♥ "The Last to Know" for natasha_oh ♥
Title:The Last to Know
Rating: NC-17/Explicit
Possible Spoilers/Warnings:Language
Summary: Moments in shagging that led to a relationship
A/N: Enjoyed it! Hope you will too!
The Last to Know
Though it was always, always, highly inappropriate, Ginny Weasley couldn’t help shagging Draco Malfoy within ten minutes of being left alone with him.
It was disgusting, this hold he had over her and the hold they had over each other. It wasn’t as if Ginny was a stranger to romance. She dated plenty. Draco did too, if the Daily Prophet was to be believed. But it never seemed to matter. No matter who their respective partners were, if Draco and Ginny were within breathing distance of each other, shagging was the ultimate conclusion.
“Why are we so fucked up, Weasley?” Draco groaned as he thrust his hips helplessly against hers. He was buried inside of her, his trousers around his knees and his fingers clenched on the bricks of the wall he had her pinned against. An innocent shopping trip in Diagon Alley had led to this.
Ginny wanted to answer him, she really did. But even if she hadn’t been speechless with pleasure, she wouldn’t have known what to say. Draco thrust one last time before everything erupted; the explosion inside of her rippled underneath her skin in mind-numbing waves. She managed a guttural moan before Draco clamped a hand over her mouth to silence her screams. She moved quickly to silence his harsh groan and they stood there in the darkened alley, thrusting helplessly against each other, their hands covering each other’s cries.
Spent, Draco slumped against her, his sweaty forehead coming to rest on her shoulder. Ginny stayed pinned against the wall under the weight of his body. Her own body felt boneless, the way it always did when she and Draco shagged. Finally, she lifted shaking hands to his hair, smoothing back the white-blond strands where they’d fallen out of his careful hairdo.
“You didn’t answer my question,” Draco murmured into her skin. She felt his lips press a soft kiss to the bare skin of her shoulder. He’d yanked the material of her shirt aside earlier as they’d scrambled to touch each other.
Ginny didn’t pretend she didn’t know what he was talking about. It was a question she often asked herself. If anyone ever knew…if her family ever found out…there would be no explanation she could give that would make sense.
“I don’t know,” she answered finally. “But damn, Draco-“ He lifted his head so she could see his smug grin. “The better question might be why is it always so good?”
He lifted a snarky eyebrow at her. “Do you really have to question that?”
She rolled her eyes at his blatant display of ego. “I meant that it shouldn’t good. Sex between us doesn’t even make sense.”
Draco nodded reluctantly. “I know.” He pulled away and bent at the waist to pull up his trousers while Ginny set about straightening her own clothes. “Do you want to stop?” He asked while fastening his belt.
Ginny looked up at him in surprise, the hair that had fallen out of her ponytail fell over her face and she impatiently pushed it out of the way. “Do you want to stop?”
He shrugged. Ginny thought there might have been something rehearsed to his nonchalance but beyond the shagging she didn’t really know him well enough to interpret his movements. Or the odd look on his face.
“It’s bloody good,” he commented. “I’d be a fool to want to stop.”
Ginny tucked her shirt back into her skirt and nodded her head in the direction of the shop they’d both just left. “What about her?”
Draco scoffed. “My mother wants me to marry her. Can you imagine? She simpers and tells me how perfect I am. It’s nauseating.”
Ginny chuckled and pulled out her wand to straighten her hair. “Well, you don’t ever have to worry about that with me. I think you’re a self-centered prick.”
“Brat.”
“Ponce.”
Draco looked offended. “Excuse me, I think I just proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that I am most definitely not a ponce.”
“So you did.” Ginny tucked her wand back into her pocket and took a deep breath of satisfaction. She always felt bloody marvelous after meeting with Draco. A shag with him put all the stars back into alignment.
It was only later that she got angry with herself.
“I’ll go first,” she decided. “I think Hermione was almost done when I made up that flimsy excuse about leaving my bag in the bookstore. She’s bound to come looking soon.”
Draco nodded. “Right. Fine. See you.”
“See you,” Ginny said demurely. She ducked out of the alley without looking back and forced herself to casually walk back to the robe shop where she’d left Hermione.
It wasn’t as if she planned these clandestine meetings. She didn’t think Draco did either. Their paths seemed to randomly cross once every few weeks and no matter how much Ginny told herself that she wouldn’t - she couldn’t stop the inevitable conclusion. All he had to do was look at her in a certain way and she was headed for someplace private, knowing he would follow.
The worst part was that he tried just as much as she to fight it. He didn’t want this damned attraction any more than she did. She could tell by the way his eyes looked when they first saw her; the way he tried so hard to stop the lust from showing, the way his mouth tightened just a bit more as he fought with himself. But - like she - he was helpless at the undeniable tug between them. Eventually, resignation would creep in and he would direct her to where he wanted her to go. Sometimes he motioned subtly with his head, sometimes he directed her with his eyes. Either way, she always tried to fight back.
She never won.
******
“Going somewhere, Ginger?”
Ginny’s heart stopped when the voice spoke quietly into her ear. She’d been afraid this would happen when her boss asked her to hand-deliver a message on this side of the Ministry building. She knew this was where Draco worked; just as she’d known that it’d been weeks since she had seen him and so the chances of her resisting him were slim to none.
A thin but well-toned arm slid around her waist and pulled her flush against a tall, lean body. Her stomach muscles jumped where Draco’s long fingers splayed wide in possession and she resisted the urge to rest the back of her head on his chest.
“Draco, stop,” she whispered, her eyes frantically searching for anyone who might be headed their direction. “I have to deliver this message for Warbutton.”
“So, deliver it,” he ordered in a low voice. “And then come right back here.”
“We can’t,” she said firmly. “We almost got caught the last time. Warbutton watched me suspiciously for weeks.”
Draco chuckled. His voice was low and throaty and the sound reverberated over her skin. “Oh, Weasley. Haven’t you figured it out, by now? That’s what makes it so fun.”
Ginny swallowed. Was that it? Was it the fear of being caught that made it so exciting? She bit her lip to keep from moaning out loud when Draco’s mouth met the side of her neck. She rather thought it was more than that. Even that sort of excitement would have worn off after a while. No, she was pretty sure it was Draco himself.
Draco chuckled again, a light note of mirth sounding in his voice. “Oh, really? You think I’m exciting?”
Ginny squeezed her eyes shut. “Did I say that out loud?”
“Yes,” Draco said, now obviously amused. “But if it’s any consolation, you excite me too.” He moved his hips against her backside while pressing her back against him. The effect was a rough grinding motion that had her seeing stars. If only they didn’t have these pesky clothes between them.
“I’m glad to know it,” Ginny managed. “Though I can’t seem to figure out why.”
Draco murmured something that might have been “Me either” and then Ginny was being wrenched backwards into a nearby closet. It was a very familiar-looking closet with a familiar-looking table abandoned in one corner.
“Draco,” she moaned, though helpless to resist as she felt herself being bent over the table. “This is exactly how we almost got caught last time.” She’d been gone so long that time that her boss, Mr. Warbutton, had come looking for her. When she’d exited the closet, understandably flustered, she’d been able to come up with a plausible story about wrong doors and being startled by a mouse but he’d still looked at her skeptically.
Draco slid the pencil skirt up over her thighs, his mouth working at her neck as he did so and groaning appreciatively when he felt the lacy underwear she’d thrown on at the last minute this morning.
“Shit, Weasley,” he breathed, lifting off of her for a moment. His hands roamed over her backside. “Why are you trying to kill me?”
“It was the only thing left clean,” she protested. “I had no idea I’d see you today!”
“Fate then,” he commented before hooking his fingers in the waistband and tugging the underwear down her legs. “Destiny.”
Fate. Destiny. Whatever. Ginny certainly felt as if something or someone else was controlling her life; she couldn’t believe she ever would have chosen to be locked in some clandestine affair with Draco Bleeding Malfoy.
But weren’t those her own hands reaching behind her to grab his belt buckle? And weren’t those her fingers yanking down his zipper? And didn’t she have control over her own legs that she was spreading while bending over the furniture in this closet? And that was certainly her breath she expelled from her own lungs as she felt Draco press inside her.
It didn’t really seem to matter anymore anyway. Ginny had surely loss control of her own actions. And at this particular moment, with Draco draped over her and demanding everything she had to give, she didn’t really care.
********
Ginny knew it was Hermione by the way the front door to her flat slammed shut. Only Hermione had such a determined door-slam. She slammed doors when she wanted to make a point; not because she was ruled by some plebian passion.
“Hello, Hermione!” She called out from the kitchen. Reaching into the open cabinet above her, she automatically grabbed another mug for the tea brewing on the stove.
“Ginny Weasley!” Hermione stamped into the room, a look of outrage fixed on her face. “What in the hell is going on with you and Draco Malfoy!”
The hand that had been reaching for the steaming tea pot froze, and Ginny could only stare numbly at her friend while the kettle shrieked next to her. Even after Hermione angrily snatched it off the stove and the whistle died down, Ginny still heard a shrieking in her ears. It was over. Her secret was out. Two years of perfectly good shagging had come to an end.
“How on earth-“ She finally managed to choke out on a gasping breath.
Hermione waved a hand at her impatiently and set about pouring tea for both of them. “It doesn’t matter how, the point is that you and Malfoy-“
“It does too matter!” Ginny shouted frantically. “How did you know? Does anyone else? My family-“
“Only me,” Hermione insisted, sitting at her kitchen table. “Honestly, you think I’d go spreading something like this around before talking to you?”
Ginny gave an audible sigh of relief. Hermione she could handle. Molly Weasley, not so much. “Thank, Merlin.” She sank into the nearest chair and put her head between her knees. She truly felt like she might faint. Numerous shags with Draco ran through her head like one of those Muggle picture shows her father was always talking about. A significant portion of her life the past two years was flashing before her eyes as if she was about to die and, surprisingly, that time she and Draco had drunkenly shagged in the bathroom at the Leaky Cauldron played a bigger part than she would have thought.
“Ginny,” Hermione said sternly, setting down her mug. “What. Is. Going. On.”
Ginny gave her a weak smile. “Um…well, that is, Draco and I have been-“
“I know what you’ve been doing!” Hermione interrupted her. “I figured that out this afternoon when I saw you two come out of that broom closet in the Ministry’s west wing! You didn’t see me because you were too busy attaching yourself at the mouth to that-that-that FERRET!”
Wow. She was really worked up. Hermione only stuttered when she was really, really angry.
Ginny stood up with a sigh. “Come into the living room. I’ll tell you everything.”
It took less time than she thought to relay the story. Mostly because there was really no explanation for what was going on. She explained how their paths seemed to cross so often at the Ministry and elsewhere and that one night, after a particularly rousing game of pick-up Quidditch in the park, they had both stayed behind to pack up the game balls. One minute they had both been struggling with the Quaffle and the next they had suddenly been unable to keep their hands off each other. They’d barely made it behind the closest bush that time. The next time, it had happened at a Ministry function out on a darkened patio. Ginny had been shocked at her own lack of decorum. And unfortunately the two encounters had only served to make the urgency between them worse. One day she woke up and realized she’d been secretly shagging Draco Malfoy for two years.
“I don’t think he likes it anymore than I do,” she said, shrugging. “But there it is. We simply can’t stop. And don’t think we haven’t tried.”
“But why the secrecy? Why not just date the man and be done with it?” Hermione asked reasonably.
Ginny gaped at her. “Date him? I don’t want to date him! I’m just shagging him! I mean, we aren’t even friends, really-“ She stopped at Hermione’s raised eyebrow. “Oh fine, maybe you could say we are ‘friends’ but only just. And I can’t believe I even have to tell you why it’s a secret. The Malfoys and the Weasleys have been at each other’s throats for years! Centuries! Can you imagine what my parents would say? What his parents would say? They’d probably slap on their Death Eater masks and kill me without thinking twice.”
“I can’t believe you’ve never told me this before,” Hermione muttered angrily to herself. She stood up and paced back and forth in the living room several times before pointing a finger at her menacingly. “Ginny! This explains everything!”
“Explains what?”
Hermione stopped her pacing long enough to glare at her. “This explains why you never last in relationships! All those dates -“she waved her arms wildly, “they never had a chance!”
“Why? Because of Draco Malfoy?”
“Yes! Don’t you see it?”
“See what?”
“Ginny,” Hermione said, now gently. “None of them had a chance; not as long as you’re in love with Draco Malfoy.”
“In love with Draco Malfoy?” Ginny repeated incredulously. “Why on earth would you think that?”
“Because I know you,” Hermione said plainly. “You wouldn’t be anybody’s ‘fuck buddy’ for two years. Not unless you truly had feelings for them. You’re not that kind of person.”
“I am so!” Ginny protested. “I…” she faltered at the pointed look Hermione gave her. “Fine. You’re right. I’m not that type.”
Hermione looked way too smug so Ginny said, “But I am NOT in love with him. That’s crazy. Just because I have feelings for him…shit.”
“What now?”
“Hermione,” Ginny said glumly. “I’ve just realised that I’ve feelings for Draco Malfoy. What else can I do now but never see him again and check myself into St. Mungo’s?”
“I don’t think things are quite that bad,” Hermione commented. “I’m sure even Draco Malfoy has some redeeming qualities.”
“He’s got a great hip thrust,” Ginny supplied helpfully. “And the things he can do with his fingers…oh my.” Her eyes glazed over momentarily.
Hermione coughed and Ginny snapped out of her daze. “Yes, well, sexual prowess aside, there must be something you see in him or you wouldn’t be interested in him.”
“Well,” Ginny said doubtfully. “He’s amusing, in a snarky sort of way. And…generous I guess. Always willing to…er…reciprocate if you know what I mean.”
“Moving on,” Hermione interjected.
“Yes, well, he…um…I suppose I like the fact that he doesn’t make promises he can’t keep. I mean, he’s never hidden anything about himself from me. Sort of a ‘what you see is what you get’ kind of guy.”
“Really?” Hermione frowned. “I remember him being sort of sneaky in school.”
“Oh well, yeah, I’m sure he was,” Ginny agreed. “He doesn’t seem to really care about that sort of thing now. He values honesty. Doesn’t like it when I’m evasive.”
“When have you ever had cause to be untruthful with Draco Malfoy?”
“Do you have to say his name like that?” Ginny asked impatiently. “Draco Malfoy - like it’s some sort of title? Can’t you just call him Draco?”
“Sorry. Go on.”
“I don’t know that I’ve ever actually lied to him,” Ginny explained slowly. “But there’ve been times when I wasn’t forthcoming about a boyfriend or something. He always gets mad about that.”
“Sounds jealous.”
“Maybe,” Ginny conceded. “Though he’s never given me any reason to believe he’s in it for anything more than sex. He dates loads of girls all the time.”
“Ginny, have you ever actually had a real conversation with the man?” Hermione sounded frustrated. “I mean, surely you know more about him than he likes honesty and he’s good in bed.”
“I’m sure if I think about it, I can come up with all kinds of things,” Ginny said thoughtfully. “I just need to think about this. It’s come as quite a shock, you know.”
“I can imagine,” Hermione said dryly. “It’s not every day you find out you’re in love with Draco Malfoy.”
“Not in love,” Ginny admonished. She stood up and gathered their empty tea things. “Just…I just have feelings for him. Beyond the shagging,” She clarified.
Hermione stood up too and walked over to the front door. “Well, you’ll let me know when you figure it all out, won’t you?”
“Thanks,” Ginny smiled gratefully. “You won’t tell Ron?”
“Please,” Hermione waved a hand dismissively. “As if I would be that stupid.”
Ginny grinned. “Right. Sorry.”
She said goodbye to Hermione and rather than tidying up the flat, grabbed a light jacket and decided to enjoy a walk in the autumn sunshine. She walked slowly towards a nearby park, tossing Hermione’s words and convictions around in her head. Could she be right? Was she in some sort of relationship with Draco and had never even known it?
*********
Whatever truths she had expected to discover about herself on her walk that evening, she’d never expected to actually to see the current object of her thoughts on his own private walk, his head down, his hands clasped behind his back as he strolled casually around the same park. He looked, Ginny decided, like a man who was deep in thought. He didn’t even notice her until he was nearly upon her and even then, his attention was momentarily distracted by some Muggle teenagers zipping by on some sort of flat board with wheels. She thought they were called skateboards but she couldn’t be sure. In any case, Draco was nearly knocked over. She almost laughed to see him off balance, his arms flailing as he attempted to maintain his equilibrium.
He didn’t fall. He had too much grace for that. Instead, Draco whirled around and managed to grab one of them by the back of his shirt. His anger was an almost palatable force and the berating he gave the teenager and his friends who had stopped to listen was impressive indeed. He let them all go with a harsh word of dismissal and the group fled, looking properly chastised.
He opened his mouth, presumably to shout something else, but then his eyes lit on Ginny watching him from across the sidewalk. His mouth shut with an audible snap.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she commented, the corners of her mouth twitching in amusement, “did I distract you from the torturing of innocents?”
“Innocents!” Draco scoffed. “Bloody menaces. Did you see the way they almost knocked me over?”
“I did.” She must have been unable to hide the smirk she was feeling because Draco looked at her admonishingly.
“Ginny Weasley. Are you laughing at me?”
She couldn’t help herself then and laughed out loud, remembering the way his arms had flailed wildly and the indignant look on his face.
He waited patiently while she got herself under control. When her giggles had died down, he stepped across the sidewalk and took her lightly by the elbow. “Feel better?”
Ginny nodded, and wiped a stray tear from her eye. “Thank you, I needed that.”
“You needed to laugh at me?” Draco tugged gently and pulled her with him. “Let’s walk.”
Ginny eyed him suspiciously. “Where are we going?”
Draco smirked at her. “So suspicious. No need to worry, I won’t tug you behind that rather large bush over there. Let’s just walk for awhile.”
Ginny relaxed into him and they walked in silence, her arm through his, for several moments.
“So,” he prompted, “bad day?”
Ginny nodded her head yes and then switched it to no. “Well, it started out rather well,” she said meaningfully. Draco’s eyes flared just a bit and he nodded.
“Indeed.”
“But then,” she bit her lip, “Hermione stopped by my flat.”
“I’m sorry. Granger would kill any good mood I was in as well.”
Ginny nudged him with her elbow. “That’s not what I mean. I meant the reason she stopped by was to tell me that she…um…well, she saw us this afternoon.”
Draco stopped short. “What?”
“She knows, Draco. She saw us this afternoon, leaving that closet.” Ginny flushed. “She saw me kiss you.”
Draco’s hand came up and he brushed her lips lightly with his fingers. “It was a pretty spectacular kiss.” His hand dropped to his side. “In fact, it was a pretty spectacular fu-“
“Draco!” Ginny admonished. She looked around. “People will hear you!”
He grinned at her. “Sorry.”
“Well, you don’t sound like it,” Ginny grumped. She crossed her arms over her chest as they resumed their walk. “What are we going to do?”
Draco shrugged. “What can we do? She isn’t going to tell people is she?”
“No. She promised she wouldn’t. But she-“
“What?” he prompted.
“Nothing.” Ginny wasn’t about to explain Hermione’s interpretation of her confused feelings for him. “She just…thought it was strange. Our…relationship.”
“It is strange,” he pointed out. “It’s certainly unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.”
“Me neither,” Ginny agreed. She stopped walking and gathered her nerve. “Draco, what exactly are we doing?”
He didn’t play coy and pretend he didn’t know what she was talking about. Ginny realized that she always appreciated that about Draco; he didn’t play games.
“I honestly don’t know,” he said frankly. “I know that even now, I can barely keep my hands off you. But I’ll be damned if I understand it.”
“Do you ever…wish anything was different?” Ginny kept her gaze on his face, watching as he struggled with his thoughts.
“I don’t know,” he said finally. “I won’t pretend that what is between us…well, it makes my life complicated. And obviously my parents would-“ he broke off.
Ginny nodded. “Mine too. Especially my brothers.”
Draco inhaled sharply and agreed.
“But,” Ginny hesitated, “it’s been two years, Draco. We’ve been doing this for two years.”
“Have we?” He looked startled. “Good Merlin. I didn’t realize.”
“How long do you think we can keep this up,” Ginny asked quietly. “Eventually, we are going to have to stop.”
“Stop.” Draco repeated the word as if it left a bad taste in his mouth. “I don’t want to.”
Ginny laughed then, because he sounded like a petulant child. Stepping closer, Draco slid his arms around her waist and gave her a kiss so sweet that it left her reeling. He pulled away and gave her a rather confused smile.
“If we stopped, do you think that would eventually go away?”
Ginny couldn’t give him an answer. But it was mostly because she was afraid of the answer.
Draco kissed her again, his mouth covering hers in a more demanding way this time. Her hands fisted in his shirt and she pressed herself closer into the shelter of his arms. When he finally pulled away, they were both breathless.
“Whatever it is, Weasley,” Draco panted. “It isn’t going away anytime soon.”
*******
It had been weeks since she’d seen Draco. Six weeks to be precise. It was the longest they had ever gone without running into each other. If Ginny was honest with herself, she’d admit that she missed him. And the shagging. Most definitely the shagging.
Looking around the Ministry ballroom, she was reminded of the same time last year. The ministry hosted a New Year’s Eve party every year. Last year, she and Draco had managed to avoid each other for the first hour or so, but the second hour had found them down the hallway behind a locked door, doing things to each other that made her blush to think about them even now.
She knew he was here. She’d seen him when he walked in, but Ginny had purposefully turned away hoping to maintain some sense of decorum at this year’s ball. She figured that if she could hold out for at least two hours, then she would have beaten last year’s record holdout.
Ginny wondered now at what point she’d accepted that any confrontation between her and Draco would end in shagging. Previously, she’d always tried to talk herself out of it. Now she realised that was just a waste of time and focused her efforts on holding out as long as possible. After all, Draco did things to her with just his eyes that most men couldn’t do with their hands. Where was the point in fighting that?
The band began playing after a 20-minute break and Ginny and Hermione were both at the bar getting drinks when she felt a tap on her shoulder. When she turned around, Draco was there. He extended his hand to her and calmly asked, “May I have this dance?”
To Ginny, the question was asked in very slow motion. The extension of his arm went unhurriedly and she watched in a daze as Draco’s mouth slowly formed the words. The question reverberated around her head until the echo disappeared in a rush and she came back to reality with a pop.
The fact that she didn’t gasp out loud in response to his question was to her credit. The fact that she stood and stared dumbly at him for nearly a whole minute was not. It took Hermione’s elbow to nudge her into action and even then Ginny only managed a weak, “Um, sure” before placing her hand in his and setting her drink back down on the bar.
Draco’s long, warm fingers closed over hers and tugged gently so she was forced to follow. Ginny chanced a look back at Hermione, who was gaping openly. She hoped fervently that Ron had not seen Draco ask her to dance.
Draco stopped in the middle of the dance floor and turned to place one hand casually on her waist. He lifted his other arm and Ginny numbly placed her hand in his.
“I surprised you.”
Ginny let him lead her in the first few steps of the dance before replying.
“Yes, very much. But then you meant to, didn’t you?”
She could barely see over his shoulder and instead stared at her hand in his so she wouldn’t have to meet his eyes. It was silly. But she felt like everyone in the room would be able to see the attraction she felt for him if she spent this whole dance staring into Draco Malfoy’s eyes.
“Of course,” he said smoothly.
She couldn’t see, but she knew he was smiling at her.
“I live to surprise you.”
“Well done,” she said wryly. He responded by whirling her around and leading her in a series of complicated steps she never would have been able to perform if he wasn’t such an excellent dance partner.
“You’re good at this,” she commented. His grip on her waist tightened just a bit and he tugged her a little closer.
“We move well together,” he acknowledged.
Ginny chuckled. They certainly did.
“How long has been, do you think. Since we…moved together?”
“Six weeks,” Ginny responded automatically. In a lower voice, she elaborated, “Six, long weeks.”
Draco was silent, though she couldn’t figure out why. And then she simply couldn’t stand it any more and she had to look. She lifted her eyes to his and they pierced her through until she felt as if she had no more secrets. His eyes were dark silver pools of liquid and though she wouldn’t swear to it, the pools of liquid seemed to be swirling.
“Too long,” he said suddenly. “I…yes, it was too long.”
Ginny nodded and they moved closer until their fronts were nearly touching. The energy hummed between them and Ginny wondered that the people around them weren’t openly staring at them.
“Is that why you asked me to dance,” she whispered. “Because you missed me?”
His grip tightened so much on her hand that her fingers squished together. “I was trying to stay away,” he answered in a low voice.
“Really?” Ginny felt breathless. “Why?” He had never really tried before.
Draco swirled her around the dance floor until the people around them were a blur. The tension between them sparked and sizzled until Ginny was dizzy with it.
“After our conversation in the park, I wondered…but well, once I saw you tonight… you are…you are a temptation beyond anything I have ever known,” Draco finally answered.
Ginny swallowed heavily and unconsciously pressed her whole self against him. Desire for him shuddered through her. Knowing that he wanted her, that he’d missed her…
“I don’t know how to deal with this either,” she admitted. “I just know that when you walk into the room, I can’t help myself.”
They danced in silence a few more minutes, content in the mutual declaration of attraction, until the band finished their song and quickly went into a slower song. Draco didn’t miss a beat, leading them smoothly through the transition. Ginny had never danced this way before. She felt like they were moving as one, fluid and graceful in a way she’d knew she wouldn’t be able to pull off if she hadn’t been dancing with Draco Malfoy. Soon she felt his lips skimming the bare skin of her shoulder. They moved up her neck and back down, leaving a thousand tingles behind.
“Draco,” she hissed, trying to keep the quivering out of her voice. “Someone is going to see.”
Abruptly, Draco stopped dancing, grabbed her hand and dragged her out of the ballroom. Ginny followed willingly, knowing they’d both reached their breaking point. She hoped he was going to find an empty office somewhere but instead he stopped just outside the entrance doors.
“Come home with me,” he demanded, whirling back around on her.
“What?” she gasped. They had never, ever intruded on each other’s lives in such a way.
Draco snaked an arm around her waist until she was pressed against him.
“Just once,” he said harshly, “I want you in a bed. My bed. Come home with me, Ginny.”
She was tempted. Oh so tempted. What would it be like to shag Draco Malfoy in an actual bed? Her head swam with the possibilities. Soft, yielding surfaces instead of cold harsh brick at her back? She could only say one thing.
“Of course.” Ginny didn’t stop to think about the implications. The fact that her family and friends might miss her presence at the ball barely even registered in her brain.
Draco grinned triumphantly and Apparated them to a place Ginny had only read about in wizarding home magazines. But he didn’t stop to let her gawk at her first glimpse of Malfoy Manor. Instead he marched them quickly up the stairs and down a twisting series of hallways until they reached a tall set of double doors. Pulling out his wand and muttering something under his breath, the doors swung open to reveal what Ginny could only assume was his bedroom.
She saw dark green and silver and a hugely massive bed before she was being pressed into the mattress by six feet of rapidly undressing male. Draco’s mouth fastened over hers and she groaned low in her throat as their lips moved against each other and their tongues tasted. It had been way too long since they’d kissed.
Though it had started fast, the urgency soon died down and Ginny found herself reveling in the attention Draco was lavishing upon her body. Previous shags had always been blurs of desire and release; now Ginny ran her hands over every inch of skin she’d never seen before.
It was weird, taking their time this way. Draco murmured things under his breath as he revealed new skin and discovered new ways to reduce her to a quivering mass of flesh. Though she couldn’t recognise it now, later she would realize his eagerness meant that he’d long desired to take his time.
Rolling around on his bed was highly preferable to shagging in darkened corners and Ginny wondered briefly if she could ever go back to the way things had been before. She knew she was entering dangerous territory with her thoughts but she simply couldn’t help herself. For this moment, Draco was hers.
Later, when he was finally moving inside of her, Draco’s eyes stayed open as they bored into hers. “Stay,” he whispered, his lips hovering over hers. “Stay with me tonight. Just once. Let’s pretend.”
Ginny didn’t have to ask him to elaborate. In the morning, the harsh reality of their situation would force them to go back to their lives. She nodded, breathless as he urged them towards completion. Her back arched and her eyes slid shut as he took her to the brink. And when the wave crashed them both over, she only knew one thing: She wanted to pretend too.
********
The sun had been up for only a few minutes when Draco joined her at his bedroom window. She’d woken up an hour ago, disoriented with her surroundings before realizing she was in the bedroom of the man she’d claimed was only a casual fling. How long, she wondered, would she continue to lie to herself? To him? To her family?
Draco didn’t put his arms around her, or nuzzle her neck or do any of the things normal lovers did. But when she peered over her shoulder at him, the look of confusion on his face was enough to confirm her suspicions that he didn’t know what to do with her any more than she knew what to do with him.
“I’ve never let a woman spend the night before,” he told her in a low voice. “Never.”
Ginny wondered if she should feel honored. Instead she only felt more confused. Even as she gathered her things to leave, Draco watched her - his brow furrowed and a frown on his lips. But he didn’t stop her or try to convince her to stay. He simply kissed her softly goodbye and led her back to the Apparation point downstairs. The last thing she saw on his face as she whirled away was a thoroughly confused Draco Malfoy.
*******
“I slept with Draco last night.”
Hermione paused, her fork midway to her mouth. “Is that new?”
“I mean, I slept with him all night. At his house.” Ginny took a sip of her tea. She didn’t really feel like eating after the way she’d left things with Draco that morning.
“What does it mean?”
Ginny shrugged. “Damned if I know. We’ve never done that before. Ever. We’ve never even been to each other’s houses until last night.”
Hermione took another bite of her salad and chewed thoughtfully. “What did Draco say about it?”
Ginny sniffed. “He’s as confused as I am. I’m afraid he wasn’t very gracious about it.”
“Did he kick you out?” Hermione asked incredulously. “That pig.”
“No, no, no,” Ginny waved her anger aside. “He just…it was awkward. Apparently he’s never let another girl spend the night before. I wanted to ask him what that meant but he just seemed so confused about it, that I didn’t have the heart.”
“Oh, Ginny.” Hermione set down her fork and dropped her head into her hands. “You two are a mess.”
“You think?”
“I mean that neither one of you can see what’s right in front of you.”
Ginny frowned. “What are you talking about?”
Hermione gave a low groan of frustration and pushed her plate aside so she could lean forward for emphasis. “You and Draco. Are. In. Love. You twit. He loves you and you love him and if you both don’t figure it out soon, I’m going to tell your entire family what’s going on.”
“What makes you think Draco loves me?” Ginny asked in astonishment. “I believe he cares for me, yes; and we get along, but love?”
“Listen to me,” Hermione pleaded. “Your brother and I wasted too many years denying how we felt about each other. We were the last ones to figure it out and we wasted so much time. Don’t let that happen to you. I saw the way he looked at you last night; and the way you looked at him. If that wasn’t love on his face then I’m not a witch.”
“Hermione, I-“ Ginny took a deep breath. “I don’t know what to say. What if I…what if I tell him how I feel and he laughs at me? I mean - this is Draco Malfoy we’re talking about here.”
“No,” Hermione shook her head. “This is not the same Draco Malfoy we knew in school. And I think you know that. You wouldn’t have been with him this whole time if you thought that. He won’t laugh. Trust me. If anything, he’s just as confused about his feelings as you are. But then who could blame him? Look at who his parents are: Mr. and Mrs. Deatheater.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Haven’t you heard? I’m the smartest witch. Ever.”
********
A flash of something to her left caught Ginny’s eye and she looked up to see Draco walking towards their booth. She tried not to appear startled and quickly glanced back down at her menu. He was escorting that simpering bint Astoria Greengrass to the booth directly behind Ron. When they were seated, Ginny chanced a look up and was staring directly into Draco’s eyes. The heat in them was unmistakable. A heartbeat passed between them and Ginny felt her blood surge before Draco focused back on his companion.
“Right, think I’ll get the chicken,” Ron announced. “And the potatoes. And maybe some of that fudge pie everyone talks about.”
“Was there ever any doubt?” Ginny murmured. She was staring back down at the menu but not really focused on anything. It was always this way when Draco was around. She could only concentrate on him. She took a deep breath and swore she could smell his expensive aftershave from her seat. Her body tingled and she cursed it.
Ron put down his menu and looked around the restaurant. He turned back to Ginny with a frown. “Bloody Malfoy is sitting behind us,” he said in a low voice. “Didn’t really think this was his kind of place.”
“And what kind of place do you think that would be, Ron?”
“I dunno. Something…fancier. And snooty, for sure. Exclusive.”
Ginny rolled her eyes and looked up at her brother. “Let it go, Ron. You’re not in Hogwarts anymore.”
Ron smiled at her sheepishly. “I know. He’s just always brought out the worse in me.”
Their waiter came over and both she and Ron placed their orders though Ginny was sure she wouldn’t be able to eat a thing with Draco sitting behind Ron and staring at her. His eyes slid over to her every few minutes and though she could feel them on her, she was doing her best not to stare back. It wouldn’t do for Ron to guess about her little obsession.
“I’m going to go to the loo,” Ron said after the waiter had left. “Be right back.”
Ginny barely saw him go. Draco had finally caught her eye again and they were locked in a silent battle of wills. She knew what he wanted her to do and damn if she didn’t want it too. But she couldn’t shut out the conversation she’d had with Hermione a few days ago. Since that night at Malfoy Manor, going with him now would mean something more than she was comfortable with feeling. This insanity had to end sometime. Hermione was right; it was keeping her from settling down.
Draco scowled a bit, as if he could read her thoughts and wasn’t happy with them. Ginny watched as Astoria reached out and snapped her fingers in front of his face. Draco looked back at her with thinly veiled contempt and said something sharply to her. Astoria hissed something back at him and his lips thinned in anger.
Ginny was dying to know what they were talking about. She slipped her wand out of her purse and dropped her napkin to the floor. As she bent over to get it, she said a quick spell at Draco and Astoria’s booth. It was a surveillance spell Harry had taught her years ago that allowed the castor to eavesdrop on conversation. She’d never really used it before and was unprepared when Astoria spoke and it sounded directly in her ear.
“I asked you a question, Draco Malfoy.” Astoria sounded cold and angry. “I want to know who she is.”
“I don’t have the slightest idea as to what you’re talking about,” Draco answered. Ginny heard him take a sip of his drink and set the glass back down. “Who is she?”
“That’s what I want to know!” Astoria was furious. “We’ve been dating off and on for over two years and in that time you’ve never even touched me. You’re cold and distant and you’ve a habit of disappearing whenever we go out. So I want to know; who is it that has you so captivated that you won’t play the slightest bit of attention to me!”
“I’m here with you now, aren’t I?” Draco pointed out. “And I’ve told you before that I don’t want to marry you, Astoria. Yet you keep coming back and asking for more than I’m willing to give. I don’t mind escorting you to things but I’ll be damned if I’m going to spend the rest of my life with someone who only wants to get her claws into my fortune and my name. There doesn’t have to be another woman for me to ignore you, Astoria.”
“I know that.” Astoria sounded calmer now. “But there is. I can tell. I’m not stupid, Draco. I’m vain, not dumb. You don’t sleep with any of the women you date; I know, because women talk to each other. And getting into your bed is more elusive than getting into your wallet. So either you’re seeing someone in secret or you prefer men. Which is it?”
“It’s not really any of your business. But just so you know, I prefer women.”
Ginny recognized that Draco sounded thoroughly pissed. She was irritated that Astoria, and other women like her, made no secret of the fact they were only after Draco for his money. It angered her they wouldn’t seek him for himself. Draco might be a right bastard but he was also funny and kind and ridiculously generous… Shite, now she was sounding like someone with a girlish crush.
It also shocked her to know that Draco hadn’t been sleeping with anyone else but her. What did that say about their relationship? She’d always thought she was his guilty secret; it’d never occurred to her that he was remaining celibate between their trysts. Of course, she had been too; but that was really more of a habit than anything else. Why bother to sleep with other men when it was so good with Draco?
A soft groan sounded and Ginny realized that it had come from her. She really was over her head in deep with Draco Malfoy. She flushed when he quirked an eyebrow at her before turning his attention back to Astoria.
“I’m glad to hear you’re not a ponce,” Astoria was saying dryly. “I really was getting worried.”
“Doesn’t change the fact that I don’t want to sleep with you,” Draco said.
“I know,” Astoria said. Ginny saw her lean forward and put a hand on Draco’s arm. “I know you don’t much like me; and that’s okay because I don’t much like you. Being seen with you is good for my reputation and that’s why I keep after you. But, Draco, if you’ve found someone who makes you happy; who makes you faithful for two years, why not marry her? What’s the big secret? Is she a muggle?”
Draco’s jaw worked while Astoria let out a peal of laughter. “Oh, wouldn’t that be funny! Draco Malfoy and a muggle!”
“There’s no muggle!” Draco snapped. “It’s none of your business what I do with my time, Astoria.” He stood up and tossed his napkin on the seat. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to use the restroom.” He turned towards Ginny and paused, giving her a pointed look before walking towards the back of the restaurant.
Ginny managed to remain in her seat for exactly 45 seconds. All she’d overheard echoed loudly in her head and she knew she had to find out. Was she the only woman in Draco’s life? Could he possibly…care for her?
She passed Ron on her way to the ladies room and hurriedly told him where she was going. He nodded and she quickened her pace. Suddenly she couldn’t wait to see Draco, to touch him, to smell him. Her stomach flipped over on itself and she gasped loudly when an arm shot out of a nearby closest and jerked her inside.
Draco slammed the door behind her and backed her against it, his mouth descending upon hers roughly. She only got out a slight whimper and then she was pushing back, her lips tight against his, her tongue inside his mouth seeking for its mate. Her fingers twined in his hair and pulled him even closer until every inch of their fronts were touching. Draco’s hands slid down her sides and cupped her buttocks, pressing hard into her flesh until she understood what he meant and she hopped up, wrapping her legs around his waist. Draco groaned then and thrust his hips against her until the delicious friction between them threatened her sanity.
Draco broke the kiss and rested his forehead against hers. “You overheard, didn’t you?”
Panting, Ginny nodded, unable to speak. Draco set her down and backed away. He ran his fingers through his hair in an agitated manner Ginny was unaccustomed to seeing from him. He paced a few steps in the small closest he’d locked them both into and then thrust his hands into his pockets and faced her.
“Well?”
Ginny swallowed and smoothed her skirt down. “Well,” she said. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.”
Draco nodded. “No. You shouldn’t have. And I accept your apology. But I’m more concerned with your thoughts on what Astoria said.”
Ginny fought not to show her surprise. She’d assumed he would want to ignore Astoria’s comments. It hadn’t occurred to her that he would want to talk about it with her.
“I’m tired of this you know,” Draco said abruptly. “This meeting in secret and pretending like we don’t know each other. Astoria was right. I’ve not slept with another woman in two years.”
“Because of me?” Ginny squeaked. She took a step back and Draco took a step forward.
“Yes, you annoying little brat,” Draco said heatedly. “Because of you. Because sex with you is so bloody unbelievable that it just feels pointless to be with anyone else.”
“Me-” Ginny squeaked, stopped, cleared her throat and tried again. “Me too.”
Draco looked at her skeptically.
“I’m serious,” she said. “I haven’t been with anyone since that time we ran into each other at that play in London. You know the one with the peacocks?”
Draco was brooding and silent as he stared at her.
“What?” She asked nervously.
“Well, I’m just thinking that if you’re not seeing anyone and I’m not seeing anyone and we are only seeing each other then that sort of means…well, that we’re…dating.”
Ginny couldn’t help it and she laughed.
Draco frowned at her. “Is it so awful?”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s just you sound so put out about it.”
“Well, I am,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. “I mean here we are in a bloody relationship and we didn’t even know it.”
Ginny laughed again. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know either until just now. Hermione tried to tell me, but I didn’t believe her.” She shook her head. “I owe her an apology. She knew my feelings before I did. I thought she was crazy.”
She felt herself relax and took a step towards Draco. “If it helps, I promise not to make you buy me things and to let you have plenty of time with your friends.”
Draco actually cracked a smile and took another step towards her. “Okay, then I promise to listen to you ramble about things I don’t really care about and not ignore you when you’re crying.”
He hesitated. “So, we’re really going to do this? Because, eventually, our families will have to know. My parents…your brothers…”
Ginny smiled, nodded and then Draco was kissing her again and she was wrapped up in his strong arms. His mouth worked slowly and sensually against hers; a far cry from the desperation from before. She found herself melting against him; their lips meeting and retreating only to come back together again.
“I don’t know how it happened, Weasley,” he mumbled into her lips. “But I’m absolutely crazy about you.”
*******
“C’mon, Draco. Don’t be a chicken.” Ginny teased. She tugged on his hand, practically dragging him down the sidewalk.
Draco felt like whining. He hadn’t had such an urge since his school days but since Ginny had said it was time to meet her family, he’d felt like throwing a fit.
“Can’t we just elope?” He asked hopefully, not for the first time. “I’ll meet them after. That way - when they kill me - you’ll be well provided for.”
Ginny rolled her eyes and continued tugging him towards the Burrow. Some of the old wards leftover from the war were still up and since Draco had never been to the house, they had to hike it in.
“You told them about me, right?” he fought to keep the anxiety out of his voice. “You’re not just springing me on them?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” his girlfriend said dismissively. “We’ve been dating for how long, now?”
“Depends on what you mean by ‘dating.’ If you include the two years of shagging then it’s been nearly three years.”
“Regardless, I’ve not exactly been keeping you a secret. They know we’re dating.”
Draco tugged on her hand to make her stop. “Do they know it’s serious?”
Ginny looked back at him. “Yes.”
“But you didn’t tell them we’re getting married?” He questioned.
His fiancé of exactly three days turned around and put her hands on her hips. Glaring at him, she said, “Draco Malfoy. If you want to marry me then you can face my family with me and tell them we are getting married. Or do you not think I’m worth it?”
Draco stared at her. At the way the sun setting behind her lit her hair on fire, at the way the cloche hat she was wearing emphasized her adorable pixie face and the way the heels she was wearing with her flared skirt and skirted jacket made her legs look impossibly long. She was wearing green trimmed in silver - his colors - mostly because she knew he liked it. She’d wormed her way into his life before he’d even realized it, until he couldn’t even pick out a damn tie without wondering what she thought of it. She was the only woman he had ever brought home to his parents and even though it hadn’t gone as well as he’d hoped, she had proved without a shadow of a doubt that she loved him by agreeing to sit at a table with Lucius Malfoy.
Oh yeah, she was definitely worth it.
“I love you.”
She smiled then. It was his favorite smile on her. The one that lit up her whole face. It was the same one she gave him every time he told her loved her. He never got tired of seeing it.
“I know.” She grinned at him. “Let’s find out how much.” She reached out and rang the doorbell at her childhood home.
“You know,” he murmured conversationally as he stepped up behind her. One hand slid onto her hip and he tugged her back against him. “We’ve never shagged here.”
ORIGINAL REQUEST:
Briefly describe what you'd like to receive in your fic: I like post Hogwarts fics. Ginny and Draco in their twenties, preferably. I’d like it full to the brim with sexual tension and banter.
The tone/mood of the fic: Fun and snarky.
An element/line of dialogue/object you would specifically like in your fic: “Oh, I’m sorry, did I distract you from the torturing ofinnocents?”
Preferred rating of the the fic you want: Anything
Canon or AU? Canon sans epilogue would be nice.
Deal Breakers (anything you don't want?): Angst/Friends first (I want
flirty stuff, no friend boxes! I mean, I don't mind them being *friendly* but just not best friends or anything...)
Rating: NC-17/Explicit
Possible Spoilers/Warnings:Language
Summary: Moments in shagging that led to a relationship
A/N: Enjoyed it! Hope you will too!
The Last to Know
Though it was always, always, highly inappropriate, Ginny Weasley couldn’t help shagging Draco Malfoy within ten minutes of being left alone with him.
It was disgusting, this hold he had over her and the hold they had over each other. It wasn’t as if Ginny was a stranger to romance. She dated plenty. Draco did too, if the Daily Prophet was to be believed. But it never seemed to matter. No matter who their respective partners were, if Draco and Ginny were within breathing distance of each other, shagging was the ultimate conclusion.
“Why are we so fucked up, Weasley?” Draco groaned as he thrust his hips helplessly against hers. He was buried inside of her, his trousers around his knees and his fingers clenched on the bricks of the wall he had her pinned against. An innocent shopping trip in Diagon Alley had led to this.
Ginny wanted to answer him, she really did. But even if she hadn’t been speechless with pleasure, she wouldn’t have known what to say. Draco thrust one last time before everything erupted; the explosion inside of her rippled underneath her skin in mind-numbing waves. She managed a guttural moan before Draco clamped a hand over her mouth to silence her screams. She moved quickly to silence his harsh groan and they stood there in the darkened alley, thrusting helplessly against each other, their hands covering each other’s cries.
Spent, Draco slumped against her, his sweaty forehead coming to rest on her shoulder. Ginny stayed pinned against the wall under the weight of his body. Her own body felt boneless, the way it always did when she and Draco shagged. Finally, she lifted shaking hands to his hair, smoothing back the white-blond strands where they’d fallen out of his careful hairdo.
“You didn’t answer my question,” Draco murmured into her skin. She felt his lips press a soft kiss to the bare skin of her shoulder. He’d yanked the material of her shirt aside earlier as they’d scrambled to touch each other.
Ginny didn’t pretend she didn’t know what he was talking about. It was a question she often asked herself. If anyone ever knew…if her family ever found out…there would be no explanation she could give that would make sense.
“I don’t know,” she answered finally. “But damn, Draco-“ He lifted his head so she could see his smug grin. “The better question might be why is it always so good?”
He lifted a snarky eyebrow at her. “Do you really have to question that?”
She rolled her eyes at his blatant display of ego. “I meant that it shouldn’t good. Sex between us doesn’t even make sense.”
Draco nodded reluctantly. “I know.” He pulled away and bent at the waist to pull up his trousers while Ginny set about straightening her own clothes. “Do you want to stop?” He asked while fastening his belt.
Ginny looked up at him in surprise, the hair that had fallen out of her ponytail fell over her face and she impatiently pushed it out of the way. “Do you want to stop?”
He shrugged. Ginny thought there might have been something rehearsed to his nonchalance but beyond the shagging she didn’t really know him well enough to interpret his movements. Or the odd look on his face.
“It’s bloody good,” he commented. “I’d be a fool to want to stop.”
Ginny tucked her shirt back into her skirt and nodded her head in the direction of the shop they’d both just left. “What about her?”
Draco scoffed. “My mother wants me to marry her. Can you imagine? She simpers and tells me how perfect I am. It’s nauseating.”
Ginny chuckled and pulled out her wand to straighten her hair. “Well, you don’t ever have to worry about that with me. I think you’re a self-centered prick.”
“Brat.”
“Ponce.”
Draco looked offended. “Excuse me, I think I just proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that I am most definitely not a ponce.”
“So you did.” Ginny tucked her wand back into her pocket and took a deep breath of satisfaction. She always felt bloody marvelous after meeting with Draco. A shag with him put all the stars back into alignment.
It was only later that she got angry with herself.
“I’ll go first,” she decided. “I think Hermione was almost done when I made up that flimsy excuse about leaving my bag in the bookstore. She’s bound to come looking soon.”
Draco nodded. “Right. Fine. See you.”
“See you,” Ginny said demurely. She ducked out of the alley without looking back and forced herself to casually walk back to the robe shop where she’d left Hermione.
It wasn’t as if she planned these clandestine meetings. She didn’t think Draco did either. Their paths seemed to randomly cross once every few weeks and no matter how much Ginny told herself that she wouldn’t - she couldn’t stop the inevitable conclusion. All he had to do was look at her in a certain way and she was headed for someplace private, knowing he would follow.
The worst part was that he tried just as much as she to fight it. He didn’t want this damned attraction any more than she did. She could tell by the way his eyes looked when they first saw her; the way he tried so hard to stop the lust from showing, the way his mouth tightened just a bit more as he fought with himself. But - like she - he was helpless at the undeniable tug between them. Eventually, resignation would creep in and he would direct her to where he wanted her to go. Sometimes he motioned subtly with his head, sometimes he directed her with his eyes. Either way, she always tried to fight back.
She never won.
******
“Going somewhere, Ginger?”
Ginny’s heart stopped when the voice spoke quietly into her ear. She’d been afraid this would happen when her boss asked her to hand-deliver a message on this side of the Ministry building. She knew this was where Draco worked; just as she’d known that it’d been weeks since she had seen him and so the chances of her resisting him were slim to none.
A thin but well-toned arm slid around her waist and pulled her flush against a tall, lean body. Her stomach muscles jumped where Draco’s long fingers splayed wide in possession and she resisted the urge to rest the back of her head on his chest.
“Draco, stop,” she whispered, her eyes frantically searching for anyone who might be headed their direction. “I have to deliver this message for Warbutton.”
“So, deliver it,” he ordered in a low voice. “And then come right back here.”
“We can’t,” she said firmly. “We almost got caught the last time. Warbutton watched me suspiciously for weeks.”
Draco chuckled. His voice was low and throaty and the sound reverberated over her skin. “Oh, Weasley. Haven’t you figured it out, by now? That’s what makes it so fun.”
Ginny swallowed. Was that it? Was it the fear of being caught that made it so exciting? She bit her lip to keep from moaning out loud when Draco’s mouth met the side of her neck. She rather thought it was more than that. Even that sort of excitement would have worn off after a while. No, she was pretty sure it was Draco himself.
Draco chuckled again, a light note of mirth sounding in his voice. “Oh, really? You think I’m exciting?”
Ginny squeezed her eyes shut. “Did I say that out loud?”
“Yes,” Draco said, now obviously amused. “But if it’s any consolation, you excite me too.” He moved his hips against her backside while pressing her back against him. The effect was a rough grinding motion that had her seeing stars. If only they didn’t have these pesky clothes between them.
“I’m glad to know it,” Ginny managed. “Though I can’t seem to figure out why.”
Draco murmured something that might have been “Me either” and then Ginny was being wrenched backwards into a nearby closet. It was a very familiar-looking closet with a familiar-looking table abandoned in one corner.
“Draco,” she moaned, though helpless to resist as she felt herself being bent over the table. “This is exactly how we almost got caught last time.” She’d been gone so long that time that her boss, Mr. Warbutton, had come looking for her. When she’d exited the closet, understandably flustered, she’d been able to come up with a plausible story about wrong doors and being startled by a mouse but he’d still looked at her skeptically.
Draco slid the pencil skirt up over her thighs, his mouth working at her neck as he did so and groaning appreciatively when he felt the lacy underwear she’d thrown on at the last minute this morning.
“Shit, Weasley,” he breathed, lifting off of her for a moment. His hands roamed over her backside. “Why are you trying to kill me?”
“It was the only thing left clean,” she protested. “I had no idea I’d see you today!”
“Fate then,” he commented before hooking his fingers in the waistband and tugging the underwear down her legs. “Destiny.”
Fate. Destiny. Whatever. Ginny certainly felt as if something or someone else was controlling her life; she couldn’t believe she ever would have chosen to be locked in some clandestine affair with Draco Bleeding Malfoy.
But weren’t those her own hands reaching behind her to grab his belt buckle? And weren’t those her fingers yanking down his zipper? And didn’t she have control over her own legs that she was spreading while bending over the furniture in this closet? And that was certainly her breath she expelled from her own lungs as she felt Draco press inside her.
It didn’t really seem to matter anymore anyway. Ginny had surely loss control of her own actions. And at this particular moment, with Draco draped over her and demanding everything she had to give, she didn’t really care.
********
Ginny knew it was Hermione by the way the front door to her flat slammed shut. Only Hermione had such a determined door-slam. She slammed doors when she wanted to make a point; not because she was ruled by some plebian passion.
“Hello, Hermione!” She called out from the kitchen. Reaching into the open cabinet above her, she automatically grabbed another mug for the tea brewing on the stove.
“Ginny Weasley!” Hermione stamped into the room, a look of outrage fixed on her face. “What in the hell is going on with you and Draco Malfoy!”
The hand that had been reaching for the steaming tea pot froze, and Ginny could only stare numbly at her friend while the kettle shrieked next to her. Even after Hermione angrily snatched it off the stove and the whistle died down, Ginny still heard a shrieking in her ears. It was over. Her secret was out. Two years of perfectly good shagging had come to an end.
“How on earth-“ She finally managed to choke out on a gasping breath.
Hermione waved a hand at her impatiently and set about pouring tea for both of them. “It doesn’t matter how, the point is that you and Malfoy-“
“It does too matter!” Ginny shouted frantically. “How did you know? Does anyone else? My family-“
“Only me,” Hermione insisted, sitting at her kitchen table. “Honestly, you think I’d go spreading something like this around before talking to you?”
Ginny gave an audible sigh of relief. Hermione she could handle. Molly Weasley, not so much. “Thank, Merlin.” She sank into the nearest chair and put her head between her knees. She truly felt like she might faint. Numerous shags with Draco ran through her head like one of those Muggle picture shows her father was always talking about. A significant portion of her life the past two years was flashing before her eyes as if she was about to die and, surprisingly, that time she and Draco had drunkenly shagged in the bathroom at the Leaky Cauldron played a bigger part than she would have thought.
“Ginny,” Hermione said sternly, setting down her mug. “What. Is. Going. On.”
Ginny gave her a weak smile. “Um…well, that is, Draco and I have been-“
“I know what you’ve been doing!” Hermione interrupted her. “I figured that out this afternoon when I saw you two come out of that broom closet in the Ministry’s west wing! You didn’t see me because you were too busy attaching yourself at the mouth to that-that-that FERRET!”
Wow. She was really worked up. Hermione only stuttered when she was really, really angry.
Ginny stood up with a sigh. “Come into the living room. I’ll tell you everything.”
It took less time than she thought to relay the story. Mostly because there was really no explanation for what was going on. She explained how their paths seemed to cross so often at the Ministry and elsewhere and that one night, after a particularly rousing game of pick-up Quidditch in the park, they had both stayed behind to pack up the game balls. One minute they had both been struggling with the Quaffle and the next they had suddenly been unable to keep their hands off each other. They’d barely made it behind the closest bush that time. The next time, it had happened at a Ministry function out on a darkened patio. Ginny had been shocked at her own lack of decorum. And unfortunately the two encounters had only served to make the urgency between them worse. One day she woke up and realized she’d been secretly shagging Draco Malfoy for two years.
“I don’t think he likes it anymore than I do,” she said, shrugging. “But there it is. We simply can’t stop. And don’t think we haven’t tried.”
“But why the secrecy? Why not just date the man and be done with it?” Hermione asked reasonably.
Ginny gaped at her. “Date him? I don’t want to date him! I’m just shagging him! I mean, we aren’t even friends, really-“ She stopped at Hermione’s raised eyebrow. “Oh fine, maybe you could say we are ‘friends’ but only just. And I can’t believe I even have to tell you why it’s a secret. The Malfoys and the Weasleys have been at each other’s throats for years! Centuries! Can you imagine what my parents would say? What his parents would say? They’d probably slap on their Death Eater masks and kill me without thinking twice.”
“I can’t believe you’ve never told me this before,” Hermione muttered angrily to herself. She stood up and paced back and forth in the living room several times before pointing a finger at her menacingly. “Ginny! This explains everything!”
“Explains what?”
Hermione stopped her pacing long enough to glare at her. “This explains why you never last in relationships! All those dates -“she waved her arms wildly, “they never had a chance!”
“Why? Because of Draco Malfoy?”
“Yes! Don’t you see it?”
“See what?”
“Ginny,” Hermione said, now gently. “None of them had a chance; not as long as you’re in love with Draco Malfoy.”
“In love with Draco Malfoy?” Ginny repeated incredulously. “Why on earth would you think that?”
“Because I know you,” Hermione said plainly. “You wouldn’t be anybody’s ‘fuck buddy’ for two years. Not unless you truly had feelings for them. You’re not that kind of person.”
“I am so!” Ginny protested. “I…” she faltered at the pointed look Hermione gave her. “Fine. You’re right. I’m not that type.”
Hermione looked way too smug so Ginny said, “But I am NOT in love with him. That’s crazy. Just because I have feelings for him…shit.”
“What now?”
“Hermione,” Ginny said glumly. “I’ve just realised that I’ve feelings for Draco Malfoy. What else can I do now but never see him again and check myself into St. Mungo’s?”
“I don’t think things are quite that bad,” Hermione commented. “I’m sure even Draco Malfoy has some redeeming qualities.”
“He’s got a great hip thrust,” Ginny supplied helpfully. “And the things he can do with his fingers…oh my.” Her eyes glazed over momentarily.
Hermione coughed and Ginny snapped out of her daze. “Yes, well, sexual prowess aside, there must be something you see in him or you wouldn’t be interested in him.”
“Well,” Ginny said doubtfully. “He’s amusing, in a snarky sort of way. And…generous I guess. Always willing to…er…reciprocate if you know what I mean.”
“Moving on,” Hermione interjected.
“Yes, well, he…um…I suppose I like the fact that he doesn’t make promises he can’t keep. I mean, he’s never hidden anything about himself from me. Sort of a ‘what you see is what you get’ kind of guy.”
“Really?” Hermione frowned. “I remember him being sort of sneaky in school.”
“Oh well, yeah, I’m sure he was,” Ginny agreed. “He doesn’t seem to really care about that sort of thing now. He values honesty. Doesn’t like it when I’m evasive.”
“When have you ever had cause to be untruthful with Draco Malfoy?”
“Do you have to say his name like that?” Ginny asked impatiently. “Draco Malfoy - like it’s some sort of title? Can’t you just call him Draco?”
“Sorry. Go on.”
“I don’t know that I’ve ever actually lied to him,” Ginny explained slowly. “But there’ve been times when I wasn’t forthcoming about a boyfriend or something. He always gets mad about that.”
“Sounds jealous.”
“Maybe,” Ginny conceded. “Though he’s never given me any reason to believe he’s in it for anything more than sex. He dates loads of girls all the time.”
“Ginny, have you ever actually had a real conversation with the man?” Hermione sounded frustrated. “I mean, surely you know more about him than he likes honesty and he’s good in bed.”
“I’m sure if I think about it, I can come up with all kinds of things,” Ginny said thoughtfully. “I just need to think about this. It’s come as quite a shock, you know.”
“I can imagine,” Hermione said dryly. “It’s not every day you find out you’re in love with Draco Malfoy.”
“Not in love,” Ginny admonished. She stood up and gathered their empty tea things. “Just…I just have feelings for him. Beyond the shagging,” She clarified.
Hermione stood up too and walked over to the front door. “Well, you’ll let me know when you figure it all out, won’t you?”
“Thanks,” Ginny smiled gratefully. “You won’t tell Ron?”
“Please,” Hermione waved a hand dismissively. “As if I would be that stupid.”
Ginny grinned. “Right. Sorry.”
She said goodbye to Hermione and rather than tidying up the flat, grabbed a light jacket and decided to enjoy a walk in the autumn sunshine. She walked slowly towards a nearby park, tossing Hermione’s words and convictions around in her head. Could she be right? Was she in some sort of relationship with Draco and had never even known it?
*********
Whatever truths she had expected to discover about herself on her walk that evening, she’d never expected to actually to see the current object of her thoughts on his own private walk, his head down, his hands clasped behind his back as he strolled casually around the same park. He looked, Ginny decided, like a man who was deep in thought. He didn’t even notice her until he was nearly upon her and even then, his attention was momentarily distracted by some Muggle teenagers zipping by on some sort of flat board with wheels. She thought they were called skateboards but she couldn’t be sure. In any case, Draco was nearly knocked over. She almost laughed to see him off balance, his arms flailing as he attempted to maintain his equilibrium.
He didn’t fall. He had too much grace for that. Instead, Draco whirled around and managed to grab one of them by the back of his shirt. His anger was an almost palatable force and the berating he gave the teenager and his friends who had stopped to listen was impressive indeed. He let them all go with a harsh word of dismissal and the group fled, looking properly chastised.
He opened his mouth, presumably to shout something else, but then his eyes lit on Ginny watching him from across the sidewalk. His mouth shut with an audible snap.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she commented, the corners of her mouth twitching in amusement, “did I distract you from the torturing of innocents?”
“Innocents!” Draco scoffed. “Bloody menaces. Did you see the way they almost knocked me over?”
“I did.” She must have been unable to hide the smirk she was feeling because Draco looked at her admonishingly.
“Ginny Weasley. Are you laughing at me?”
She couldn’t help herself then and laughed out loud, remembering the way his arms had flailed wildly and the indignant look on his face.
He waited patiently while she got herself under control. When her giggles had died down, he stepped across the sidewalk and took her lightly by the elbow. “Feel better?”
Ginny nodded, and wiped a stray tear from her eye. “Thank you, I needed that.”
“You needed to laugh at me?” Draco tugged gently and pulled her with him. “Let’s walk.”
Ginny eyed him suspiciously. “Where are we going?”
Draco smirked at her. “So suspicious. No need to worry, I won’t tug you behind that rather large bush over there. Let’s just walk for awhile.”
Ginny relaxed into him and they walked in silence, her arm through his, for several moments.
“So,” he prompted, “bad day?”
Ginny nodded her head yes and then switched it to no. “Well, it started out rather well,” she said meaningfully. Draco’s eyes flared just a bit and he nodded.
“Indeed.”
“But then,” she bit her lip, “Hermione stopped by my flat.”
“I’m sorry. Granger would kill any good mood I was in as well.”
Ginny nudged him with her elbow. “That’s not what I mean. I meant the reason she stopped by was to tell me that she…um…well, she saw us this afternoon.”
Draco stopped short. “What?”
“She knows, Draco. She saw us this afternoon, leaving that closet.” Ginny flushed. “She saw me kiss you.”
Draco’s hand came up and he brushed her lips lightly with his fingers. “It was a pretty spectacular kiss.” His hand dropped to his side. “In fact, it was a pretty spectacular fu-“
“Draco!” Ginny admonished. She looked around. “People will hear you!”
He grinned at her. “Sorry.”
“Well, you don’t sound like it,” Ginny grumped. She crossed her arms over her chest as they resumed their walk. “What are we going to do?”
Draco shrugged. “What can we do? She isn’t going to tell people is she?”
“No. She promised she wouldn’t. But she-“
“What?” he prompted.
“Nothing.” Ginny wasn’t about to explain Hermione’s interpretation of her confused feelings for him. “She just…thought it was strange. Our…relationship.”
“It is strange,” he pointed out. “It’s certainly unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.”
“Me neither,” Ginny agreed. She stopped walking and gathered her nerve. “Draco, what exactly are we doing?”
He didn’t play coy and pretend he didn’t know what she was talking about. Ginny realized that she always appreciated that about Draco; he didn’t play games.
“I honestly don’t know,” he said frankly. “I know that even now, I can barely keep my hands off you. But I’ll be damned if I understand it.”
“Do you ever…wish anything was different?” Ginny kept her gaze on his face, watching as he struggled with his thoughts.
“I don’t know,” he said finally. “I won’t pretend that what is between us…well, it makes my life complicated. And obviously my parents would-“ he broke off.
Ginny nodded. “Mine too. Especially my brothers.”
Draco inhaled sharply and agreed.
“But,” Ginny hesitated, “it’s been two years, Draco. We’ve been doing this for two years.”
“Have we?” He looked startled. “Good Merlin. I didn’t realize.”
“How long do you think we can keep this up,” Ginny asked quietly. “Eventually, we are going to have to stop.”
“Stop.” Draco repeated the word as if it left a bad taste in his mouth. “I don’t want to.”
Ginny laughed then, because he sounded like a petulant child. Stepping closer, Draco slid his arms around her waist and gave her a kiss so sweet that it left her reeling. He pulled away and gave her a rather confused smile.
“If we stopped, do you think that would eventually go away?”
Ginny couldn’t give him an answer. But it was mostly because she was afraid of the answer.
Draco kissed her again, his mouth covering hers in a more demanding way this time. Her hands fisted in his shirt and she pressed herself closer into the shelter of his arms. When he finally pulled away, they were both breathless.
“Whatever it is, Weasley,” Draco panted. “It isn’t going away anytime soon.”
*******
It had been weeks since she’d seen Draco. Six weeks to be precise. It was the longest they had ever gone without running into each other. If Ginny was honest with herself, she’d admit that she missed him. And the shagging. Most definitely the shagging.
Looking around the Ministry ballroom, she was reminded of the same time last year. The ministry hosted a New Year’s Eve party every year. Last year, she and Draco had managed to avoid each other for the first hour or so, but the second hour had found them down the hallway behind a locked door, doing things to each other that made her blush to think about them even now.
She knew he was here. She’d seen him when he walked in, but Ginny had purposefully turned away hoping to maintain some sense of decorum at this year’s ball. She figured that if she could hold out for at least two hours, then she would have beaten last year’s record holdout.
Ginny wondered now at what point she’d accepted that any confrontation between her and Draco would end in shagging. Previously, she’d always tried to talk herself out of it. Now she realised that was just a waste of time and focused her efforts on holding out as long as possible. After all, Draco did things to her with just his eyes that most men couldn’t do with their hands. Where was the point in fighting that?
The band began playing after a 20-minute break and Ginny and Hermione were both at the bar getting drinks when she felt a tap on her shoulder. When she turned around, Draco was there. He extended his hand to her and calmly asked, “May I have this dance?”
To Ginny, the question was asked in very slow motion. The extension of his arm went unhurriedly and she watched in a daze as Draco’s mouth slowly formed the words. The question reverberated around her head until the echo disappeared in a rush and she came back to reality with a pop.
The fact that she didn’t gasp out loud in response to his question was to her credit. The fact that she stood and stared dumbly at him for nearly a whole minute was not. It took Hermione’s elbow to nudge her into action and even then Ginny only managed a weak, “Um, sure” before placing her hand in his and setting her drink back down on the bar.
Draco’s long, warm fingers closed over hers and tugged gently so she was forced to follow. Ginny chanced a look back at Hermione, who was gaping openly. She hoped fervently that Ron had not seen Draco ask her to dance.
Draco stopped in the middle of the dance floor and turned to place one hand casually on her waist. He lifted his other arm and Ginny numbly placed her hand in his.
“I surprised you.”
Ginny let him lead her in the first few steps of the dance before replying.
“Yes, very much. But then you meant to, didn’t you?”
She could barely see over his shoulder and instead stared at her hand in his so she wouldn’t have to meet his eyes. It was silly. But she felt like everyone in the room would be able to see the attraction she felt for him if she spent this whole dance staring into Draco Malfoy’s eyes.
“Of course,” he said smoothly.
She couldn’t see, but she knew he was smiling at her.
“I live to surprise you.”
“Well done,” she said wryly. He responded by whirling her around and leading her in a series of complicated steps she never would have been able to perform if he wasn’t such an excellent dance partner.
“You’re good at this,” she commented. His grip on her waist tightened just a bit and he tugged her a little closer.
“We move well together,” he acknowledged.
Ginny chuckled. They certainly did.
“How long has been, do you think. Since we…moved together?”
“Six weeks,” Ginny responded automatically. In a lower voice, she elaborated, “Six, long weeks.”
Draco was silent, though she couldn’t figure out why. And then she simply couldn’t stand it any more and she had to look. She lifted her eyes to his and they pierced her through until she felt as if she had no more secrets. His eyes were dark silver pools of liquid and though she wouldn’t swear to it, the pools of liquid seemed to be swirling.
“Too long,” he said suddenly. “I…yes, it was too long.”
Ginny nodded and they moved closer until their fronts were nearly touching. The energy hummed between them and Ginny wondered that the people around them weren’t openly staring at them.
“Is that why you asked me to dance,” she whispered. “Because you missed me?”
His grip tightened so much on her hand that her fingers squished together. “I was trying to stay away,” he answered in a low voice.
“Really?” Ginny felt breathless. “Why?” He had never really tried before.
Draco swirled her around the dance floor until the people around them were a blur. The tension between them sparked and sizzled until Ginny was dizzy with it.
“After our conversation in the park, I wondered…but well, once I saw you tonight… you are…you are a temptation beyond anything I have ever known,” Draco finally answered.
Ginny swallowed heavily and unconsciously pressed her whole self against him. Desire for him shuddered through her. Knowing that he wanted her, that he’d missed her…
“I don’t know how to deal with this either,” she admitted. “I just know that when you walk into the room, I can’t help myself.”
They danced in silence a few more minutes, content in the mutual declaration of attraction, until the band finished their song and quickly went into a slower song. Draco didn’t miss a beat, leading them smoothly through the transition. Ginny had never danced this way before. She felt like they were moving as one, fluid and graceful in a way she’d knew she wouldn’t be able to pull off if she hadn’t been dancing with Draco Malfoy. Soon she felt his lips skimming the bare skin of her shoulder. They moved up her neck and back down, leaving a thousand tingles behind.
“Draco,” she hissed, trying to keep the quivering out of her voice. “Someone is going to see.”
Abruptly, Draco stopped dancing, grabbed her hand and dragged her out of the ballroom. Ginny followed willingly, knowing they’d both reached their breaking point. She hoped he was going to find an empty office somewhere but instead he stopped just outside the entrance doors.
“Come home with me,” he demanded, whirling back around on her.
“What?” she gasped. They had never, ever intruded on each other’s lives in such a way.
Draco snaked an arm around her waist until she was pressed against him.
“Just once,” he said harshly, “I want you in a bed. My bed. Come home with me, Ginny.”
She was tempted. Oh so tempted. What would it be like to shag Draco Malfoy in an actual bed? Her head swam with the possibilities. Soft, yielding surfaces instead of cold harsh brick at her back? She could only say one thing.
“Of course.” Ginny didn’t stop to think about the implications. The fact that her family and friends might miss her presence at the ball barely even registered in her brain.
Draco grinned triumphantly and Apparated them to a place Ginny had only read about in wizarding home magazines. But he didn’t stop to let her gawk at her first glimpse of Malfoy Manor. Instead he marched them quickly up the stairs and down a twisting series of hallways until they reached a tall set of double doors. Pulling out his wand and muttering something under his breath, the doors swung open to reveal what Ginny could only assume was his bedroom.
She saw dark green and silver and a hugely massive bed before she was being pressed into the mattress by six feet of rapidly undressing male. Draco’s mouth fastened over hers and she groaned low in her throat as their lips moved against each other and their tongues tasted. It had been way too long since they’d kissed.
Though it had started fast, the urgency soon died down and Ginny found herself reveling in the attention Draco was lavishing upon her body. Previous shags had always been blurs of desire and release; now Ginny ran her hands over every inch of skin she’d never seen before.
It was weird, taking their time this way. Draco murmured things under his breath as he revealed new skin and discovered new ways to reduce her to a quivering mass of flesh. Though she couldn’t recognise it now, later she would realize his eagerness meant that he’d long desired to take his time.
Rolling around on his bed was highly preferable to shagging in darkened corners and Ginny wondered briefly if she could ever go back to the way things had been before. She knew she was entering dangerous territory with her thoughts but she simply couldn’t help herself. For this moment, Draco was hers.
Later, when he was finally moving inside of her, Draco’s eyes stayed open as they bored into hers. “Stay,” he whispered, his lips hovering over hers. “Stay with me tonight. Just once. Let’s pretend.”
Ginny didn’t have to ask him to elaborate. In the morning, the harsh reality of their situation would force them to go back to their lives. She nodded, breathless as he urged them towards completion. Her back arched and her eyes slid shut as he took her to the brink. And when the wave crashed them both over, she only knew one thing: She wanted to pretend too.
********
The sun had been up for only a few minutes when Draco joined her at his bedroom window. She’d woken up an hour ago, disoriented with her surroundings before realizing she was in the bedroom of the man she’d claimed was only a casual fling. How long, she wondered, would she continue to lie to herself? To him? To her family?
Draco didn’t put his arms around her, or nuzzle her neck or do any of the things normal lovers did. But when she peered over her shoulder at him, the look of confusion on his face was enough to confirm her suspicions that he didn’t know what to do with her any more than she knew what to do with him.
“I’ve never let a woman spend the night before,” he told her in a low voice. “Never.”
Ginny wondered if she should feel honored. Instead she only felt more confused. Even as she gathered her things to leave, Draco watched her - his brow furrowed and a frown on his lips. But he didn’t stop her or try to convince her to stay. He simply kissed her softly goodbye and led her back to the Apparation point downstairs. The last thing she saw on his face as she whirled away was a thoroughly confused Draco Malfoy.
*******
“I slept with Draco last night.”
Hermione paused, her fork midway to her mouth. “Is that new?”
“I mean, I slept with him all night. At his house.” Ginny took a sip of her tea. She didn’t really feel like eating after the way she’d left things with Draco that morning.
“What does it mean?”
Ginny shrugged. “Damned if I know. We’ve never done that before. Ever. We’ve never even been to each other’s houses until last night.”
Hermione took another bite of her salad and chewed thoughtfully. “What did Draco say about it?”
Ginny sniffed. “He’s as confused as I am. I’m afraid he wasn’t very gracious about it.”
“Did he kick you out?” Hermione asked incredulously. “That pig.”
“No, no, no,” Ginny waved her anger aside. “He just…it was awkward. Apparently he’s never let another girl spend the night before. I wanted to ask him what that meant but he just seemed so confused about it, that I didn’t have the heart.”
“Oh, Ginny.” Hermione set down her fork and dropped her head into her hands. “You two are a mess.”
“You think?”
“I mean that neither one of you can see what’s right in front of you.”
Ginny frowned. “What are you talking about?”
Hermione gave a low groan of frustration and pushed her plate aside so she could lean forward for emphasis. “You and Draco. Are. In. Love. You twit. He loves you and you love him and if you both don’t figure it out soon, I’m going to tell your entire family what’s going on.”
“What makes you think Draco loves me?” Ginny asked in astonishment. “I believe he cares for me, yes; and we get along, but love?”
“Listen to me,” Hermione pleaded. “Your brother and I wasted too many years denying how we felt about each other. We were the last ones to figure it out and we wasted so much time. Don’t let that happen to you. I saw the way he looked at you last night; and the way you looked at him. If that wasn’t love on his face then I’m not a witch.”
“Hermione, I-“ Ginny took a deep breath. “I don’t know what to say. What if I…what if I tell him how I feel and he laughs at me? I mean - this is Draco Malfoy we’re talking about here.”
“No,” Hermione shook her head. “This is not the same Draco Malfoy we knew in school. And I think you know that. You wouldn’t have been with him this whole time if you thought that. He won’t laugh. Trust me. If anything, he’s just as confused about his feelings as you are. But then who could blame him? Look at who his parents are: Mr. and Mrs. Deatheater.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Haven’t you heard? I’m the smartest witch. Ever.”
********
A flash of something to her left caught Ginny’s eye and she looked up to see Draco walking towards their booth. She tried not to appear startled and quickly glanced back down at her menu. He was escorting that simpering bint Astoria Greengrass to the booth directly behind Ron. When they were seated, Ginny chanced a look up and was staring directly into Draco’s eyes. The heat in them was unmistakable. A heartbeat passed between them and Ginny felt her blood surge before Draco focused back on his companion.
“Right, think I’ll get the chicken,” Ron announced. “And the potatoes. And maybe some of that fudge pie everyone talks about.”
“Was there ever any doubt?” Ginny murmured. She was staring back down at the menu but not really focused on anything. It was always this way when Draco was around. She could only concentrate on him. She took a deep breath and swore she could smell his expensive aftershave from her seat. Her body tingled and she cursed it.
Ron put down his menu and looked around the restaurant. He turned back to Ginny with a frown. “Bloody Malfoy is sitting behind us,” he said in a low voice. “Didn’t really think this was his kind of place.”
“And what kind of place do you think that would be, Ron?”
“I dunno. Something…fancier. And snooty, for sure. Exclusive.”
Ginny rolled her eyes and looked up at her brother. “Let it go, Ron. You’re not in Hogwarts anymore.”
Ron smiled at her sheepishly. “I know. He’s just always brought out the worse in me.”
Their waiter came over and both she and Ron placed their orders though Ginny was sure she wouldn’t be able to eat a thing with Draco sitting behind Ron and staring at her. His eyes slid over to her every few minutes and though she could feel them on her, she was doing her best not to stare back. It wouldn’t do for Ron to guess about her little obsession.
“I’m going to go to the loo,” Ron said after the waiter had left. “Be right back.”
Ginny barely saw him go. Draco had finally caught her eye again and they were locked in a silent battle of wills. She knew what he wanted her to do and damn if she didn’t want it too. But she couldn’t shut out the conversation she’d had with Hermione a few days ago. Since that night at Malfoy Manor, going with him now would mean something more than she was comfortable with feeling. This insanity had to end sometime. Hermione was right; it was keeping her from settling down.
Draco scowled a bit, as if he could read her thoughts and wasn’t happy with them. Ginny watched as Astoria reached out and snapped her fingers in front of his face. Draco looked back at her with thinly veiled contempt and said something sharply to her. Astoria hissed something back at him and his lips thinned in anger.
Ginny was dying to know what they were talking about. She slipped her wand out of her purse and dropped her napkin to the floor. As she bent over to get it, she said a quick spell at Draco and Astoria’s booth. It was a surveillance spell Harry had taught her years ago that allowed the castor to eavesdrop on conversation. She’d never really used it before and was unprepared when Astoria spoke and it sounded directly in her ear.
“I asked you a question, Draco Malfoy.” Astoria sounded cold and angry. “I want to know who she is.”
“I don’t have the slightest idea as to what you’re talking about,” Draco answered. Ginny heard him take a sip of his drink and set the glass back down. “Who is she?”
“That’s what I want to know!” Astoria was furious. “We’ve been dating off and on for over two years and in that time you’ve never even touched me. You’re cold and distant and you’ve a habit of disappearing whenever we go out. So I want to know; who is it that has you so captivated that you won’t play the slightest bit of attention to me!”
“I’m here with you now, aren’t I?” Draco pointed out. “And I’ve told you before that I don’t want to marry you, Astoria. Yet you keep coming back and asking for more than I’m willing to give. I don’t mind escorting you to things but I’ll be damned if I’m going to spend the rest of my life with someone who only wants to get her claws into my fortune and my name. There doesn’t have to be another woman for me to ignore you, Astoria.”
“I know that.” Astoria sounded calmer now. “But there is. I can tell. I’m not stupid, Draco. I’m vain, not dumb. You don’t sleep with any of the women you date; I know, because women talk to each other. And getting into your bed is more elusive than getting into your wallet. So either you’re seeing someone in secret or you prefer men. Which is it?”
“It’s not really any of your business. But just so you know, I prefer women.”
Ginny recognized that Draco sounded thoroughly pissed. She was irritated that Astoria, and other women like her, made no secret of the fact they were only after Draco for his money. It angered her they wouldn’t seek him for himself. Draco might be a right bastard but he was also funny and kind and ridiculously generous… Shite, now she was sounding like someone with a girlish crush.
It also shocked her to know that Draco hadn’t been sleeping with anyone else but her. What did that say about their relationship? She’d always thought she was his guilty secret; it’d never occurred to her that he was remaining celibate between their trysts. Of course, she had been too; but that was really more of a habit than anything else. Why bother to sleep with other men when it was so good with Draco?
A soft groan sounded and Ginny realized that it had come from her. She really was over her head in deep with Draco Malfoy. She flushed when he quirked an eyebrow at her before turning his attention back to Astoria.
“I’m glad to hear you’re not a ponce,” Astoria was saying dryly. “I really was getting worried.”
“Doesn’t change the fact that I don’t want to sleep with you,” Draco said.
“I know,” Astoria said. Ginny saw her lean forward and put a hand on Draco’s arm. “I know you don’t much like me; and that’s okay because I don’t much like you. Being seen with you is good for my reputation and that’s why I keep after you. But, Draco, if you’ve found someone who makes you happy; who makes you faithful for two years, why not marry her? What’s the big secret? Is she a muggle?”
Draco’s jaw worked while Astoria let out a peal of laughter. “Oh, wouldn’t that be funny! Draco Malfoy and a muggle!”
“There’s no muggle!” Draco snapped. “It’s none of your business what I do with my time, Astoria.” He stood up and tossed his napkin on the seat. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to use the restroom.” He turned towards Ginny and paused, giving her a pointed look before walking towards the back of the restaurant.
Ginny managed to remain in her seat for exactly 45 seconds. All she’d overheard echoed loudly in her head and she knew she had to find out. Was she the only woman in Draco’s life? Could he possibly…care for her?
She passed Ron on her way to the ladies room and hurriedly told him where she was going. He nodded and she quickened her pace. Suddenly she couldn’t wait to see Draco, to touch him, to smell him. Her stomach flipped over on itself and she gasped loudly when an arm shot out of a nearby closest and jerked her inside.
Draco slammed the door behind her and backed her against it, his mouth descending upon hers roughly. She only got out a slight whimper and then she was pushing back, her lips tight against his, her tongue inside his mouth seeking for its mate. Her fingers twined in his hair and pulled him even closer until every inch of their fronts were touching. Draco’s hands slid down her sides and cupped her buttocks, pressing hard into her flesh until she understood what he meant and she hopped up, wrapping her legs around his waist. Draco groaned then and thrust his hips against her until the delicious friction between them threatened her sanity.
Draco broke the kiss and rested his forehead against hers. “You overheard, didn’t you?”
Panting, Ginny nodded, unable to speak. Draco set her down and backed away. He ran his fingers through his hair in an agitated manner Ginny was unaccustomed to seeing from him. He paced a few steps in the small closest he’d locked them both into and then thrust his hands into his pockets and faced her.
“Well?”
Ginny swallowed and smoothed her skirt down. “Well,” she said. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.”
Draco nodded. “No. You shouldn’t have. And I accept your apology. But I’m more concerned with your thoughts on what Astoria said.”
Ginny fought not to show her surprise. She’d assumed he would want to ignore Astoria’s comments. It hadn’t occurred to her that he would want to talk about it with her.
“I’m tired of this you know,” Draco said abruptly. “This meeting in secret and pretending like we don’t know each other. Astoria was right. I’ve not slept with another woman in two years.”
“Because of me?” Ginny squeaked. She took a step back and Draco took a step forward.
“Yes, you annoying little brat,” Draco said heatedly. “Because of you. Because sex with you is so bloody unbelievable that it just feels pointless to be with anyone else.”
“Me-” Ginny squeaked, stopped, cleared her throat and tried again. “Me too.”
Draco looked at her skeptically.
“I’m serious,” she said. “I haven’t been with anyone since that time we ran into each other at that play in London. You know the one with the peacocks?”
Draco was brooding and silent as he stared at her.
“What?” She asked nervously.
“Well, I’m just thinking that if you’re not seeing anyone and I’m not seeing anyone and we are only seeing each other then that sort of means…well, that we’re…dating.”
Ginny couldn’t help it and she laughed.
Draco frowned at her. “Is it so awful?”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s just you sound so put out about it.”
“Well, I am,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. “I mean here we are in a bloody relationship and we didn’t even know it.”
Ginny laughed again. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know either until just now. Hermione tried to tell me, but I didn’t believe her.” She shook her head. “I owe her an apology. She knew my feelings before I did. I thought she was crazy.”
She felt herself relax and took a step towards Draco. “If it helps, I promise not to make you buy me things and to let you have plenty of time with your friends.”
Draco actually cracked a smile and took another step towards her. “Okay, then I promise to listen to you ramble about things I don’t really care about and not ignore you when you’re crying.”
He hesitated. “So, we’re really going to do this? Because, eventually, our families will have to know. My parents…your brothers…”
Ginny smiled, nodded and then Draco was kissing her again and she was wrapped up in his strong arms. His mouth worked slowly and sensually against hers; a far cry from the desperation from before. She found herself melting against him; their lips meeting and retreating only to come back together again.
“I don’t know how it happened, Weasley,” he mumbled into her lips. “But I’m absolutely crazy about you.”
*******
“C’mon, Draco. Don’t be a chicken.” Ginny teased. She tugged on his hand, practically dragging him down the sidewalk.
Draco felt like whining. He hadn’t had such an urge since his school days but since Ginny had said it was time to meet her family, he’d felt like throwing a fit.
“Can’t we just elope?” He asked hopefully, not for the first time. “I’ll meet them after. That way - when they kill me - you’ll be well provided for.”
Ginny rolled her eyes and continued tugging him towards the Burrow. Some of the old wards leftover from the war were still up and since Draco had never been to the house, they had to hike it in.
“You told them about me, right?” he fought to keep the anxiety out of his voice. “You’re not just springing me on them?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” his girlfriend said dismissively. “We’ve been dating for how long, now?”
“Depends on what you mean by ‘dating.’ If you include the two years of shagging then it’s been nearly three years.”
“Regardless, I’ve not exactly been keeping you a secret. They know we’re dating.”
Draco tugged on her hand to make her stop. “Do they know it’s serious?”
Ginny looked back at him. “Yes.”
“But you didn’t tell them we’re getting married?” He questioned.
His fiancé of exactly three days turned around and put her hands on her hips. Glaring at him, she said, “Draco Malfoy. If you want to marry me then you can face my family with me and tell them we are getting married. Or do you not think I’m worth it?”
Draco stared at her. At the way the sun setting behind her lit her hair on fire, at the way the cloche hat she was wearing emphasized her adorable pixie face and the way the heels she was wearing with her flared skirt and skirted jacket made her legs look impossibly long. She was wearing green trimmed in silver - his colors - mostly because she knew he liked it. She’d wormed her way into his life before he’d even realized it, until he couldn’t even pick out a damn tie without wondering what she thought of it. She was the only woman he had ever brought home to his parents and even though it hadn’t gone as well as he’d hoped, she had proved without a shadow of a doubt that she loved him by agreeing to sit at a table with Lucius Malfoy.
Oh yeah, she was definitely worth it.
“I love you.”
She smiled then. It was his favorite smile on her. The one that lit up her whole face. It was the same one she gave him every time he told her loved her. He never got tired of seeing it.
“I know.” She grinned at him. “Let’s find out how much.” She reached out and rang the doorbell at her childhood home.
“You know,” he murmured conversationally as he stepped up behind her. One hand slid onto her hip and he tugged her back against him. “We’ve never shagged here.”
ORIGINAL REQUEST:
Briefly describe what you'd like to receive in your fic: I like post Hogwarts fics. Ginny and Draco in their twenties, preferably. I’d like it full to the brim with sexual tension and banter.
The tone/mood of the fic: Fun and snarky.
An element/line of dialogue/object you would specifically like in your fic: “Oh, I’m sorry, did I distract you from the torturing ofinnocents?”
Preferred rating of the the fic you want: Anything
Canon or AU? Canon sans epilogue would be nice.
Deal Breakers (anything you don't want?): Angst/Friends first (I want
flirty stuff, no friend boxes! I mean, I don't mind them being *friendly* but just not best friends or anything...)