secret remained just that, a secret.”
She couldn’t look away from him even if she had wanted to, “this is what made Astoria believe you love me?”
Draco smirked, she wanted to slap it off of him because he knew exactly what that look did to her. “No Ginny, you breaking my nose was not her signal that I was in love.” At least she had been right about that one. “It was later,” he continued, “after the party a group of us went back to the Burrow to sleep and when everybody passed out I snuck up to your room. We slept together but you fell asleep first.”
Ginny also remembered that. She didn’t get a lot of action in her childhood bedroom, cluttered with nostalgic memorabilia that she just couldn’t force herself to throw away. Draco had been the first guy she banged there, and nobody else to date had managed to claim his title. Her twin sized bed was uncomfortable, especially since his feet hung off the end, but she remembered drifting off to sleep quite easily with his arms cradled around her.
“Your hair had been in your face, I pushed it behind your ear and when I knew you were fast asleep I told you that I loved you. You didn’t flinch, of course, because you were asleep. It was all very anticlimactic, but I realized it may be the only time I would get the chance to tell you so I took it.”
Silence was all that met her in the aftermath of his confession, and Ginny didn’t feel the need to immediately fill it. What was she to say? Ginny hadn’t known all this time that he was in love with her, but if she had known would it have made anything different? She’d never really thought about him outside the context of their previously agreed on relationship because she hadn’t had the need to. It was easier to accept what was in front of her than push into the ground underneath.
Yet, now, she stood with her fingers clenched on his forearm, sweaty as hell and they were just staring deep into each other's souls and Ginny had no clue what to do next.
“Can you say something? For once I’m not begging you for silence,” Draco was trying to be light about it all, fluffing out his love confession with humor so that Ginny wouldn’t be standing paralyzed with uncertainty.
Unfortunately it didn’t work, she opened her mouth, closed it again and then just watched his panic settle on his face.
“Ginny please just-”
The door handle jiggled and she sprang back from him, flattening her body against the wall in a lousy attempt to hide. It took Draco two huge strides with his long ass legs to reach the door as it opened, nearly running face first into Theo Nott. He was mostly blocking her from view, Ginny tried her best to shrink away. Perhaps she should've worn a more frumpy dress, Theo could’ve mistaken her for part of the furniture.
“Woah big guy you look nervous! Pre-wedding jitters?” Theo teased him, unaware that Draco’s shaking hands were not from the woman he was about to walk down the aisle towards.
He smirked off to one side, cocky and arrogant in the face of his friends. Ginny would’ve teased him for putting on a performance if she wasn’t trying to remain undetected. “Yeah something like that. Is it time?”
Theo nodded, “Blaise sent me to come get you, the whole crowd is waiting.”
“Alright then, be out in one moment.” He shut the door abruptly on Theo’s face then braced himself against the wall to take in one deep breath. Draco slowly began to lower the sleeves of his button up shirt. “Can you hand me my jacket?”
Ginny peeled herself off of the wall, but she still felt small. He sounded so casual, but a million miles away from her. Draco was never a million miles away from her. Whatever had happened between them was over, she’d lost any chance she had to tell him her real feelings. Time was up.
Her hands were steady as she grabbed the back of his jacket and handed it to him, he didn’t try to meet her eyes but she wished he would. One more look, one more glance, one more kiss. His marriage might only be political but it was legally binding and Ginny was not about to be a mistress.
“Goodbye Ginny,” his voice didn’t raise an octave, it didn't lower in register. She couldn’t detect an ounce of emotion in his tone. Classic Draco, King of Compartmentalizing. He walked out of the room and she still didn’t open her goddamn mouth.
-o-
Love was a big word, it didn’t have a set of parameters that Ginny could measure her relationship with Draco against and that was causing her distress. If she loved him, as he loved her, wouldn’t she know it by now? Wouldn’t she have leaned over his sleeping body beside her and whispered it against his cheek? Ginny loved her family, she loved her friends, but she knew that it wasn’t the same.
When she thought of him she thought of their stupid jokes, she thought of watching him fall into the river by their house after George had pushed him, she thought about his kisses against her skin and how she never felt the same fire in her belly when anybody else touched her. Surely, those memories that she cherished so deeply had to mean something.
After today, she’d never get to watch him lose to her at Wizard Chess and flip the table in anger then have to apologize to all the pieces and clean them up. She would never sit with him outside the burrow watching the sunset, drunk as hell while karaoke filled the house. Ginny had grown accustomed to his grumpy companionship over the last four years, what was she to do without it? The last six months she had noted his absence more than she admitted to any of her friends.
They forgave Draco, they welcomed him into their group whenever he would show up, but they weren’t his friends. Not like her. She had hid her desire for him all these years because she was scared. Scared that perhaps, maybe, she did love him and if Ginny Weasley loved Draco Malfoy then the whole thing would turn into one big mess.
Except, that was not the world they lived in anymore, Draco wasn’t enemy number one. Arthur loved when Draco would visit and ask him what some dumb muggle object was so he could gush about it. Draco did it on purpose because he knew it pleased her Father and Draco was grateful for all their help. Molly had knitted him his very own emerald green Christmas sweater two years ago that he had worn for the entire day, long after the rest had taken them off. Bill and Fleur had trusted him to babysit one night when their regular sitter had canceled on them and Draco had done it with only minimal complaint to Ginny.
“Oh my gosh,” she whispered into the cold air of the room, “I love Draco Malfoy and he’s about to get married.”
She did not remember the journey from the ceremony room to Draco’s room being this long the first time but it felt like she was running a half marathon. Ginny cast a concealment charm quickly on herself as she got closer to her destination, the doors to the room were already open and she didn’t want anybody to see her slipping inside.
Ginny stood near the back, sneaking her way towards the one empty seat on the closest row she could find. The woman beside her was wearing a hat so large it nearly sat on Ginny’s head too but she managed to shift to the left of her seat and catch a full glimpse of the ceremony.
Astoria was standing in a gown so large that it took up most of the altar space, of course she looked devastatingly beautiful with long, golden locks of hair and a smile so bright it blinded the first two rows. She noted they weren’t holding hands. Draco stood facing her, still beautiful, still void of his true emotions.
Hermione, Ron and Harry were in the fifth row back. Ginny hadn’t realized how many fucking rows there were but it seemed like they never ended. Hermione was smiling up at them, then, as if she felt Ginny’s eyes drilling holes into the back of her skull, she checked over her shoulder.
Her eyes widened, Ginny tried to mouth ‘I love him’ but Hermione didn’t get the message. Squishing her eyebrows together in confusion, tilting her head. Ginny waved her attention away before anybody else’s eyes were drawn to her. That was the last thing she needed.
Ginny didn’t have a plan, what was she going to do? Interrupt the whole wedding to declare her newly discovered love, embarrassing Astoria and Draco in the process? That seemed needlessly cruel. She glanced around, her brain racing a million miles an hour because there was no other way to get Draco down from that altar. She was an idiot, she would never admit that to him though.
Amidst her panic, the man residing over the ceremony’s voice caught her attention with a resounding, “if there is any reason that these two shall not be wed, speak now or forever hold your peace.”
The crowd was eerily silent, Ginny glanced at Draco and saw that his mask broke for a moment. Just a fraction of a second where she saw his real soul underneath the hard exterior. Hope. He didn’t want to marry Astoria, she knew that he was doing it because of some sick need for his family's redemption but how was that fair to him?
Ginny didn’t realize she was standing until she was half way up the aisle and her knees began to shake, “don’t do it!”
She hadn’t been prepared for every single set of eyes to fall on her the second she spoke, but she supposed that she should have been given the circumstances. Ginny didn’t bother to look around her, she knew what she would find and it didn’t interest her in the least. Disappointed family members, shocked casual attendees, hungry journalists.
Draco’s swarming gray eyes were the only thing that mattered the second they connected with her own. “Ginny what are you-”
“I love you! I didn’t say it before because I was scared but it’s true. I can’t picture a life without you in it, and I don’t want to.” She can feel tears tickling the back of her eyelids and she tried to bully them back into place. Ginny hated crying in public and this was about as public as one could get.
It was Draco’s turn to remain eerily silent in the wake of her confession. He had turned his entire body to face her, hands no longer frozen together in front of him, his mask up but his eyes telling.
“You were banned from this wedding, Ginny Weasley! Where is the security?” Astoria’s voice was shrill, her rage palpable in every syllable. Ginny didn’t look at Astoria, but she did not think she would be met with a particularly happy woman.
Ginny ignored the hysteria of the Bride, granted it was fair of her to be behaving this way, Ginny was the bitch the situation. “You don’t have to run away with me,” she took in a gulp of air, one pesky tear clawing for dear life to the rim of her eye, “but if you would just hear me out.”
Draco studied her in the way that made her remember every single time he’d laid a hand on her, every single kiss, every single laugh, every smile. Ginny couldn’t believe how stupid she had been to not realize that this man was the one that she wanted more than anything. More than Harry bloody Potter.
Finally, he took one agonizing step towards her.
“Draco, do not go to her!” Astoria chastised him, her bouquet of flowers losing petals as she reached out to pull him back. She was not very strong, he easily shook her off as he took another step in Ginny’s direction.
She held her breath with anticipation. Would he do it? Would he get to her and tell her that they were a perfect match and she was an idiot for waiting until the literal last minute to realize it? Or would he disregard her completely and banish her from his wedding and from his life?
He reached her, she wished he wasn’t so good at hiding inside of his own head when he wanted to. “Ginny,” his voice, the steady calm he’d held before he abandoned her in his room. It unnerved her because she was so used to being able to read him. “I know you’re a terrible runner but do try and keep up.”
“What do you-”
Before the words left her lips Draco’s cold fingers were slipping into hers and pulling her towards the exit, towards the never ending corridor of the Greengrass manor and towards a public outcry in the wake of what they’d done.
Ginny couldn’t help it, she laughed. A bubble of cursed giddiness cascaded from her lips the entire time they fled the crime scene and Draco joined her. Perhaps it was a shared bout of insanity that had them both smiling with glee as they pounded down the gravel walkway.
They stopped when they reached the edge of the property, it felt like it had taken only minutes to get there but in reality it was so much further than that.
“We are absolute idiots!” Ginny screamed with a smile, splitting her face wide open.
Draco was panting, his gelled back hair coming undone from the wind. Ginny loved when it was down, she always meant to tell him that but she never did. She’d do it now though, she’d do it forever.
His lips descended down on hers brutal and bruising, passionate in every single second. Ginny was used to him, the way his lips melted against hers felt like a practiced and well rehearsed movie. She gripped the front of his jacket desperately, his hands were on her cheeks and his thumbs were rubbing back and forth.
They broke apart with a desperate need for air. Ginny’s brain tried to divide and calculate all of the events of the day into their own sections to make sense of how they’d gotten to that point but she’d never been very good at that. She glanced down to her white, clenched hands and realized that it didn’t really matter how they’d gotten there in the moment, she was just happy they were.
“I’m sorry it took me so long, that was so much more dramatic than it had to be.” She apologized, but she was still grinning. The cocoon of their feelings for each other was intoxicating and Ginny was known for being a lightweight. She could still hold her own though, she’d proven that to George on several occasions.
Draco snorted, “you? Drama? Never.”
She wasn’t really offended but this was their little dance. One, Ginny realized not for the first time in the last several minutes, she would get to do for the rest of her life. “Don’t make me ask Astoria to take you back,” she hallowly threatened.
He shook his head with amusement. The same way he did whenever she would make him sit and watch one of her ‘muggle teen dramas’ that he thought were ridiculous but paid attention to anyways. “Little too soon for jokes don’t you think?”
“Hey,” she countered, stepping back from him and offering him a hand to take, “at least I didn’t break your nose this time.”