"So, you finally found a girl?"
"No. I finally found a girl who may be the girl." Draco retorted.
Blaise rolled his eyes. "So you found one, anyway." What happened to the Weasley girl?
"So I'm not meeting Ginny so often anymore. Instead I'll be going on dates with this girl, um, Charlene?"
"Charlene? I bet she's a Pureblood." Pureblood children were known to have extraordinary unusual names. Well, except for Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle. Their parents weren't so bright.
Draco nodded. "From France. Looks to be in our kind of society circle. Likes to go to any event, from afternoon tea to charity balls."
"When's your first date?"
"This Saturday."
"Where are you going?"
"Some restaurant that she picked. I hope she has good taste. Otherwise it's to the trash can for her." Draco said, referring to the way he threw most of the girls' profiles in the trash.
"That's a bit harsh."
"Fine. I'll set the standard lower. As long as she doesn't pick something entirely gross for my taste buds, she'll pass for now."
"Are you going to tell your mother?"
"I'm not exactly sure. I don't want to get her hopes up. Maybe I'll introduce her to mother when we get more serious. That would be more prudent." Draco paused. "By the way, what is this? Twenty questions?'
_._._._._._
Ginny was back at work again. She was thinking of Draco again. I hope I found him an okay woman, she thought . Then she felt a twinge of regret that she couldn't quite explain. They had decided for Draco to go on a few dates with Charlene, and then they would meet again. Ginny would continue to look through the profiles in case Charlene and him didn't work out. Initially, Draco wanted to help her, feeling that it was unfair for only her to be reading through those profiles, but Ginny had said that it wasn't right for him to be looking for other girls while he was dating one.
She had been thinking a lot about Seamus too.
There were times when she would look over their pictures and wonder. Wonder about why he left her. Wonder why he couldn't just tell her it wasn't working out for him. Wonder through all the hundreds of possibilities and manage to end up where she began – was it my fault?
"There is nothing wrong with you. Don't ever say that again." Draco's voice echoed in her head.
But there could have been.
Yet that had come from a boy, no, a man, who had been her sworn enemy before she had even stepped inside Hogwarts. Should she – could she – believe him?
Harry, Ron, and Hermione had been upset that she had ignored their warnings to not go drinking.
"Are you alright? Safe?"
"You might have been hurt!"
"Honestly Ginny, is he really worth it?"
"Please don't do it again."
As they left, she could hear Ron say, "Poor Ginny" while Harry looked over his shoulder at her with a pitying look in his eyes and Hermione nodded in agreement.
That was nothing like the empathy Draco had given her. The look in his eyes told her he had understood. The way he held her like he never wanted to let her go. The way he called her Ginevra, instead of Ginny.
_._._._._._
Draco was at the flower shop with Blaise Saturday afternoon, looking for flowers to give to Charlene. He was picking her up at her flat and then they would apparate to the restaurant.
"Why don't you just give her red roses? Every girl likes red roses." Blaise was saying irritably. It had been nearly half an hour already just to look for the flowers. Draco just couldn't decide.
For some unknown reason he just couldn't give Charlene a rose, even if it wasn't red. He moved passed the roses and unto the lilies. There were many different colors, from tiger lilies to white lilies. The white ones seemed too pure for a girl he didn't even know, which was weird considering that Charlene was a Pureblood. The others were too gaudy and attention grabbing. Blaise was nagging again, trudging along beside him.
"You know, mate, why ask me to help you when you won't even listen to me?"
"Maybe because you're just saying something that is not necessarily useful so we can get out of here and you can test my Silver Arrows? Though I must warn you that they insist on chasing after birds now, even if they don't do anything else."
Blaise opened his mouth to argue. Then he closed it and said shamefully, "That would be it."
Draco paused at the carnations. Looking at it, it seemed suitable. Not flashy like some of the exotic greenhouse flowers, but simple enough to be beautiful. Though it's not as elegant as the rose. He reached for red carnation and stopped before he touched the stem. Something in him told him not to get that one. He looked to his left and took a striped carnation instead.
"Come on, Blaise. Let's pay for this and we can go to the company."
_._._._._._
Later that evening, around seven, he was standing in front of a very expensive looking flat. There are diamonds in the doorknob, he noticed as he knocked. A blonde woman came out, clad in an equally expensive looking dress with her hair tied in an intricate knot at the back of her head. So far, she was polite and beautiful. Good, he thought.
"Draco Malfoy, I suppose?" She said, looking Draco up and down.
He tried not to feel like a piece of meat on sale. "Yes. And you are Charlene. These are for you," He added, handing her the carnations. "They're striped carnations."
She smiled brightly, and said, "I'll put these in a vase."
Somehow Draco remembered how Ginny had reacted to the rose he gave her a few weeks earlier. Her whole face had lighted up with one look, and when she took it, she breathed its scent in deeply, as if she could practically live on it.
Charlene had taken the flowers from him and went inside to find a vase, which turned out to be a crystal one that shamed the flowers in its glimmering beauty. Ginny had held onto the rose the whole time, preferring to put an anti-wilting charm on it instead. Was it just because they were carnations and not roses that Charlene was acting that way?
When put the flowers on a decorative table near the doorway, Draco asked, "Shall we?" and held out his arm like any high-class gentleman would.
"Of course." They apparated together to the restaurant.
_._._._._._._
By the end of the night Draco was exhausted. It wasn't because of Charlene. She was absolutely perfect. She was exactly as Draco had expected her to be after that first impression, sophisticated, charming, and rich. No surprises. But he had to return to work for a while after their date, which lasted till ten. The Silver Arrows were still creating trouble. Blaise had nearly crashed into a tree and was attacked by a mother raven defending her young.
He was looking forward to a good's night sleep tonight. Then he reached the entrance to his flat and rummaged in his pocket for his key. He ran a hand through his hair and groaned when he couldn't find it. Could he have forgotten it at work? It was too late to go back now. He couldn't apparate when he felt so tired or might risk splinching himself.
Then he remembered the emergency fire stairway that the builders had insisted to put up. They ran up to each tenant's back door. Maybe he could climb up that and see if he had left any windows open. Not likely, but worth a try. Though it led down to the lobby, he really didn't want to go back down three flights just to climb all the way to see if he actually could get in his house.
So he decided to go down to whoever lived on the second floor and see if they would let him out unto the stairway. It was late at night, but he had to get to bed too. He just hoped that the person was extremely nice.
Arriving on the second floor, he braced himself on the landing and knocked on the door. When he heard nothing, he knocked again.
A few minutes later the door opened, and there stood Ginny Weasley.
Draco was floored. He just stared at her. She couldn't have looked different from all the times he saw her at work. She was wearing what appeared to be a spaghetti strap satin nightgown that ran down the length of her body to the floor, for one. It didn't seem very her . He would have thought she would wear a simple T-shirt and pajama bottoms. But I didn't mind this either.
She also had her hair down. That was the best part. Her wavy hair cascaded down her back, parts of it looked black in the darkness, others glimmered red in the moonlight cast from one of her windows. It accented the milky skin of her face and neck instead of hiding it. He couldn't see what her expression looked like. She flicked her wand at a few candles and they lit.
This broke the spell.
"Draco?" She sounded bewildered. "How do you know where I live? Do you need something?"
Keep your head, Draco. "Actually, I wasn't aware you live here. I mean, um, I live up there." He pointed above him. Oh gods, that was a stupid gesture.
Stupid gesture or not, Ginny understood it. "You mean you live on the third floor?" When he nodded she said, "Oh."
Draco didn't know what to say. "Well, I locked myself out of my house and I was wondering whether you could let me out onto the fire stairway so I can see if I can let myself in that way?"
"Oh, okay. Come in."
"Thanks Ginevra."
She reached for a hair tie and Draco saw what she was going to do. He stopped her hand. "No! I mean, leave your hair down. It looks nice."
She blushed. "Thanks. Um, the back door is that way." She pointed to her right. "Unfortunately, they put it right where I wanted my bedroom to be."
He swallowed. I'm going to see where she sleeps every night. Hey, why should I care so much? It's not like I haven't seen other bedrooms. He looked around and saw a bookshelf full of photo albums. There was no guessing to what lay in them. Pictures of her, friends, family, but mostly, he knew there were pictures of Seamus in there.
"You have a nice flat."
"Thanks."
They reached the bedroom and Draco stopped breathing. The bed was huge, with lots of pillows and a satin comforter that brushed silkily against his arm as he walked by it. He looked back at Ginny. She looked so beautiful and pure with her slightly mussed from sleep hair and white nightgown. He felt a rushing in his ears that turned into a whisper, THIS one, screw the blondie, this one is THE one.
"Draco? You look really tired. Here's the stairway."
Draco blinked. "Thanks. Let me see if I left any windows open or something."
He walked up the stairs to his flat and pushed on the windows and tugged on the door. Sometimes I am just too paranoid for my own good. He looked back down at Ginny, who was watching him from her flat. Or not.
He came back down and said, "Nope."
"Oh no."
"That's okay. I'll just go and stay with Blaise or something."
"You look dead on your feet. You can stay in the guest bedroom if you want."
"That would be wonderful." Gods this woman was great.
"Would you like something to drink first?" He followed her into the kitchen and sat at the breakfast bar.
"Alright."
"All I have is lemon tea." She handed him a mug and Draco opened his tired eyes. "I know it's not what you're probably used to, but it's pretty good."
She was surprised by the enthusiastic response she got. Draco had never tasted such a lemon tea. It was almost like Blaise's, if not better.
"You know Blaise, if a woman made a lemon tea as good as yours, I would marry her."
Those words came back to him as he sipped again, savoring the taste. "Wow. This is really good, Ginevra."
"Really?"
"Yeah. It's exactly like Blaise's."
"Blaise?"
"Blaise Zabini, my best friend."
"I've heard of him. His family was killed by Voldemort, weren't they? Because they wouldn't take sides."
He was surprised by her saying 'Voldemort'. But then, she did hang out with Potter, and he never had feared saying Voldemort. "It's sad. Only he's still alive now, out of his whole family."
They were silent for a moment. Then Draco spoke, "Can I ask you a question?"
"What is it about?"
"Your hair."
"My hair?"
"Why do you wear it in that bun all the time?"
"I'll answer it if you answer my question." Ginny teased.
Draco smirked. That was sneaky and very Slytherin-ish. "Fine."
"Why do you call me Ginevra instead of Ginny?"
He frowned. He hadn't even realized that. "I don't know."
"Yes you do. I'll answer your question first and then you can give me an answer." Draco nodded. "I put my hair up in a bun because of Seamus."
Seamus again? Draco thought. Ginny explained, "He always loved my hair in a bun. He said it brought out my face." She frowned. "It sounds silly now that I've said it out loud huh?" She glanced at Draco, who was thinking, How could he say that? Ginny's hair was so beautiful, it didn't do to put it up even in a ponytail. "I've been hanging on to him in so many ways." She drifted off, just realizing what everyone was trying to tell her, year after year.
She drifted off to her own bedroom, forgetting that Draco had yet to answer her question, saying, "Guest bedroom off to the right and down the hallway. Help yourself to more tea or food if you want. Bathroom is right across the hall from your room." She sounded distant and recorded, as if she said this every time to every person who had ever stayed in her flat.
Draco didn't go to bed immediately. He poured himself another cup of tea and thought. Ginny was healing, slowly healing. He thought about why he always called Ginny Ginevra. It wasn't until he was in the guest bedroom and pulling the covers over him, smelling a faint lavender smell, when he understood.
I call her Ginevra because I want to have a part of her that no one else has already.
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