Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I wish I did, but alas, I do not. *Tear*
Ginny Weasley had always loved flowers. They grew everywhere around her house and she could spend hours just looking at them and breathing in their wonderful scents. She soon learned about the game with flower petals, the one where you pick the petals off one by one to find out if a certain person liked you or not. He loves me, he loves me not.
She first did it for a boy she met when she was seven. He didn't love her. But she wasn't heartbroken over it. Ginny was strong and was firm in her belief that there was someone out there for her; she just needed to keep looking.
When she first met the infamous Harry Potter, she was quick to select a flower and proceed to de-petal it. He did not love her either. She was somewhat sad and her crush continued, but was soon overshadowed by a growing likeness for the boy in the diary, Tom Riddle. When she picked the petals for him, she felt silly, because he was in a diary and not real. She was shocked when the result was that he loved her.
After she found out that he was controlling her she realized that even though the flower had said he loved her, it wasn't the love she wanted. He was evil and she was good, and although they had feelings for one another, their love was too dark. And then Harry killed him, but he was still there, in the back of her mind, haunting her nightmares.
She was quiet after the whole Chamber ordeal. She didn't speak much to anyone and kept to herself. The only real happiness she found was when she was with flowers. On weekends and after classes she was almost always sitting amongst the various flowers found on the Hogwarts grounds. She didn't pick flowers for anyone anymore and never picked a second for Harry Potter. She was completely over him.
In her sixth year, she was more alone than ever. Her brother, Harry, and Hermione were the only ones she ever really talked to and now that they were gone she rarely spoke to anyone outside of class. Also, the nightmares, which had mostly stopped during her sixth year, had come back full force. Not wanting to relive the Chamber over and over again, she stopped sleeping. She knew it was unhealthy, but so was the pain the nightmares gave her.
She took to wandering around the castle and the grounds, finding secret passageways and, outside, places hidden away from the rest of the world that she could go to when she needed to be completely away from other people.
It was on one of these nightly excursions that she happened upon Draco Malfoy. Harry had told her about what had happened on the tower the previous year and didn't believe that he ever really wanted to hurt people and just wanted to be alone, like her.
"What are you doing here, Weasley?" he asked, but without the malice that usually accompanied comments directed at her or her family.
"Oh, just wandering," Ginny replied. They were currently standing in an abandoned corridor on the fifth floor that people rarely visited. She had found a room a couple of weeks ago filled with old paintings that, unlike the ones throughout the castle, didn't move and wanted to see them again. "What about you? Shouldn't you be asleep?"
"I could ask you the same question," he said. But he didn't allow her to answer. "I couldn't sleep so I decided to see what the abandoned rooms held."
She looked at him curiously. The moonlight from a window caught his white-blond hair and made it shine, making him seem angelic, though Ginny had a feeling he was far from it. Not evil, but definitely not ignorant of what was happening in the world, possibly experiencing the more horrible things. She felt sorry for him.
"Well, I'm going to go now." And with that he left, leaving her there to wonder about this new, softer side of Draco Malfoy.
They met up a few more times during their nighttime strolls. They only talked a little, but found they had more in common than they had expected. Both were insomniacs and neither were what their families wanted them to be. Draco did not want to be a Death Eater and had only tried to kill Dumbledore the year before because Voldemort would have killed his family if he didn't. And Ginny refused to become Harry Potter's girlfriend. He had finally shown some affection toward her last year, much to the delight of her family, especially her mother, but she ignored him. Her minor crush on him was completely over.
They got to the point where they could loosely be considered friends, but they still called each other by their last names and never spoke other than at night when they were alone. Occasionally they would kiss, their tongues battling for dominance as the two teenagers fought desperately for some kind of love; Draco, who had never had it, and Ginny, who had always had it but didn't have the kind she craved for the most. After each kiss they would not speak to each other for a while and then they continued as if it never happened.
Over the course of a few months, Ginny had fallen in love with Draco Malfoy. She was careful not to show it, acting like she always did and not giving away her true feelings whenever their eyes would meet. But the longing for his love in return was gnawing at her heart but she knew it would never be reciprocated. Her thoughts would turn dark and a couple of times she contemplated taking her life, but she quickly banished those thoughts. She would not leave this life over a boy, of that she was certain.
A couple of weeks after the realization of her love for the Slytherin, Ginny remembered something. She had not yet picked a flower for Draco Malfoy. So, she walked outside into the moonlight and looked around for the perfect flower. She liked the ones with many petals so she could just sit and pick them off, letting them fall around her. She eventually chose one and sat down at the base of a tree.
"He loves me, he loves me not," she murmured, her fingers plucking the petals one by one.
Suddenly, something blocked the light of the moon and she looked up into the face of Draco Malfoy, her brown eyes meeting his grey ones. "What are you doing Weasley?"
"Trying to find out if you love me or not." The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them. She was thankful for the darkness that hid her blush.
Draco only lifted one eyebrow and then sat down next to her. "Oh, really? Well, do I?"
Ginny blinked and then looked at the half-picked flower in her hand. "I don't know. Let's find out." And she continued picking off the petals. When she got to the last one she picked it off and, letting it fall to the ground, said, "He loves me."
"Does she love him?" he asked, a smile tugging at his lips.
"Yes, she does." He smiled at her and she smiled at him and they kissed under the stars, flower petals surrounding them. And neither cared that they were supposed to be mortal enemies. They loved each other and that was all that mattered.
He loves me.
A/N I know, I know. Completely cheesy ending. But then again it is all pretty much cheesy. Thanks for reading and if you feel the urge to review, be my guest. I'll give you an imaginary cupcake.
~BookLover757
