Cannot Speak

"You may call me Neville Longbottom," the tall man declared.

"Neville?!" laughed Ginny. "Is it really you?"

"Of course it is. Don't you remember me?" Ginny only smiled at him. Draco was looking put out. Who was this guy, and what was he thinking? Draco inspected Neville, as trying to figure out his motives.

Ginny lifted a hand and ran it through Neville's hair. "I love how you dyed your hair red." She giggled at the surprised look on his face. "Hi, Ron." She jumped into his arms and hugged him tight.

The shocked man turned until he saw the mirror in the hall. Surely enough, his hair was red. "Damnit, the Polyjuice Potion ran out." He finally put his arms around his sister and returned the favor of squeezing her breath out.

"Disappointed?" asked Draco, smiling almost complacently.

"You knew about this?" Ginny looked slightly dismayed. "Nah. I'm glad to see my brother." She grinned up at him. "Wish you told me first before 'Neville' kissed my hand." Draco looked confused. Ron laughed.

"I was hoping you'd remember that!" exclaimed the joyful big brother.

"Family thing," Ginny said. She gave no further explanation, which irked Draco a little, for no reason he could explain.

"Well, I'm glad I could get the happy family together. You looked a little lonely when you mentioned your family before." Draco looked at the girl's glowing face. God, she's beautiful.

"Thank you." Ginny smiled at Draco, and Ron stayed quiet, noticing something between the two, but not wanting to break the moment. "So how's Hermione?"

While the two siblings talked, Draco slipped out to the living room and looked out the window. He noticed the sunlight shining in and smiled. He'd forgotten how beautiful the outdoors was. Ginny noticed Draco leave the room and after a minute of letting Ron rhapsodize (Hermione was four months pregnant and they were hoping to have their second child before school started so Hermione could be there to take little Alex to his first day of school), she followed Draco out to the living room. "Draco?"

He turned around. "Why aren't you talking with your brother?"

She shrugged as she perched on the arm of a comfortable blue armchair. "I was wondering why you left."

"It was a family moment." The silence seemed to last forever until Ron walked in.

"Boy, am I glad you're back. I can't wait to tell Mum." He beamed happily and plopped down on the seat of the armchair Ginny was balancing on. Draco gave him a barely veiled look, wondering if his furniture could handle the red-haired man's aggression.

"Ron....Don't tell anyone I'm here yet."

He was surprised. "Why not?"

"Just...not yet. Ok?" Ron looked doubtful. "Please?" She gave him a sad look.

"Oh, no. The eyes." Ron groaned. "Turn them off. I won't tell yet."

"Thank you!" She hugged him. "Hey, let's all have dinner together!"

Ron stood up and started walking around. "I'll try, Gin, but I don't know if I can get away from Hermione without telling her what's up."

"We'll set it up anyway, the Chez, 7 o'clock" interjected Draco. "And if you can't come, we'll understand." He had somehow managed to end up behind Ginny, and Ron frowned, thinking they looked too much like a couple that way.

"Ok," Ron agreed reluctantly. "I'll see you later then." He went to the fireplace with Ginny following. "Oh, yea, what ever happened to Harry?" Ginny shoved him through and he left.

Damn Ron. Why didn't he ask me that when we were alone, rather right in front of Draco? The silence was all too much for Ginny. "Did you know that was Ron and not Neville?"

What about Harry? I never knew they got together after Hogwarts. I thought the bloke moved to the States. Something about adventure. Bumbling idiot. Draco smirked. "Would it matter?"

"I guess not."

"What happened to Harry?" Draco asked, before the thought was forgotten.

"Hm? Oh, nothing. I was just more in touch with him than Ron was, but like everyone else, I...lost track of him." There. It's the truth.

"Where is he now?" Draco asked out of politeness.

"Oh, I think somewhere in the States. I don't know anymore. By the way, what kind of, um, restaurant is the Chez?"

Draco hesitated a second before saying, "I think you have to be a little more dressed up than that." He motioned to her jeans. "I like the rips at the knees and the design on the legs." Her jeans were bellbottoms she found in a vintage place. The denim was worn, but she dyed them a bit, ripped the knees and sewed on beads in an abstract sort of art.

She made a face. "Ok." She couldn't think of anything else to say. She couldn't tell Draco that she didn't have any thing but comfortable clothes, to put it in a nice way. "I think I'll go around for a walk. You should go back to work."

"Yes, mother." She laughed, slipped on her sneakers, and left.

Draco was suspicious of her short answer and change of subject. He made sure she was out of sight before he went to the guest room and looked at her bags. Of course. Muggle bags. There was no way she could possible have brought any dress clothes. He thought for only a second before he called up his office. "Maggie?" he asked his secretary. "Take the rest of the day off. I need to do something for me...."

¤~¤~¤

Why didn't he have any Floo Powder? Ginny wondered. She took the train to the middle of the city. Where could she get a dress? She scanned the store windows. They were so beautiful. Then, her eyes caught the tag. Omigosh. Ginny almost fainted at the price. There was no way she could ard that. She looked through store after store. They were all too much. After about an hour, Ginny found a vintage dress, off white, but faded; a little too big, but she could fix that. She wasn't totally in love with hit, but she was hoping it'd be ok. She bought the secondhand dress and slipped into a dark corner, knowing she was hidden from prying eyes. She muttered a spell. There. The color was better and the dress was cut better to fit her body. She walked happily with her dress in her arms to the subway. As soon as she sat down in a relatively empty car, someone grabbed her and whispered in her ear, "Thought you could get away, huh?" The smell of alcohol in his breath made her want to hurl.

"Who are you?" Ginny panicked.

"Come on, Eve. Get rid of that ugly dress and come with me."

"Go away, I don't know you." She tried to fling him off her arm to no avail.

He dragged her out of the train and took the bag from her. "Fine, keep the damn dress. Let's go anyway."

She shoved the drunken bum and ran towards the closing train doors. "EVE!!!" he screamed. Her last sight of the man was police officers leading him away. Her heart started beating normally and she breathed easier. But now she was without a dress for tonight's dinner. What am I gonna do?

She moped back to Draco's house. Glancing at the modern black clock in the kitchen that matched the color scheme, she realized she had less than an hour to figure out what to do. She walked quietly to where her luggage was, thinking, Maybe I could get away with wearing pants as long as it looked nice enough... Her thoughts trailed off when she opened the door to her room and saw a gorgeous stylish green dress with a cream-colored rose lying on top of it. "Thought you might need something to wear." It was unsigned. But as she took the flower and smelled it, she knew there was only one person who could have left it.

¤~¤~¤

Draco came home at 6:45. They lived right near the restaurant, and besides, it didn't matter if they took a while to get there; it's better to be fashionably late. He could see Ginny's hair over the top of the armchair she had been resting on when she met her brother again. It was facing the wall opposite Draco so he could only see the back of the chair. He grinned and said, "Hey, Beautiful." The armchair swung around slowly, and there was Ginny, looking more beautiful than he could dream, except for one thing.