Now That I Know

Now That I Know

By AmberNixie

Chapter Seven - Revelations

Ginny did not doubt the fact that she was not going to let Jade in on her little secret. As long as she could replay the little snogging session over and over again in her head--and maybe cook up several fantasies at the same time--without letting Jade find out, everything would be perfectly in place.

It was like a getting present at Valentine's from a secret admirer--instead of sharing the news with the whole wide world, it was something she just wanted to keep to herself for the time being.

But for it to remain top-secret, Ginny had to take Jade's mind off any thoughts whatsoever concerning how Ginny had spent her time at Draco's.

"Jade, what happened just now?" she asked when Jade finally got off her mobile

and they were heading home in Jade's Honda. "Why do you have your car with you, how were you tracked, how did you send an owl and how the hell did you get your mobile charged?" I'm doing pretty well, she thought. Now I'll just have to hope she takes the bait.

"Okay, okay, one question at a time!" Jade said, laughing. "Blaise and I were forced to go into Diagon Alley after it started to rain, where we then used floo powder to go home, get my car and charge my mobile. I met up with Blaise, who had by then been tracked down, and we sent Draco an owl. Voila. Does that answer your five questions?"

"Yeah. But couldn't you have hurried? I was stuck at Draco's for hours," Ginny said without thinking.

Like the keen busybody she was, Jade snapped up the statement. "By the way, what did you do at Draco's anyway?" she asked, twirling a lock of her hair oh-so-innocently, but failing to conceal the interest on her face.

"Oh, nothing much, I just watched TV," Ginny lied hastily, realising her slip-up a little too late. Her heart began to pound once more, a warning sign that meant she was about to start blushing. She tried to send a mental message to her peripheral capillaries. Jade could not suspect anything.

"That must have been pretty boring, no? I mean, you were there for, what, five hours?" Jade was watching her out of the corner of her eye.

"Yeah, about that," Ginny said, trying to sound nonchalant. Fortunately Jade dropped the matter and began talking about something or another, and Ginny was so relieved that she didn't even realise what Jade was saying. It was only when she caught a bit of Jade's babbling--'ballroom dancing'--did she sit up and listen.

"What did you say?"

Jade blinked. "I said, we'll have ballroom danci--"

"Dancing?" Ginny gasped. "Ballroom dancing? When? And I don't even know how!"

"During the wedding dinner at Blaise's. And to hell with not knowing how; Draco will teach you," Jade said smugly. It took a while for it all to register in Ginny's head, but when it did, she could only shake her head. "Absolutely not!"

Jade sighed and launched into one of her pleading speeches. "Ginny, come on, what are you worried about? I mean, ballroom dancing's got to be the trendiest thing on wedding dinner lists nowadays, so it's not like you'll be doing something outdated--"

"No, Jade, it's not that--"

"Please, Ginny? It'll be easy. And you don't have to fork out a single cent; Draco probably wouldn't dare to make you pay for lessons." Jade smiled blithely, but Ginny's heart sank. She couldn't spend any more time in the vein of the time she'd spent with Draco that afternoon, she knew. She simply couldn't. He was affecting her terribly. And as much as she had, admittedly, enjoyed kissing him, she wasn't sure whether she could face him again without her face looking as if it were on fire.

* * * * *

"It's really simple, frankly I'd have expected you to know how," Draco remarked slightly coolly, as he explained the basics of ballroom dancing to Ginny the next day. Ginny tensed slightly, digging her fingernails into her blue sweatpants. Draco was getting on her nerves again, the way he always used to. She had forced herself to come here, to his house again, to learn. And this was how he was talking? Like she was some monkey who didn't have an idea how to dance? She knew she just needed a little coaching. That was all.

"I'm sure you know where to put your hands," Draco said, and positioned himself, one hand on her waist, the other in her hand, and Ginny couldn't help but tingle, even though he was currently being very smug and condescending.

He did not say anything more, only started the music and took her through several steps. Ginny had to admit that dancing with him was fairly exciting, and...she searched for the word. Well, it was certainly an eye-opener. She had no idea he could dance so well. And as, to her surprise, she managed to execute a rather tricky-looking move, she began having mental pictures of herself waltzing brilliantly through a room.

It didn't surprise her to find that he was in the picture too. And dancing with her at that.

"Not bad," Draco said suddenly, breaking into her reverie. "We should try it again, but you dance well for a beginner, Weasley." Ginny was surprised to see him grinning--it was a genuine, albeit rather reluctant grin. Relieved, a grin spread across her own face as well--who could deny it was refreshing to see Draco Malfoy grinning like that?

They ran through the steps once more, and the mental pictures were coming back when Ginny, lost in her pleasant daydream, misplaced her right foot, stepped on his left, lost her orientation, shrieked, got entangled with him, and fell right into his arms. Heart in her throat, she took deep breaths, steadying herself, beginning to grasp exactly what had happened.

The sound of Draco's voice floated down to her. "Still alive?"

Ginny looked cautiously up at him. "Y...Yes," she mumbled weakly. Her body was pressed, against his; he had caught her in her arms and now they were encircling her upper body, though in a slightly odd position. Her own arms, which had been grasping air desperately, now were planted firmly around his neck. He looked suprisingly anxious, and Ginny's heart gave a pleasant jolt.

Helping Ginny steady herself, Draco realised his heart was hammering, which was highly unusual. Ginny was blushing, and he swallowed hard. God, she was doing things to his mind. And she was only blushing, for crying out loud! He felt timid, something he usually wasn't. Come to think of it, it was something he was against.

She straightened up slowly. "Thanks," she said quietly, smiling slightly at him. He was caught off-guard. "No...no problem."

They stopped there. Ginny decided she had had enough for one day. Draco found himself wanting her to stay, and he almost told her so, too. But he caught himself in time, and let her go. There was no need for him to appear overly interested--at least not yet.

Draco closed the door after Ginny and crashed onto the sofa. It was hard not to think of her, especially after that nerve-wracking dance lesson, and the mind-blowing kiss the day before. It was hard to believe this was the Ginny Weasley he had known at Hogwarts. Sure, she was alright then, looks-wise, and had annoyed him much less than her insufferable brother. At least not until the Bat-Bogey Hex, of course. He chuckled involuntarily at the memory.

Could she really have changed him if they had known each other well back then? He had never been neither giving nor loving. But ever since she jumped onto the scene, he found himself sometimes doing things to make her happy. And he liked it when she was happy.

He only wished he had been kinder to her in the past. Maybe gotten to know her. Maybe they could have even been friends.

He had to dispel the thought. It was easy for him to think something like that now, as a mature adult whose brain, he decided, was bound to be fully conquered by Ginny. But he knew he had been an absolute rotten kid back then. Nothing had stopped him from making her life hell.

* * * * *

"Blaise, I need to talk to you." Ginny sat opposite Blaise in his bungalow after her very unnerving dancing lesson. "It's about Draco." She had desperately needed to talk to somebody about him. He never told her about himself, and she had lately been feeling very frustrated with her lack of knowledge. For God's sake, she thought, we bloody well kissed and I still don't know what he does for a living.

"Sure," Blaise said, though looking slightly confused.

"See, I hardly know anything about him." Ginny bit her lip. "I don't know where he works, where his parents are, how you two became friends..." She shook her head. "He won't seem to tell me anything, and it's kind of intimidating to have to actually ask him about his...private life."

Blaise nodded slowly. "Draco doesn't tell many people about his life, I'll give you that. I don't know if he's ashamed about it, or he just wants to keep it hidden. But anyway," he went on matter-of-factly, "His parents are dead."

Ginny's eyes widened. "Dead? But...how?"

"It's one of Draco's most hidden secrets." Blaise smiled wryly. "His father died during the war against the Dark Lord, and his mother died from illness shortly after...I don't know what it was; the mediwizards didn't either. I suppose she could've been cured if she'd been allowed to see Muggle doctors, but Muggles were the very people her late husband was against. In short, the war took both his parents away, and though Draco's never come out in the open to tell me how he feels, I think he's very much disturbed."

Ginny shook her head in disbelief. "I had no idea."

"He's only told me," Blaise confessed. "But frankly, it was a good thing his father died. No offence to the man, but he never loved Draco anyway. His influence on his son was evident, though. Draco was going to become a Death Eater."

"...And then?" Ginny breathed, her body tense. The skeletons in Draco's closet he tried so hard to keep locked away were being revealed now, all thanks to his best friend. She wasn't sure whether she ought to be doing something so intrusive. But now that she'd started, she decided she might as well find out the rest of it.

"Before he could join, the war began," Blaise went on. "It was too late--and by the time it was over, the Dark Lord was dead."

His words struck Ginny. Draco wanted to be a Death Eater. The Draco who bought her the snowglobe. The Draco she kissed. The Draco she had danced with. Feeling faint, Ginny said, "But...didn't you want to be one as well?"

"No," Blaise said. "I had no intention of doing so. In the past, they all called me the quiet Slytherin because I never shared their hopes and dreams. I preferred to be alone--all their aspirations were a waste of time." He looked down. "And I was right. They were all too late to make the cut."

"But how did you and Draco meet? I mean, you didn't want to be a Death Eater, and you're working in the Muggle world...wasn't that what Draco was against at the time?" Ginny felt uneasy; forcing every bit of Draco's hidden past out was not exactly something to be proud of.

"As I said, Draco was heavily influenced by his father," Blaise reminded Ginny. "When Lucius died, Draco changed. He said..." At this Blaise hesitated, and Ginny wondered whether it was because he needed to think, or he was reluctant to tell Ginny. "He said he wanted his own life. We had met at a Slytherin reunion, and by then I was working here, in Muggle London. By then, Lucius and Narcissa were dead, so I persuaded Draco to work in Muggle London, too. And as you can see, that's exactly what he's done."

"But who does he work for?"

"The Secret Service," Blaise said with a little grin.

"The Secret Service? Oh, my God!" she exclaimed. She had never expected Draco to actually agree to assist Muggles he had once shunned. That was his father's doing, she reminded herself, not Draco's. Sudden, inexplicable pride swelled in her.

"He really does work there?" she said softly. "He's not just a...I don't know, an office boy or something?"

Blaise laughed. "Actually, he doesn't exactly help the Muggles, you know. But he doesn't talk about it a lot. He won't tell me exactly what he does for the Secret Service, so I can't tell you what post he has or what he does when he goes to work. But maybe you could ask him yourself." He smiled. "Maybe he'd tell you."

Ginny laughed uneasily and averted her eyes. She knew where this was leading. "No, no," she said. "I...I don't think so."

"He might. I think it's clear he's interested in you, you know," Blaise said, grinning in a way that reminded Ginny instantly of Jade. "I'm not kidding."

"Come off it, Blaise, you know that's not true," Ginny said. But she felt a certain strange warmth stir inside her heart. She decided it was time to go--Blaise was probably tired of her questioning him, and she was beginning to feel uncomfortable with her findings. "I think I've taken too much of your time," she apologised. "I'll just be heading home now." She stood up to go.

"It was no trouble," Blaise said. "Any time you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask." He opened the door for her.

"Thanks." Ginny smiled. She hesitated. "Draco is lucky to have a friend like you."

"Well, he's lucky to have you, too," Blaise said with a smile. "See you."

Ginny said goodbye distractedly and made her way down the driveway. Blaise's words echoed. Was he right? She was lost in thought all the way home, thinking of Blaise's adamant declaration of Draco's feelings; of how he had insisted Draco was lucky to have her, and most of all, of how she had uncovered all his secrets in a mere twenty minutes.