Summary: Ginny's got a secret admirer. Could he be that cute new teacher? Could he be her house team's seeker? Could he be someone whom she knew right from her very first year at Hogwarts? Or could he be one of the most unlikely person to even notice her?
Disclaimer: NOT MINE! Although I wish they were a product of my very own imagination, sad to say I only own the plot & the other characters that might pop up somewhere down the road here.
PhoenixRae's Notes: Well looks like you guys didn't have to wait long for an update 'coz here it is.
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XXIII. Back to Where It All Began...
Boarding the Hogwarts Express after being dropped off at the Hogsmeade terminal, Ginny boarded the gleaming red steam engine train with a heavy heart. Before her was Abby who climbed into the train holding hands with her boyfriend and looking chippier than ever. Blaise, being a seventh year, wouldn't be returning to Hogwarts next year. Instead he'd be looking for a job either at the Ministry or elsewhere; either way Ginny knew Blaise and Abby would stay in touch and probably end up marrying one another after Abby's done her seventh year at Hogwarts.
Ginny was happy for her best friend. Abby deserved Blaise, and Blaise obviously deserved Abby. He wasn't as bad and as vile as his other Slytherin housemates, and Ginny applaud him for standing up for what he believes and fought to make his and Abby's relationship last. It was something Ginny wished Draco would've done if he was indeed in love with her, yet he chose to let her go and never bother to keep on trying to win her back.
"Hey, cheer up, Gin," cajoled Abby when she noticed her best friend wearing a long face.
"I'm alright, Abs," Ginny lied and moved closer to the window, distancing herself as far away as possible from the cuddling couple near the door.
"Are you sure, Gin?" inquired Blaise, wrapping his arm around Abby and pulling her closer to his side. "Because you sure don't look alright to me," he pointed out.
Ginny made a face at Blaise and continued ignoring the two. She wasn't at all in the mood to socialize with them. How will she be alright if she feels this great void inside her that she knew would never be closed again?
The train lurched forward, signaling its passengers that they were leaving the platform at the Hogsmeade station. Blaise and Abby didn't waste any time putting in some quality time as soon as the train started moving. They were sweeter than the sweetest Sugar Quill Ginny's ever had; heck, they were even sweeter than sugar that when she heard them smooching on the corner she has had it and walked out of the compartment, closing the door to give her two friends some privacy.
She was happy for Blaise and Abby. Really, she was happy for them, but that doesn't mean she'd be tolerating them to torment her, albeit unbeknownst to them of course, by acting all lovey-dovey when they both knew she was nursing a broken heart.
Ginny walked up and down the train, moving from one empty cart hallway to the next, occasionally peering into each carriage to see if it was empty or nearly empty, occupied only by those selected few that she liked. So far she had no such luck. The compartment Harry, Ron, and Hermione occupied were nearly full (Neville, Seamus and Dean decided to bunk in with the trio) and from the looks of it, all six of them are rehashing about the past seven years they spent at Hogwarts; she didn't want to intrude and left the six of them alone.
She kept moving down the corridor, past nearly full and somewhat full compartments, stopping at some of the compartments to chat with some of her friends. Colin Creevy invited her to join him and some of the other sixth year Gryffindors in their compartment, but Ginny declined and only stayed a while to chat before she moved on again. Two compartments from where Colin and some of their batchmates were at, Ginny walked past its slightly left ajar door, snippets of conversation from inside the compartment caught her attention...
"He was really crazy over her. I can't believe she'd turn him down like that!" a female voice said irritably. "He risked being ridiculed by his housemates for his obsession with that Weasley girl, and for what? For nothing. She only broke his heart."
A chorus of agreement from the other occupants of the compartment were heard. Ginny stopped from walking away and leaned up against the wall divider, her ears perked up to eavesdrop some more. She knew it wasn't really nice to eavesdrop, but these girls were talking about her and, she could bet a hundred Galleon, Draco Malfoy.
"I watched him watch her while Weasley was telling her brother to grow up after she stopped the two of them from fighting. He walked off, disappeared into the crowd only to move back into the queue hidden from everybody else still watching the scene the Weasley siblings were creating," the girl paused, let out a deep breath before continuing, "He seemed so damn proud of her. He was impressed with her finally telling her brother off. Do you have any idea how much I wanted Draco to look at me the way he did when he watched Weasley bite her brother's head off? So many times I wished for him to look at me the way he did at her, but alas, I can't seem to catch his fancy."
A chorus of disgruntled groan echoed inside the compartment.
"I say Weasley's still stupid for passing up the chance to snag Draco Malfoy!" said another female voice angrily. "I can curse her to oblivion for what she did to my poor Draco!"
"But Pansy, you know you can't harm Ginny Weasley, unless you want to face off with a very peeved Blaise whose girlfriend is Weasley's best friend and treats Weasley like his best friend too. Not to mention having to answer to Draco who is so blindly in love with Weasley it's sickening!" warned the first female voice Ginny heard.
The Slytherin girls inside the compartment were still gossiping about her and Draco, but Ginny didn't want to hear anymore. She already heard enough. She was having a hard time believing what those girls said, but Draco was really in love with her? Oh Merlin, if I'm dreaming please wake me up now! she thought to herself and quickly turned away to walk back to the compartment she shared with Blaise and Abby.
"Whoof!" Ginny yelped and was thrown back, almost falling on her rump, when she collided with someone's chest. She was thankful she was saved from having to suffer from a sore buttocks by the person she collided with.
"Careful, Weaslette," snarled the familiar male voice from over her head.
Ginny snapped her read head up, her brown eyes locking with Draco's cool gray ones. A jumble of emotions played in her eyes, making her thinking incoherently. The last thing she expected was to run in to Draco on the train. She did her best to avoid looking at the Slytherin table at the feast earlier; if he meant what he said to her the night before of not seeing her again after today, she didn't want to lay eyes on him either. She was calling herself a million kinds of fool for not believing him when he confessed his feelings for her, but her stubborn mind kept on telling her he was just playing with her; he was bored and she was the unfortunate target he found to amuse himself. It didn't matter that Blaise was close to strangling her when she told him that she turned down Draco for the second time last night.
"Dammit, Ginny! Malfoy's friggin' in love with you! I've never seen him this worked-up over a girl. Those other girls he paraded around when you turned him down the first time were nothing compared to you. He was just using them. None of them meant anything to him!" Blaise's handsome face was contorted to an angry scowl. He was glaring down at Ginny last night outside the library after the three of them left.
Now Ginny stood, face to face with the man who has made her restless in her sleep at night, in a deserted corridor of the Hogwarts Express. Gulping down hard she disentangled herself from Draco's grip on her arms and took a step back.
"Sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going," she replied and without waiting for a reply she walked around him and headed towards her compartment.
Something dropped from the inside pocket of her robes that she didn't notice. Draco saw the small folded piece of parchment and picked it up. He was about to follow Ginny and return it back to her, but the name on the parchment made him stop. There, in Ginny's neat handwriting, written on the parchment was his name. Draco.
Dearest Draco Malfoy of Slytherin House,
I get a feeling
I can't explain
Whenever your eyes meet mine
My heart spins in circles
And I lose all space and time
And now that we're standing face to face
Somethin' tells me
It's gonna be okay
And I'm ready to fall in love tonight
Ready to hold my heart open wide
Can't promise forever but baby I'll try
I'm ready to fall in love tonight
I know you've been watching
Choosin' your moment
But I've been dreaming of that day
No one before you has gotten to me this way
And now that we're standing face to face
There's something that I need to say
And I'm ready to fall in love tonight
Ready to hold my heart open wide
Can't promise forever but baby I'll try
Cause I'm ready to fall in love tonight
Nothing is certain, this I know
Wherever we're headed
I'm ready to go
I can't promise forever but baby I'll try
Cause I'm ready to fall in love tonight
Cause I'm ready to fall in love tonight
Cause I'm ready to fall in love tonight
In love tonight
But I guess you'll never know that I have fallen in love with you because you'll never get the chance to read this letter...
Loving you always,
Ginny Weasley of Gryffindor House
Draco folded the piece of paper. He didn't realized he was slumped against the wall Ginny was just leaning against moments earlier. He couldn't believe what he just read. A letter addressed to him that wasn't meant to be sent to him.
She loves him. Ginny Weasley loves him, Draco Malfoy.
"Merlin, yes!" he yelped, attracting the attention of the occupants of the compartments who poked their heads out. Draco grinned from ear to ear at the confused looks of each compartment occupant then darted off to run after Ginny, calling out her name and attracting even more attention from other compartment occupants. "Ginny, wait!" he called out, running down the corridor until he caught up with her.
Ginny was surprised to her hear name called out loud. She stopped just outside the door of the compartment she occupied with Abby and Blaise and turned to look behind her, her brown eyes widened when she saw Draco Malfoy running towards her, a big, dopey grin plastered on his handsome face. Ginny felt a big hand just squeezed her already breaking heart as she gazed at the face of the only man she knew she'd love to distraction.
"Ginny...wait..." Draco skidded to a stop an arm's length from her, his breathing coming out raggedly. "Ginny...I...wait..." he was panting, trying to catch his breath before he spoke again.
Ginny watched a very flushed Draco catch his breath. Her forehead knitted into a frown. She had no idea what made him come after her. Didn't he just tell her last night he'd stay out of her life? What was he doing here now?
"Malfoy, what--" Ginny was cut off when Draco surprised her by grabbing her face between his hands and pulled it closer to his for a kiss so deep and so passionate it made her knees buckle.
A chorus of loud gasps were heard from every person whose heads were stuck outside their compartment doors and watched what the commotion was about. Ron's jaw nearly dropped on the floor when he saw Draco Malfoy snogging his sister. Harry and Hermione had to restrain Ron from storming up to Draco and Ginny and pry their lips off each other's.
Ginny's head was spinning by the time Draco softened his mouth's assault on hers. Giving her quick pecks before slowly pulling away, his hands still cupping her face and his grey eyes dancing with mirth. He gazed into her dark brown eyes, seeing the jumble of emotions he noticed a while back cross them again. Questions swam in the depths of those dark brown orbs of hers, questions Draco knew the answers to and without waiting for her to voice those questions out he answered:
"I love you, Ginny Weasley of Gryffindor House. I know you love me too, Gin, no need to deny it."
Ginny's eyes widen and looked at him in alarm, "How..." the rest of her question trailed off when she saw what Draco held clasped between his fingers. It was that stupid piece of parchment containing that stupid letter she wrote to him last night when she couldn't sleep. She remembered slipping it inside her robes earlier and meant to burn it before boarding the train, but it slipped her mind and now the letter was in his hands.
"Where did you get that?"
"It fell when you were in a rush to get away from me. I picked it up. I didn't mean to read it, but when I read my name on the paper I can't help myself and was curious," he explained. "And if it hadn't been for this letter I wouldn't have had the guts to follow you and do this," he showed her what he meant to do and claimed her lips once more.
This time moans and coos of delight were heard from every person still watching the scene from their compartment doorways. Ron still wanted to strangle Malfoy, Harry and Hermione were ready to strangle him for being such a prick. It was obvious to the two that Malfoy and Ginny liked each other, why couldn't Ron just accept that?
When the couple broke apart, tears were streaming down Ginny's cheeks, but she was smiling.
"Damn you Malfoy for making me cry," she hissed under her breath.
Draco chuckled and pulled her for a hug. "I'm sorry, but that's the only way I can think of letting you know how I really feel."
Ginny pulled away from him, drying her eyes with the back of her hands. "But what you did was still mean," she told him without much conviction. "Blackmailing Oliver to letting us serve detention together? Why would you even resort to doing that? That was very underhanded and mean."
Draco gave her a sheepish grin and shrugged. "I was desperate. You obviously thought he was your damn APC and I was going crazy. I can't really approach you so serving detention with you was the only way I can think of spending time with you," he explained.
"And how did you even find out what sort of weapon to use against Oliver? You blackmailed him because you found out something about him. A secret he's guarded all his life probably. Care to tell me what that secret was and how you found about it?"
"Simple, Weasley," Draco gloated, his arms resting around her small waist as they stood in the middle of the corridor while many eyes watched them. "I found a piece of parchment Wood dropped just as I was leaving his classroom. It wasn't folded or rolled up and I had every intention of ignoring it, but then it fell on the floor face up and your name caught my attention."
"My name?" she echoed.
"Yep," he nodded. "Wood wrote a letter to you, Weaslette. A letter confessing his love for you."
"What?!" Ginny's jaw dropped when she found out this bit of information. No wonder Oliver didn't want to tell her who the girl was that he was in love with. "I am that girl he's in love with?" she asked out loud.
Draco frowned down at her. "You knew about that?"
"Yeah, but I didn't know who the girl is."
Draco smirked. "Well the girl is you, Ginny. Anyway, to make a long story short, I kept the letter and when he least expected it I showed it to him and coerced him to helping me out."
"You mean blackmailed him to help you out," she corrected.
"Whatever," he shrugged. "It worked anyway. I got to serve detention with you then snogged you senseless."
Ginny blushed at the reminder of their first snogfest in the dark. "I couldn't stop thinking about that kiss for weeks," she confessed.
"Neither could I, Gin, neither could I," Draco assured her.
Ginny smiled at him, her eyes moving over his face lovingly and whispered, "I love you to distraction, Draco Malfoy of Slytherin House," she finally admitted.
Draco swore he heard a choir chorus sang Hallelujah at her confession. Grinning from ear to ear he took Ginny's mouth once more and this time they didn't come up for air for a good two minutes.
Abby and Blaise, who had the best view in the house, were grinning from ear to ear and snogged too. Finally those two got together!
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THE END
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A/N: OMG!!! I can't believe it! But I AM DONE!!! Yay!!!! Hope you all liked this fic. Thank you to all you wonderful reviewers and readers for being there. I know it took me a while to finish this fic. I even thought I wouldn't be able to finish it, but loook, here is the final chapter. Once again a BIG THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU -- YA'LL KNOW WHO YOU ARE!
A/N2: For this final chapter I decided to make Ginny use Ready to Fall by N'Sync (I am not really a huge fan of this boy band, but they have some pretty nice, cheesy love songs to use for this fic, hehehehe)