Now That I Know

Now That I Know

By AmberNixie

Chapter Six - Falling Uphill

I wanna be the gots ta be in your life

Gots ta be the one that makes you sad

Gots ta be the one you never had

Gots ta be the one you want so damn bad

Gotta be, gotta be, gotta be your everything

Gots ta be the only one you fight

Gots ta be the one that makes it right

Gots ta be the one you don't like half the time

Gotta be, gotta be, gotta be your everything

--'Gots Ta Be', B2K--

"Damn you, sky!" Ginny yelled, glaring at the grey sky above them.

It was raining. She was soaking wet. And the fact that she was stuck in a tiny shelter with Draco, waiting for the rain to stop, did not make the situation any better.

"You don't like the rain?" Draco, who was leaning against the wall, asked innocently.

She turned to him, with disbelief written all over her face. "You like it?"

He shrugged nonchalantly. "It's not bad, really. Sometimes it matches my mood."

Ginny raked one hand through her limp, tangled, wet hair. "Well, it matches my mood now," she grumbled. "Why did we have to split up with Blaise and Jade? Why?" She pounded the wall furiously before pulling her jacket tighter around herself. Being squashed in a shelter and drenched with rainwater in the middle of Autumn was not good.

Blaise and Jade had split the workload up after buying Ginny's dress (which had been, happily, very affordable)--they would get the door gifts while Draco and Ginny found a florist. While they had been successful in carrying out their task, they were currently stuck in a dilemma about what to do.

"Did Jade bring her mobile?" Draco asked, dragging Ginny to a nearby telephone booth, ignoring her indignant yelps as the rain spattered down onto them.

"Yes, but I don't think she charged it enough before we left home, sorry." Ginny darted ahead into the telephone booth to keep dry, and Draco followed her. They decided to try calling Jade anyway, but when Ginny punched in Jade's number on the phone, she hung up ten seconds later. "It's out," she said mournfully, replacing the receiver. "Does Blaise have a mobile?"

"No, unfortunately," Draco sighed. He hesitated. "Do you want to wait for Jade at my house or something? Because, you know, this street is really, really long. There's no point waiting here, or looking for them. I don't think you want to hang around in this phone booth or under the shelter. And," he added, looking rather pompous, "My car's just behind this row of buildings."

Ginny's eyes widened. "You have a car?"

Draco sighed dramatically. "No; I live right smack in the middle of Muggle London. Very conducive place for using floo powder. Of course I have a car. Don't you?"

"Well, I drive Jade's every now and then, but I'm going to wait a few months more before I get my licence." Ginny sighed. "I don't like driving much. Especially not in the middle of Muggle London."

"So...you're following me?" Draco asked, as a subtle reminder.

Ginny paused. She hated to admit it, but she really wanted to.

"Fine," she said.

And so it began--she saw Draco's car (a Peugeot; metallic silver and new), she rode in it (he let her twiddle with the radio), and she saw his house.

Which was a perfectly normal, well-kept semi-d. Not bad.

"So...sit down or something--watch the cushions, though," Draco advised, gesturing at the exquisite-looking silk cushions. "I have a load of things to do, so watch TV if you want--" He showed her how to operate his television, change channels, increase and decrease the volume, et cetera, "--and yell if you need anything."

"Right," Ginny said slowly, digesting everything he was saying. "Thanks."

He disappeared upstairs, and soon she heard the sound of computer keys rattling.

She must have sat there, watching TV for ages, because after an hour's worth of music videos, a fairly interesting documentary on Spain, half an hour of channel surfing, and one episode of an incredibly lame game show with an incredibly sissy host, she glanced at the clock. It was seven-thirty, and outside a sleepy fog was beginning to enfold the buildings and houses, their lights glittering in the near dark sky.

"Draco!" she yelled.

"What?"

"For your information, it's seven-thirty!"

"Just hold on! They should be contacting us soon!"

Was that all he could say? Ginny sighed, deciding not to reply. She switched the TV off before settling herself more comfortably among the cushions. To hell with watching them; they were terribly comfortable. Before she knew it, she was asleep.

* * * * *

Something soft crashed into Ginny, waking her up. She let out a shriek. The something was pummeling her, and she began swatting at it, screaming.

Upstairs, Draco realised his efforts must have paid off. After hours of trying to track Blaise via the computer (something they had installed, which Draco had protested against but was now glad they had done so), Blaise had finally sent an emergency owl.

Except now it must have crashed into Ginny.

Draco bolted out of his room so fast he knocked over the chair he had been using.

He ran downstairs to see Ginny lying on the floor, curled up, hanging on to a cushion for dear life. Looking up, Draco spotted the owl Blaise had sent perched on top of a cupboard.

"Ginny," he said, dropping to the ground beside her. "What happened? And you're murdering my cushion."

She looked up and glowered at him. "I don't care about your cushion--I'm closer to death than it is." She took a breath. "What the hell was that thing?" she complained. She began to sit up, but grimaced slightly.

"Damn it. My...arm,"Ginny muttered thickly, struggling to sit up again and protect her arm at the same time. Draco assisted her, as gently as possible, afraid he might hurt her arm further. She rolled up her sleeve immediately.

"Oh, shit," Ginny growled, staring at her arm. "There'll be one hell of an ugly purple bruise there by the end of the day." Against his own will, Draco found himself delighting in the expanse of skin. However, lest she realised he was taking the opportunity to ogle her, he turned his thoughts to her injury.

"Damn. What happened?"

She frowned at him. "The thing practically attacked me," she said. "So I fell."

"Oh, the thing." Draco beckoned to the owl, which flew over to him. Ginny watched in disbelief. "That thing was an owl?"

"What does it look like, a Hippogriff?" Draco scoffed. The owl dropped a letter on Draco's head before flying up to the safety of the cupboard; perhaps it knew Ginny was thinking of clobbering it just then. She turned and glared at it, eyes shooting daggers of resentment.

Draco opened the letter immediately; Blaise had scrawled a short message on it. "We looked for you two everywhere--but we couldn't find you. Jade will be picking Ginny up in a while."

"How did they know I was here?" Ginny asked, impressed.

"Tracking system. Inside my computer. Took a hell of a long time too, since Blaise here refuses to buy a mobile," Draco explained, turning the letter over. There was nothing else. He tossed it aside. "So, you can expect Jade to show up soon."

She nodded, but there was a silence; a rather uncomfortable one too; after that.

"So...your arm?" Draco asked, breaking the silence.

"It's fine," Ginny assured, glancing up at him, her eyes meeting his. He didn't look away.

"You know," she went on cautiously, "You've been surprisingly nice to me lately. And though I'm terribly grateful to you at this point and I hate to say something like this, I'm starting to wonder just how much of your behaviour is sincere, seeing how you tortured my family so much in the past."

There was a pause. "Are you asking me to be rude to you?"

"Would you be rude to me?"

"I could. And I could do bad things to you as well," Draco said, and Ginny wondered what he meant.

"Like what?"

"I don't know. Kiss you?"

Ginny was taken aback. "That isn't a bad thing. Besides, you wouldn't dare."

"I would, since you say it isn't bad."

"We'll see."

"No," Draco said, and Ginny saw that familiar smirk playing about his lips again; "You will see. Not both of us. If I even tried to kiss you, you'd be beating the living daylights out of me with the first thing you could grab, yank out my eyeballs from my sockets, and the next thing we know, I'll be bedridden and blind and lying in a hospital bed, with you coming around to take advantage of my inability to see by propping a huge sign at the end of my bed that says, 'I am blind, therefore I am.'"

Ginny stared at him for a long time. "That's awful."

"Well, that's a relief. At least you won't plan on doing that to me."

"You haven't even tried to kiss me, and you're already assuming I'll do that?" Ginny asked.

"I could always try. Now, for instance."

Ginny set her jaw. "Fine. Try and--"

She was cut off by Draco, who did exactly what she had challenged him to. Shocked, Ginny could only close her eyes and let him do all the work. This is definitely something I can get used to, she thought, but all too soon, he pulled away, eyeing her intensely. She blinked in shock. The room around her was hazy; distorted. Like somebody had crept in and loaded truckloads of mist fans into the room in ten seconds flat.

"--k-kiss me," she finally finished, her voice faltering, her cheeks growing warm.

"I can do much better, you know," Draco said smugly.

"Let's see you, then," Ginny said in a voice she barely recognised. Once she had uittered the words, she wished she could take them back. They sounded so unlike herself, yet...as she stared up at Draco, who seemed to be moving in very rapidly indeed, she was

slightly in awe at her own ability to make him grin so devilishly.

Draco kissed her again, this time taking hold of her left shoulder and pushing her to the ground, pressing against her, making Ginny pray he couldn't hear (or, judging from the position they were in, feel) how loudly her heart was pounding. Her arms wound themselves around him, so she could savour every bit of the kiss in depth. Draco, meanwhile, raised one hand to cup her chin, fingers coming into contact with her incredibly delicate jaw. And just as Ginny was beginning to wonder how long they would go on for, the doorbell rang.

They flew apart immediately. Ginny glanced urgently at Draco, eyes wide, chest heaving slightly. "That must be Jade," she whispered rather unsteadily. Before Draco could reply, the doorbell rang again and they got to their feet hurriedly. "Hello?" It was unmistakably Jade. "Anyone there? Hello? What are you two doing?"

Draco got up, ran to the door and flung it open. "Jade!" he said, rather loudly. "Hi."

"Hi, Draco, I've come to take Gin ho--" Jade said, then paused. "Where is she, anyway?"

"Here!" Ginny gasped, scrambling to her feet. "Sorry...I was just, er, getting my things." She laughed nervously. "You know. My dress and all."

Jade raised an eyebrow. Then her mobile began to ring. "Hold on," she said, "My phone...excuse me for a moment." She disappeared into the porch, talking.

"I thought you said her mobile was out?" Draco reminded Ginny, who was staring out the door, as baffled as Draco.

"I'll...I'll ask her later," Ginny said, but it was the least of her worries. Her throat was dry. And her lips were, too. She bit the bottom one and looked at Draco. He raised both eyebrows.

"Don't give me that look!" Ginny hissed frantically, glancing at Jade out of the corner of her eye. Draco ignored her and only sidled up next to her, and Ginny read the suggestive look in his eyes. "Just imagine," Draco drawled, "What would have happened if Jade had been just, oh, ten minutes later?"

Ginny shivered. What a crazy thrill he gave her.

"Whatever it is, you should thank the owl," she said, swallowing hard and glancing outside. Jade was conversing animatedly, making frantic-looking gestures.

"Methinks you're thinking we have more time for another kiss?" Draco guessed.

Ginny smiled. "Actually, I don't think so," she said. "Sorry. She might look this way and then..." She made a face. "I have to go. But if I'm not mistaken, we might have to, er, go out again tomorrow."

Draco nodded knowingly, and Ginny turned to go.

It was not like Draco at all, to feel nagging disappointment inside, as he watched her bound out the door. How she made him that way, he would never know. He hadn't thought he would ever feel anything for someone like her.

Well, at least my parents aren't around to stop me from seeing her, Draco thought bitterly, and closed the door.