You Live, You Learn

Chapter 8: Letters

Ginny sat on her bed, her books strewn around her. She crumpled up another piece of parchment. She couldn't concentrate on a single thing. She was too nervous about meeting Draco in a few hours.

What did he want? She picked up his letter that he sent her and read it for the millionth time. She placed it back down, and tried to take her mind of Draco. She couldn't. A clock somewhere chimed seven.

She fell back onto her bed, causing papers to crumble. Two more hours to go.

****

Ginny's heart was fluttering by the time it was 8:49. She had moved from her to dorm down to the common room, and she had given up on trying to work. She stared out the window.

Tap. Tap. Tap. An owl appeared in front of her. She opened the window and let the owl fly in, expecting it to fly to someone behind her. It landed in front of her, dropped the letter and flew back out. She picked up the letter.

Gin,

I know you probably got my letter earlier today, but I missed you so much that I had to write you again.

Ginny crumpled up the two pages long letter. She felt terrible. She was a playgirl. She was dragging Paul further and further, only to drop him in the long run. Paul had said that he felt a connection between them, but when it came to it, Ginny felt really nothing. Sure, Paul was nice, charming, and handsome, basically he was an all-around-great-guy-that-everyone-wants. Ginny should go and write him right now and tell him that there was nothing between them, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. She just stood up and headed towards the library.

****

On her way to the library, she ran into Draco in the Entrance Hall. She had forgotten for a split second about meeting with him.

"Hi," she said, trying to get his attention as he was facing the opposite direction. He spun around on her words.

"Hi. Are you ready to learn about love potions?" he asked.

"Um, sure," Ginny replied, caught of guard. She didn't expect that was the reason why he wanted to meet her.

****

"How can you cure the potion?" Ginny asked, not catching Draco's gaze but concentrating hard on the open book in her lap.

"Um, well there are a couple of different ways. One, the obvious way to get ride of almost any potion, is to kill the person who has drunken it," Ginny's mouth fell open, aghast. Draco hastily added, "Or there is a counter potion."

"A counter potion?" Ginny repeated. "How does that work?"

"Well," Draco answered slowly. "It is really quite complicated. Not as complicated as a Polyjuice Potion but still quite complicated. It's really hard to explain..." his voice trailed off.

"Is it in one of these books?"
"Hmm? Yeah, it's in this one." He passed her a heavy book. The book was a deep, velvet red on the outside, with gold writings of a different language on the spine.

"It's on page 745," he added when he saw her flipping through the many pages.

"Okay." She began to read, occasionally looking up at Draco. The thought of him and the love potion kept coming into her mind. Eventually, she couldn't stand it, and she had to ask him about the love potion he had.

"Hey, I ne-"

Draco seemed to know the question that was coming, and he quickly excused himself.

"Is it ten already? I have to go. I'll just as soon as I just...put these books up."

"Well, okay see you later."

****

Ginny headed back to the Owlery for the second time today. Since she couldn't talk to Draco about the potion, she wrote him instead.

Thank you for helping me with the love potions, but there was something I was unable to ask you. Are you still under the love potion or are you "cured"? Please write back if you can. Thanks,

Ginny.

She sent off the letter with a school owl, and watched it fly off. She wondered when the letter would reach him, but really she wondered what the answer would be.

****

Ginny sat in the library, researching love potions again, but she could not keep her mind on them. It kept wandering to Draco and her letter.

"GINNY!" a voice shouted faintly as if from far away. She spun around in her chair and faced the entrance to the library.

"Yes?" she replied in a loud voice, so wherever this person was, they could hear her. Madam Pince looked over at her and frowned slightly.

She heard footsteps, and Draco appeared in the entrance of the library. She stood up and walked over to him.

"I got your letter," were the first words to escape his mouth.

"You did?" Ginny asked, growing suddenly nervous. This should be the part where one of them suddenly had to leave, but they both stayed.

"Well you know that..." Ginny blubbered on a little, but Draco cut her off.

"I am not under the love potion."

"Oh, you aren't? Well, I guess I just thought that I-"

"Weasley?" Draco cut her off again. She stopped talking, and looked at him.

"Yes?"

"Just shut up for one moment." She nodded her head, and he leaned in and kissed her. The kiss swept through her, and she trembled at the weight of him being on her. She felt herself being pressed against the table behind her. Suddenly, Dracos hand was running through her hair, and she felt her own hands wrapped around him.

Oh God, she thought. What the hell am I doing?