Draco's Diary (It's Our Secret, Beloved)

Chapter 3 - The Knight-Errant Returns

Come What May - Nicole Kidman

Never knew I could feel like this,
It's like I've never seen the sky before,
Want to vanish inside your kiss,
Every day I'm loving you more and more.
Listen to my heart, can't you hear it sing?
Come back to me, and forgive everything!
Seasons may change, winter to spring...
But I love you,
Until the end of time.

'You!' Ginny gasped.

'You,' he said breathlessly. His hand reached out, trailing tapered fingers along her hair. 'You cut your hair...'

'Get your hands off me.' Ginny's voice was low, tight and controlled. She was frigid in stance, her lips tight together.

Recognising the danger signals, Draco lowered his hand reluctantly.

'Hi, by the way,' Ginny said.

'Hello,' Draco replied.

They stared at each other in silence for a few moments until a thunderclap shook the entire room.

'So, damn these awkward silences, eh?' Draco joked.

He stopped chuckling when he looked at Ginny's face. She could have been carven from stone.

'I'm not very good at this, am I?' Draco confessed.

'"Good at this"?' Ginny snarled. 'What, nowadays there's a protocol for ripping out your girlfriend's heart and then sending her an owl a year and a half later reminding her of everything that went on?'

Draco winced.

'And it's "morgue", by the way. You always got song lyrics wrong,' she added with the smallest possible smile.

'I'm certain that they said "moor". Why would they be in a morgue?' Draco asked, honestly perplexed.

'It's "morgue",' Ginny rejoined.

'No, it has to be: "moor",' he continued.

'I don't want to have this argument,' Ginny said, stopping herself from repeating "morgue" just in time.

'Very well then, what argument would you like to have?' Draco said, attempting humour again.

'Oh, let's try the good old-fashioned, "WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?!" one.'

Draco sighed and sank into the armchair. 'I was thinking this: I love you. I miss you. I need you.'

'Now that you have that off your chest, what the hell was the deal with that letter?' she demanded.

Draco hung his head and placed two slim hands across his face.

'Have you any idea how much it hurt being away from you?' he murmured. 'How much it burned that you left me?'

'Oh, so now I'm the bad guy in all of this?' Ginny gasped. 'I'm sorry, but I'm not going to let you send me on another guilt trip to make me stay.'

'Oh, but I don't want you to stay,' he replied.

Wrong-footed, Ginny gasped. 'What?'

'Come with me. I need you by my side again, I need you to see what I'm doing. Now that I see you again, more radiant and beautiful than the last time I laid eyes on you...I realise that my biggest mistake was not asking you to come with me in the first place.'

'You're insane.'

'Am I?'

'You are! You're a raving loon, and I think you actually want to be that way so you can play the pity card with me!' Her voice had risen several octaves, and she was frightened that she was going to cry.

'My Ginevra!' Draco gasped, reaching out and placing his trembling hands gently about her neck, holding her. 'The only thing I want to be right now is one of your tears...so I could be born in your eye, live on your cheek and die on your lips. Cry for me. I want to see those tears!'

'Waxing lyrical again?' Ginny muttered bitterly.

'As ever and always,' Draco admitted.

'Draco...' she began, but Draco silenced her by placing a delicate finger to her lips.

'So sweet to hear you say my name!' he murmured. 'Say it again, please...'

His finger traced the outline of her lips and moved to her jawbone. He gripped her chin firmly between his fingertips and tilted her face back and forth, watching the candlelight play across her features. Ginny shivered in anticipation.

'As beautiful as ever,' he whispered, sending a shiver up Ginny's spine. 'Thinner than I remember...and less freckles. Have you been spending a lot of time indoors?'

'What's it to you?' she said weakly, her voice betraying her stony stance.

'It's everything to me, my beautiful one.'

'Don't call me that,' Ginny retorted.

'Beautiful?'

'No. The whole, "my" thing. I'm not yours, not any more. You made sure of that when you slept with that cheap slut!'

'Oh, Ginny...' Draco moaned. 'You have no idea how sorry I am.'

'Sorry won't cut it, Malfoy.' She said his surname with venom that alarmed him.

'Maybe you're right...It was so good, being with you. Far too good to last,' he admitted.

'Too good to last?' she yelped. 'Love doesn't have a "best before" date, you bloody useless pillock!' She sighed and turned away from him. 'Answer me this honestly, Draco...' she said. 'Do you want me?'

'No.'

'Do you love me?'

'No.'

'If I leave now, will you cry?'

'No.'

'Fine, then!' Ginny stormed from the house into the downpour outside. Within seconds she was soaked to the skin, her hair plastered against her scalp. She screamed at the sky, venting her frustration and hurt into the thunder and lightning as they rent the earth.

Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder.

She turned and saw Draco.

'I don't want you,' he shouted over the rain, 'I need you so desperately it frightens me. I don't merely love you; I adore you like no other. And if you leave me once more, I won't cry...I'll die.'

'You manipulative scum!' Ginny roared. 'You think you can play games with me like this?'

'Love is not a game, Ginevra,' Draco retorted. 'I LOVE YOU, GOD DAMN IT!'

Thunder split the sky, and Ginny turned to Draco.

'It will never work,' she said, her voice breaking into a sob. 'We're too different!'

'You're so full of fire and life,' he said.

'And you're so cold and reserved,' she replied.

'Opposites attract, do they not?' Draco yelled, blinking water from his eyes.

'In Muggle science, yes!'

Draco laughed heartily.

'It's been proven with us, Ginevra!'

He gathered her into his arms.

'Come with me! See the world with me! Walk the world by my side, and nothing will ever break us apart, I swear it to you now upon my life and soul.'

Ginny shivered in the rain, her arms folded across her chest. Her teeth chattered madly in her skull and she stomped her feet to keep warm.

Draco whipped off his cloak and wrapped it around her. It was warm and dry, obviously enchanted with an Impervious charm.

'Lips are turning blue,' Draco serenaded. 'A kiss that can't renew, I only dream of you, my beautiful...'

Ginny laughed in spite of herself.

'So you've discovered Muse, have you?' she asked.

'Come back inside, you'll catch your death out here,' Draco urged.

He wrapped a protective arm around her back and escorted her back to the Burrow, all the while ignoring the miniature tempest that raged about them.