Choices

We Can Start Now

The door opened and Ginny jumped, turning to look at him.

"You are back," she said, her voice low and hoarse.

Draco saw how she withdrew into herself, hands around her arms, she had cried and her eyes were still red, giving her a sickly look, her stare was distrustful and she was readying herself for a confrontation.

He took a step inside the flat, looking deeply into her eyes, hoping that she would understand.

"I'm sorry..."

Ginny's eyes widened, completely unprepared for that, she had expected for him to tell her he was back to take his clothes and that he wouldn't stay long, not this.

She didn't know what to say and it didn't help that he was just staring at her, silver eyes much softer than before, searching for her answer.

"Daa!" cried out Harry and Draco looked away from her to reach him instead, she considered stopping him, what right did he have to come back? But seeing how the baby buried his face into Draco's shirt, holding tight while Draco whispered softly, she couldn't help but soften.

Ginny hadn't been ready for this Draco, he left them for hours, stuck in that small flat not sure where she'd go from there and then he came back, soft voice, tentative approach, and his eyes, she always thought that grey eyes were just a different shade of blue, his eyes had always been a dark silver and she never paid more attention than that but somehow, at that moment, they were a clear and bright grey she couldn't see how she'd ever thought they could be blue, like the moment after a storm, when the world seems to be made of light.

So many feelings were hitting her all at once, she wanted to scream at him, she wanted to accept his apology, she felt so hurt but that longing was still there, was it stupid of her to want their family again so easily? Ginny tried to raise her shields, willing to at least listen to what he had to say, refusing to be hurt again.

"I know I shouldn't have left," he said, turning to her again.

"Good!" she told him harshly.

Draco had enough sense and had been humbled enough by his fall to know that he deserved it.

"What brought this change of heart?" she asked, trying to feign nonchalance.

"You were right," he told her, watching as she dropped any pretense of not caring "About my father, you were right"

If anything that was even more surprising, Malfoy admitting to being wrong? Admitting that she was right? Was she sure it wasn't someone else?

He grimaced and turned away from her eyes as he continued "I've been thinking about it for a long time, and the more I thought about it, the worse everything he did seemed to me, he had promised me a world with us on top, where everything would be as I wished" he took a deep breath "I know that to you this is a terrible wish to have, but I believed it was what I wanted too, that it was what it was supposed to be."

He took a step forward "But my father is a liar, and I realized too late that he lied to me too"

Ginny stood her ground, even as he got closer, even as her heartbeat overwhelmed her, this seemed the moment she'd be waiting for, the moment they could stand in front of each other and find their own place, no secrets or buried feelings.

She looked at him, eyes wide as she took in his words "Then why did you defend him before?"

"Because I didn't want to believe it, he is my father after all, I wanted to believe in him and I wanted to believe that who I was, was right" Draco looked back to her "Have you ever wanted to believe in someone that even when you realize how wrong they are, you can't help but hope that it couldn't be just that the end?"