Love Hurts, But It's Worth It.

Love Hurts, But It's Worth It.

Chapter Four: The Start Of Something Big.

"I cannot believe that Ginny is doing that." Angelina's voice was disbelieving and Fred nodded his head. They were both staring across the room at Ginny and Draco and their huge display of very public affection, as were an awful lot of other people in the room.

"Why are you all so surprised?" Darcy was just leaning against a wall, sipping champagne and watching with disinterest. "Draco is irresistible to most women. Why should Ginny be any different?"

"Most women did not go to school with him. He made our lives hell in those seven years. No offence, Darcy, but you weren't there."

"You know, Ron, you can't have spent a lot of time around Draco for a long time. He's changed a lot, okay?" She smiled, but they could all tell she was irritated. "I mean, I'm only here because he asked me along, and I probably have no right to say anything, but he's had a shitload of stuff to handle. He isn't the Draco you went to school with, he's found out a lot of stuff about himself, and his family, and what his father has done."

"What? Besides try and kill my sister?" Darcy stared back and she then looked down slightly.

"So that's who she is."

"Yeah, that's who 'she' is. She's my sister, and Lucius tried to kill her, and I'm not putting up with that shit again. I appreciate that you know him better, and you seem really nice, Darcy, but I'm not about to trust him. Especially not with my baby sister."

"Ron, put your hackles down." Hermione stroked his arm gently and he nodded at her. "Just have a drink and calm down. Ginny can look after herself, and she knows she has all of you to look out for her, and I'm sure she appreciates it." Harry nodded.

"She definitely knows, Ron, and Draco knows too now." He leaned against the wall next to Darcy and she gave him a reluctant smile, making Hermione prod Ron in the arm and point out Harry's silent flirting.

*&*

The party went on for a long while, well into the early hours of the morning, until Professor Minerva McGonagall, headmistress of Hogwarts, told everyone that the house elves were anxious to clean up, and that it was very late.

The party thinned out and eventually only a few people talking animatedly with old friends they hadn't seen for years and George Weasley, passed out under the drinks table, were left. Hermione and Ron had disappeared up to their bedroom, as had Harry, and Fred and Angelina, and the rest of their crowd.

Draco and Ginny went for a little walk in the garden for some fresh air, and to see the stars again, but by the time Ginny returned she was seeing very different stars. It had never occurred to her in all her time at Hogwarts that the best kisser in the world was right under her nose and was her brother's worst enemy. Draco Malfoy was not the boy Ron had always warned her to steer clear of. He was witty, intelligent, and had a really sweet streak that she adored. He even said he would walk her to her bedroom door.

"This is my room, Draco."

"Oh, okay then." She was about to say something, and opened her mouth to do so when he grabbed her arms and began to kiss her again.

Ginny wrapped her arms around his neck and stood on tiptoes to stay at his level. He pulled her tight against him by encircling her waist with his arms, and she slid her hands up into his hair, messing it up as she stroked it.

"Draco," she whispered. He pulled away to look at her and she swallowed loudly. "I have to go into my room now." Her voice was breathy and she cursed herself for being so nervous at leaving him out here on his own. "Thanks for walking me to my door though."

"No problem." He kissed her cheek lightly, their arms still around one another. "Is there anything else I could do for you?" He kissed her again and slid his hands down the silky material of her dress. "For example, help you out of this thing?" He smiled into her neck and rained kisses down onto her face and shoulders.

"No, Draco, I've only just met you."

"We went to school together for seven years!"

"Six years, and you only know that because I told you. You had no idea who I was before that, and you would offer the same thing to any girl you thought was attractive and had picked up, whether you knew them or not."

"How do you know me so well?"

"Call it feminine intuition, my dear Draco." He kissed her again and then let her go. Stepping back, he smiled wickedly at her and gave her the most knee-weakening look she'd ever been given.

"Sleep well, Ginny. I know I will." He turned and walked away, leaving her leaning against her doorframe staring after him. She opened her door and went inside to where her bags were sitting on her four-poster bed. The velvet trimmings that hung off it were deep red and she smiled at the odd familiarity of the room.

After shutting the door, Ginny pulled her bags off the bed and put them on the floor. She opened her big case and grabbed her night clothes, which consisted of a pair of black silk shorts and a huge white t-shirt that had belonged to an ex-boyfriend and had 'Gladrags Wizardwear-London, Paris, Hogsmeade' emblazoned across the front. She was about to pull off the dress when there was a knock on the door and she frowned but hurried over to open it.

*&*

Ron turned over in bed and looked at Hermione as she folded the last of the day's clothes and put them back into her suitcase.

"Honey, stop folding dirty clothes and come to bed."

"Oh, you're such a romantic, stop it before you hurt yourself." She smiled as she looked at him and pulled out a sheet of parchment, handing it to him. "Itinerary for tomorrow. And before you ask, I didn't write it, it was given to us."

"'Full tour of Hogwarts grounds and castle.' Why do we want to do that, Herm? We went to school here for seven years, I know what Hogwarts looks like."

"Don't whinge, we're here to take in the new atmosphere and meet up with old friends, I bet more people come on all the days. If they couldn't manage to come last night, they might come later in the week." She saw Ron's face and carried on quickly. "And, no, we couldn't have come later, I wanted to come to the party." Ron sighed, threw the parchment onto the floor and leaned back, holding out his bare arms for her. Hermione climbed into bed and cuddled up against his naked chest.

"I love you, Herm."

"I know. You know I love you too, right?" He nodded and pulled her into a kiss.

"I do want to be here, I'd want to be wherever you are."

"You really are a hopeless romantic, aren't you?"

"I like to think so." Hermione laughed and closed her eyes, thinking of all the time she'd spent with Ron in this castle, laughing, doing homework, mucking about in the common room, kissing, and doing other things. Being head girl had definitely had its advantages, and having a private room had most certainly been one of them.

*&*

"Evening, sweetheart." Draco was lounging against the heavy wooden doorframe, his head cocked to one side and his smirk fixed on his face. "Got any room?" Ginny rolled her eyes and he raised his left eyebrow quite elegantly. She suddenly looked down.

Her brain started working overtime and Ginny realised that she wasn't sixteen anymore, that she wasn't a child anymore, but Hogwarts was bringing out all of the adolescent feelings it had witnessed all that time ago. Ginny knew with startling revelation exactly what she should do. When she looked up, her face was completely serious.

"I think I could find you somewhere." His smile spread slowly across his face and he stood up and took two steps, which meant he was almost nose-to-nose with her.

"I know exactly why I like you, Ginny Weasley, you have such good taste." His mouth came down and closed over hers, and his hands went immediately to the back of her dress, where the zip was. Ginny took a few steps, taking him further into her room and he kicked the door shut.

"What would you say if I told you that you are far too persistent for your own good, Draco Malfoy?"

"I'd say that that feminine intuition of yours is a very handy tool to have."

*&*

Ginny stared at him as he slept, she was amazed that he had gone off to sleep so quickly, and for some reason she couldn't stop looking at him. The dark crimson sheets were contrasting sharply with the paleness of his skin and he looked almost ethereal as he lay on his back, breathing gently.

His pale blond hair was spread across the pillow, almost touching her red hair as it lay across the pillows as well. His arm was thrown out so it was curled around the top of her head and she sighed, unable to tear her eyes away from his beauty.

"Draco," she whispered. His eyes opened immediately, he was obviously a very light sleeper.

"Hmm?" He shifted up slightly and looked at her.

"You should go back to your own room."

"Why?" His little smile slid across his mouth and he cocked his head to one side again, making her stomach bubble as she looked at him.

"Because I don't think people should see you leaving my room in the morning."

"And me leaving your room in the middle of the night is more favourable because?" He raised his eyebrows by way of finishing the sentence.

"They won't see you, that's the point."

"You trying to hide me, Ginny?" His poise slipped for just a second and she shook her head.

"You don't understand, Draco. If you're seen leaving my room, all your friends will congratulate you, but I'll be called easy by pretty much everyone."

"I won't let anyone call you easy. And it doesn't make you easy, you know that, don't you?" She looked away and he sat up, reached out, took her chin and pulled her face round to look at him. "It does not mean you are easy, Ginny." He enunciated every word loudly and she stared up at him. "It just means you gave in a little earlier than most women do with their boyfriends."

"You want to be my boyfriend?" He looked taken aback, like he hadn't realised what he had said. But then he smiled.

"Sure. Why not?"

"You know my brothers will kill you, right?"

"Yes." She laughed at him, as he lay back on the pillows and stretched, looking uncannily like a cat.

"You still have to go back to your own room." He looked disappointed and Ginny reached out and stroked a hand down his bare, pale chest. "I just think it would be best. Hermione and me talk in the mornings sometimes, we haven't seen each other for ages, and she has a habit of walking in without knocking."

"Oh, now I get it. You don't want her to be jealous because you've got a man with such fantastic physical . . . attributes." She hit him with a pillow and then shrieked as he grabbed her around the waist, pinning her to the mattress.

"Okay, I'm going now, so don't try and stop me." He didn't move and Ginny smiled at him. "Stop trying to convince me, Ginny, I'm going and you can't change that by fluttering your eyelashes at me." She was really laughing now and he looked down at her and his face changed to something very affectionate. Draco leaned down and kissed her lips gently, his grip on her softened and she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"I'll see you in the morning," she said huskily.

He nodded and swallowed hard, he was, for some reason, feeling it weirdly difficult to stop touching her. And her smile was intoxicating him, he was having really strange feelings about some girl he barely knew, but somehow knew better than almost anyone.

He managed to disentangle himself from her, although he didn't quite know how, and she sat on the bed, wrapped in the crimson velvet coversheet, and watched him dress quickly.

"See you at breakfast, Ginny." She nodded as she opened the door for him and he walked out, darted back in to kiss her again, and then strolled off down the dimly lit corridor, his shoes hugged to his chest, and a bubble of something he'd never felt before trapped just under his ribcage.

Ginny closed the door and turned around, leaning against the thick wood as she tried to stop thinking about what had just happened. She couldn't stop and she started smiling uncontrollably. She looked over at her bed, the sheets ruffled and the covers thrown back, and her face almost split apart.

Throwing the red velvet to the ground, Ginny leapt onto her bed and jumped up and down until she thought her heart was going to break into lots of little sparkly pieces. If anyone had walked into that room at that moment they would have been greeted by the sight of a young woman, completely naked, jumping up and down on her bed, grinning like a maniac and looking happier than anyone has ever looked.