Take Me for Longing

Take Me For Longing

“Don’t choose me because I am faithful
Don’t choose me because I am kind
If your heart settles on me, I’m for the taking
Take me for longing or leave me behind”
~

Draco Malfoy couldn’t say what it was he felt as he approached the young woman. Her hair was a pretty dark green, suitable for any outfit of clothing. It was a little wasted on her hair, he thought.

She was dressed in a glittery gold tank top and dark black jeans - Muggle clothes, he thought. But somehow the young witch managed to seem perfectly at home in them.

She glanced over at him, careless, and Draco felt something twist in his heart. This girl would be his, he thought, and if she doesn’t agree, too bad.

He walked over to her, conscious of the indifferent looks she gave him. She wasn’t really beautiful, but she was striking, in a way. Maybe it was the impassive look in the bottomless brown eyes she turned on him. This girl, she would kill without a second thought. My kind of girl, Draco realized.

“So, what might be your name, darling?” he asked as he slid into a seat next to her. This was a casual restaurant, and so was she.

“Ginny Athanasius.”

As she said it, she smiled, a slow smile that reminded Draco of the old saying, “You’ll catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.” Ginny Athanasius was a death trap of honey for any who dared cross her path.

But it also made him recall, with a shiver, Ginny Weasley. The beauty of her year, though she would never admit nor acknowledge it. And how she had hated him...

Draco simply stared at her for a moment. Then... “Would you care to dance?”

It was her question, not his. A brave girl, too. Ruthless and heartless and brave. He stood as she did, and they waltzed onto the floor.

~
“I would be, for you, a fire in a rainbow
I would be, for you, an opening door.”
~

After the song ended, Draco smiled at her, his Ginny, for she was his already. It was a different sort of smile than hers, earlier.

And Ginny only smiled back, knowing that she could never love again. But she was free for the taking. She was reckless, she was cold, and she didn’t care any more.

In an unspoken agreement, they left the restaurant. Draco nodded to the fine Muggle car he had borrowed from the Ministry. The pair walked towards it, and Ginny got in without a second thought. Draco might think he had control of her: but she would never let anyone control her again. That was shy she called herself Ginny Athanasius, was it not?

She would open the door for this man, as unfeeling as she was, and make him love again. Moran’s memory deserved that, at least.

~
“I’m not asking for your heart to believe me
I’m not asking for promise or pledge
Time and hard lessons are one kind of wisdom
Try to forget them, or love me no more.”
~

She did teach him to love, her at least. And his Ginny, his lovely girl with the green hair, never loved him back. But he never knew it, and she never told him. And every night, she would lie awake thinking of Moran, waiting for when she could see him again.

And then one day, Draco asked her to marry him.

She knew immediately what she would do. Her face lit up in a devilish smile, and she murmured, “But it’s so much fun to be unmarried.”

His face broke into a smile then too. And Ginny knew he wouldn’t ask for her hand again. She was too good an actress, and Draco would never know that she had decided, on the day Voldemort died, that she would never marry, because she couldn’t love.

~
“If your heart settles on me, I’m for the taking
Take me for longing or leave me behind.”
~

A few months after Draco proposed to his Ginny Athanasius, he went out to stroll in the woods by his house. They were beautiful, and he never would have known but for his Ginny.

That’s all he ever called her now, because she was his Ginny, his beloved. Draco had never thought adore he would something the way he adored his Ginny. Not even Ginny Weasley had he ever worshipped the way he did his Ginny.

When he arrived back home, it was quiet. He blinked, creasing his forehead in curiosity. His Ginny loved to sing, and she often did.

He crept up the stairs, wondering if perhaps she was asleep.

When he reached her room, he opened the door, and there was his Ginny, lying on the bed.

And not breathing.

He hurried over to her side, grasped her hand. But it was cold as marble. “Why?” he whispered. “Ginny, why?”

Then he saw the note lying next to her head. He picked up.

My dear Draco:
It would only be fair to say I have lied to you, the whole time we’ve been together. My name is not Ginny Athanasius; it never was.

You knew me as Ginny Weasley, when we were at Hogwarts.

And now I’m gone. I’m dead, even as you read this. Why? Because I danced too far, Draco, my dear. We all do crazy things, and I spent my whole life dancing - with people, with fairies, with goblins, with Dementors. Perhaps not literally; but I have danced in a fairy ring.

Draco, promise me you will not give up. Promise me that you will continue to love. I have died for love, my darling. And please, never forget how to love.

~Your Ginny

Draco stared at the note, his Ginny’s careful lettering, his Ginny that would never laugh, never smile, never breathe again. And he cried.



“Whatever the answer, it’s yes that’s the question
I am the fool dancin’ over the edge.”