A Flame Rekindled

Chapter Three.

"Draco, what are you doing here?"

"I wanted to ask you to come out to dinner with me," Draco replied, one eyebrow pointedly raised.

"Why?" she asked, scowling as she closed the store's shutters with a wave of her wand, and checked to make sure the shop assistant, Lucy, had locked everything away when she had gone home earlier.

"What do you mean 'why?'" he remarked sarcastically. "Because I think it would be an enjoyable evening, you know, an opportunity to catch up."

"Well, thanks for the offer but I think I'm just going to go home," Ginny replied. She didn't know whether she would be able to sit with him at a table and pretend that she didn't still have feelings for him and that, given the opportunity, she would want much more.

Draco sighed to himself. She was too damn stubborn! "Ginny, would you just agree to come? I'm not going to kill you, it's just dinner."

"Are you sure dinner with you won't kill me?" Ginny scowled at him. "Why can't you just leave me be?"

"Because it is my life's aim to antagonise you." Draco smirked at her.

Ginny sighed and rolled her eyes, realising that he was never going to take no for an answer. "Fine." She opened the front door to the store and gestured for him to leave, locking the door and the shutters behind them. "I need to go home first, I don't want to go anywhere in these clothes."

He took a moment to examine her outfit; her shabby dress and dowdy shoes were not suitable attire for and evening out with him. "Okay, we can stop off at yours so you can change."

Ginny raised an eyebrow at him. "What was that look about? So I don't meet your standards? And what do you mean 'we', why do you have to come?"

He looked into her eyes and grinned, thinking this the best way to avoid the dangerous direction that this conversation was heading. "For two reasons: a) I want to see where you live, and b) I'm planning on taking you to a nice place so I think that means I get to tag along."

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Okay, fine, but I have to warn you, I live with Hermione and on the offchance of her being there, you have to be nice. " She paused and smirked at him. "Or maybe you should just aim for civil."

Draco rolled his eyes at her, "I'll do my best."

Ginny rummaged through her bag to find her wand. "Come on then." She tried to ignore the feeling of having Draco's body close to hers and the sensation of his hand around her waist. Pushing the thoughts firmly from her mind, she Apparated them to her apartment.

* * *

When they arrived, Draco was surprised to find that her apartment didn't look overtly magical. The room was very light and modern with magnolia walls and wooden floors and he could see a refrigerator in the far corner of the kitchen to his left, and in front of him was a television with some sofas facing towards it.

"Wait here and I'll go and get changed." Ginny walked as quickly as she could into her bedroom and closed the door after her. Sighing, she walked to her wardrobe and opened it, trying to think of something she could wear. She didn't know how she was going to get through this evening without saying something she would regret, as she still felt resentment towards him for how he left her instead of staying and being with her.

She rummaged through her robes until she came across a deep green set that she had bought in a sale and never worn. "At least he won't complain about the green," she muttered.

Draco meanwhile was using the opportunity to look around the apartment. He noticed there were lots of photographs of the various Weasleys, and he sneered at one of Ginny and Ron. Hermione didn't seem to have as many as Ginny, but then he supposed she didn't have any where near the same sized family. Draco smirked to himself when he found a photograph on a small shelf in the lounge area of Hermione and Ginny on a sunny beach wearing only bikinis.

The apartment was light and airy, almost opposite to the atmosphere he had created in his flat. He didn't know why someone would want to live somewhere that was so bright; it was far too cheerful for his liking. He heard Ginny's door open and he turned to greet her, almost dropping his jaw in surprise when he saw her. She was wearing robes of a deep emerald green that brought out her eyes, and she had charmed her hair so it fell in soft curls down her back.

He realised that he was almost staring, and cleared his throat. "Shall we go?"

"Where are you taking me?" Ginny asked, taking out her wand to Apparate.

"It's a place near to Diagon Alley, it's not too far. If you Apparate outside Madame Malkin's we can walk from there." He spun around and with a small CRACK he was gone. Ginny sighed to herself, running her hand nervously through her hair before following.

* * *

The restaurant was on a thin, cobbled street that felt secluded from the rest of London. It was very quiet, filled with couples quietly eating the delicious French cuisine it offered. A small wizard sat playing a guitar in the far corner of the restaurant which helped to create a much more upscale atmosphere than Ginny was used to.

As they ate their meals, Draco tried to stop staring at Ginny. He didn't want her to catch him looking; he thought it would make him look far too weak. He was relieved that his plan to use the Gryffindor tactic of sheer bullheadedness had managed to get her to come out with him, he felt that they needed to spend some time together to end any bad feelings there were between the two of them. He knew that she had been hurt when he had needed to leave, and he was planning to give himself a chance to make up for that. That included, he acknowledged with much dread, showing an interest in her family and friends.

"So, what does Granger do nowadays?"

Ginny stopped eating, surprised. "Do you really want to know about Hermione?"

"Not really, but, you know... I've been away a while," he shrugged, taking a sip from his glass of red wine.

"She teaches Arithmancy at Hogwarts," Ginny replied.

"Who'd have thought she would end up teaching," Draco said sarcastically.

Ginny smiled. "She's very good; McGonagall really enjoys having her teach there. It's good for me too cause I get the apartment to myself a lot.

"So is she teaching at the moment?"

"No, she and Ron are spending the week together at his place because he has annual leave at the moment. I heard her say something the other day about them going to a show but I was late for work and wasn't really listening."

"Annual leave?"

Ginny nodded. "He's an Auror now. I thought you knew that?"

"I knew Potter was, I didn't realise he was one too." Draco looked into her eyes, one eyebrow raised. "So she's still with Weasley then? Here I was hoping she'd have killed him by now."

Ginny laughed, "I'm surprised she hasn't. They're practically engaged actually, I think Ron's going to propose at Christmas."

"Have you warned her?" Draco joked, smirking at her.

Ginny rolled her eyes and decided to divert the conversation away from her friends and family. "So, what did you do when you were gone?" she asked.

"Mostly I travelled. I tried not to stay in one place for too long, so I went to a few places in Spain and then a couple of places in Asia."

"Wow, that must have been amazing."

"It was good to see all those different places but mostly it was hard work, and I couldn't exactly live in what I would call 'suitable conditions'. I even had to stay in a hostel at one point, which was not pleasant!" Draco turned his nose up at the memory, relieved that it was finally safe for him to stay here.

Ginny giggled. "I can't believe you stayed in a hostel."

"My parents were probably turning in their graves," he smirked to himself. "What have you been doing?"

"Initially I stayed and looked after my parents, you know, helped them deal with Bill's death. But then Fleur left and went back to her family in France, and I decided to do a year at my brothers' store in Diagon Alley, and three years later I'm still there." Ginny took a sip from her glass of white wine. She felt unbelievably tense from the effort of making polite conversation without either of them grazing on deeper issues. "Are you planning on staying here permanently now?"

Draco nodded. "Yes, for the time being, but I was thinking of applying for the job to teach Potions at Hogwarts." He frowned as Ginny burst out laughing. "What's so funny, do you think I wouldn't be very good at it?"

She shook her head. "No, it's just... are you sure you want to go into teaching?"

Draco paused pensively. "Well I don't want to work with all the pompous twats at the Ministry, and I certainly couldn't work with Potter, or your brother that is. And I was the best at potions when I was there." Draco watched Ginny as she drained the last of the wine from her glass, and signalled to a waiter that he wanted to pay their bill. He motioned to her that they should get up and leave.

They started to make their way towards the main road, walking down the long, cobbled street. The moon was beginning to peek out from behind a cloud, basking them both in its eerie glow. A cool breeze swept through the air. Ginny felt the quiet of the night drain all the tension from her body. They Apparated back to her apartment so that he could see her home before he left.

Ginny stood awkwardly, not really knowing what to say to him. "Thank you for dinner," she said simply, smiling softly at him.

Draco relaxed a little; she seemed to be in a better mood with him than she had been earlier. "Well, I hope I've made up a little for what happened," Draco grinned at her.

Ginny felt the anger from all those years ago re-ignite in her veins. "One dinner. You think one dinner is going to make everything okay again?" Ginny gritted out, walking back towards him to lean against her dining table as she watched his arrogant grin slip into the familiar sneer.

"What is wrong with you?" he sneered, immediately becoming defensive towards her anger.

"I don't understand how you think you can just waltz back in and act like nothing's happened!" Ginny shouted, her eyes flashing furiously as she cursed herself for losing her composure. "You were there last night and you helped me, I'm grateful for that, but you can't just act like this. It was too hard back then; I don't think I could do it again!"

"Do what again?" Draco asked. "What are you talking about?"

"You left me!" Ginny exclaimed, her voice almost breaking with anger, "You slept with me and then you just left. Don't you know what that did to me?"

"Don't you think it was hard for me too?" Draco sneered. "Do you think I wanted to leave? Because believe me, there were a lot of things I wanted to do back then but leaving wasn't one of them!"

"And yet no contact, no letters. Nothing except that day when you turned up at work. The only way I knew you were still alive was because I felt sure it would be in the papers," Ginny said, her voice low and menacing.

Draco felt a pang of guilt settle in the pit of his stomach. "I'm sorry; I was trying to stay hidden, stop people from finding me."

"I don't want to hear any more excuses, Draco," Ginny stated, her anger cooling with the realisation that she wasn't just angry with him for leaving, she was angry that he seemed to maintain all composure when around her as if that night three years ago had meant nothing to him. She was even more frustrated that being around him dragged up everything she had felt at the time and believed she had long put behind her. "How can you be so blasé about everything, Draco? Don't you find it difficult to be around me?"

Draco stood looking at her, taking in the way her cheeks were flushed with anger, the way her hair tumbled in soft curls to frame her face, her beautiful brown eyes, the way the green robes she was wearing somehow managed to accentuate every curve in her body. Yes, he did find it difficult. It was excruciating to be so near to her and not take her in his arms, to see her soft, pink lips and not cover them with his own. It was too hard to bear.

"I'm sorry that I left. I'm sorry that I hurt you. I didn't know what to do; I was afraid for my life." His voice was low and regretful, and he sighed while running his hand through his silvery hair. "I've wondered many times whether I made the right decision and I still don't know."

"You should have talked to me!" Ginny exclaimed. "You should have included me in your decision instead of shutting me out! Instead you did what everyone else did and still does - you made the decision and I had to live with the consequences."

"God, do you have to be so irritating?" Draco cried, throwing his hands up in exasperation. "This wasn't about you being sidelined, this was about me surviving! Do you know what they would have done to me if they found me? Because I do, I've seen it. And there you are, standing there, blaming it all on me, making ME out to be the bad guy!"

Ginny looked as though she had been slapped in the face. "You're the one who left!"

Draco nodded. "Yes, I did. I left. Do you know what that was like?" He interrupted her before she could answer. "You might think you do, but you don't. You still had your bloody family around you, I was alone. I left the one person I cared about behind, you still had yours around you."

Ginny was silent, watching him closely. An odd sense of relief had washed over her when he had confessed that he had truly cared about her. After he had left, the one thought that kept haunting her was that he had never cared for her at all and that somehow she had misinterpreted everything that had happened the night before the war. The thought that he had experienced the range of emotions that she had, probably worse as he had nothing to distract him from the pain he was going through, saddened her more than anything.

"I'm sorry, I never thought of how it was for you. I always assumed that you had been fine."

"Well I wasn't," Draco muttered, looking at the floor. He hated admitting his emotions to anyone, especially Ginny. He didn't like looking vulnerable, it was not a trait Malfoys were deemed to have. He had never told her the true depth of his feelings and he didn't know if he ever would be able to tell her. All he knew was that the day he had left had been the hardest day of his life. Without her, leaving would have been easy. His parents were both dead, he didn't have any family members that he cared about, and he wouldn't have batted en eyelash if Potter and his groupies had been wiped out. It was only her. Even today she was the only person he cared about. He was so deep in thought that he barely noticed that she had walked over to stand in front of him and had placed a hand on each arm.

Ginny didn't know what she was doing. She didn't know whether to hit him or kiss him, and her body seemed to be having the same argument with her brain. All she did know was that she no longer felt angry with him. She still felt he should have talked to her about it, and they should have decided together, but she no longer felt like he had simply cast her aside. From what she could see in Draco's eyes, and from the emotions that had played across his face while she had been staring at him, he deeply cared about her.

She watched his eyes widen with surprise when he realised she was standing in front of him, and his brow crease when he began to question why. She watched his eyes drift to her lips as she stood on her toes and pressed her lips against his.

The kiss only lasted a few seconds, and when she pulled away she noticed that Draco looked fairly surprised. Her brain was telling her that she shouldn't be doing this, that it was too soon and she was going to get hurt again. Her heart, however, reminded her that they had already lost three years together and there was no need for them to lose any more time. Her heart was beating twice as fast, her pulse quickened just being around him, and she felt sure that he could feel the heat radiating from her body.

He leant forward and re-captured her lips with his, more forcefully than he had before. She slid her hands up the front of his shirt and into his soft hair before looping them around his neck to pull herself even closer to him. She felt him moving them both backwards until her back hit her dining table. His hands slid down to the front of her robe, undoing it slowly before running his hand around her waist. She moved her mouth to his ear and grazed her teeth across his lobe, relishing his reaction. Her touch was like fire, awakening every inch of his body with its heat, filling him with the same desire that she felt burning inside her. He tilted her face up to look at his, and she saw reflected in his eyes the same lust that she knew must fill her own. Draco leant forward and forcefully kissed her again and she responded by wrapping her legs around his waist. He slowly lifted her, still maintaining the contact between their lips, and carried her into her bedroom.

* * * * *