A Night the Stars Didn't Shine

~*~

If we listen to each other's heart

We'll find we're never too far apart

And maybe love is the reason why

For the first time ever we're seeing it eye to eye

~ Eye to Eye, A Goofy Movie

~*~

Angel in a World of Demons

"Figured you'd be out here," Draco said to Ginny's backside. Her arms were wrapped around her knees, head bent and resting on them. She looked deep in thought. Ginny didn't respond or even turn around; she stared straight ahead, at the dark, rippling lake as the icy wind blew over the surface. The brilliant moonlight shone down on them, casting a pure white light on the entire area where they stood.

Draco could see the large lake that surrounded most of the castle, bubbling, with little waves that crashed onto the small cliff where Ginny sat. He could hear faint scratching and scuffling in the Forbidden Forest and gave an involuntary cringe at the memory of his encounter in it in his first year at Hogwarts. The banners that adorned the Quidditch towers and poles coasted lazily in the night breeze. The snow on the field was still virgin, untouched until the Quidditch games started up again.

Malfoy stuffed his hands into his pant pockets to avoid possible frostbite from the cold environment; his sketchbook in the crook of his right arm. He cleared his throat uncomfortably.

"May I um... sit down?" he asked. Still no answer from the mute Ginny. "Next to you, maybe?" He felt like an idiot that talked to walls, Hogwarts had several of them. He waited for a response, then finally taking her silence as having no objection; he sat in the small melted spot next to Ginny, careful not to get his bottom wet and cold from the snow.

"So...how's the weather fairing?" he asked lamely, trying to make conversation. He sat down and leaned closer to her, accidentally bumping into her shoulder.

Ginny's eyes opened wide and her body stiffened when he touched her. Her already red cheeks flushed, not in cold, but in embarrassment and in happiness and in confusion and the tiniest bit of anger. Her heart sped up when she realized just how close they were on the spot she melted.

'No', she told herself. 'That's just hormones that are acting up, it can't be a real feeling. I mean, Draco's good looking and a mediocre artist, but he's a future deatheater!' she tried telling herself. But she knew better; she knew that she was falling in love, and the more that she thought about it, the harder she'd fall. She was surprised, however, when she realized that she no longer cared that he was to become a deatheater.

"Watch it!" she spat angrily, flipping her head at him but staring at his nose instead of his eyes. His nose had a small ski-slope flip to them, and the skin was smooth and pale. It wasn't like her nose; her nose was freckled, tanned, and small. Her eyes dropped to his soft pink lips. For once, they weren't in a smirk. They were speechlessly open in surprise. They looked so kiss-able; just one kiss wouldn't hurt her.

'No!' Ginny scolded herself.

Draco raised his eyebrows in an arch. "Sorry," he muttered moodily, looking into her brown eyes. He sighed inwardly when he saw hate and anger, and scooted over into the snow. It melted and seeped into his pant bottoms. She narrowed her eyes and tried to be angry with him, tried to hate him with all her heart.

She couldn't.

'Maybe Blaise was wrong to think that I had nothing to lose,' he thought to himself. 'Maybe I was wrong to think I have nothing to lose. I have a lot I could lose: my pride, dignity, courage...'

"What's wrong with you lately, Draco? You've been acting really odd since last week, and I don't like it. Not one bit!" Ginny declared, waking Draco out of his reverie, crossing her arms over her chest. His gray eyes flicked over her with distaste and disgust, and she felt small and childish for her outburst. Her cheeks burned with an intense and mysterious desire for him, so intense that it frightened her.

Instantly, he hardened himself into the uncaring, defensive Draco that she was all too familiar with. No longer was the aura that had surrounded him warm; it was replaced by a cold, uncaring aura. He was as cold and as frigid as his crystallized breath that blew out in front of him. Even though someone sat next to her, Ginny suddenly felt alone, as if the person next to her had no concern for her.

The wind blew around them, and several small pieces of hair caught it and freed themselves from her bun. They settled back down attractively, like waterfalls of liquid, red fire. Draco's hair flew forward and then fell back, falling around his face. His hard gray eyes looked forward to something that she couldn't see, something that she wouldn't see. Something that only he could see. She almost didn't recognize him. He looked lonely and vulnerable, almost human. She instantly regretted the harsh words that she had said.

'Draco,' he thought as he stared into the dark horizon, to where the lake met the sky. 'She called me 'Draco'.'

"Go ahead," he said, almost in a sad and angry teasing manner, full of regret. A teasing manner that Ginny was unaccustomed to. He spoke with a controlled voice from in-between clenched teeth. She shifted uncomfortably on the ground, not knowing what to expect from him. "It's not like I don't deserve any of this. I mean, I've treated you and your entire family like crap for the last six years. It's about time that it was all shoved back into my face. I just wish it wasn't you, Ginny," he said, looking straight up and staring into her warm, brown eyes. He looked away almost as quickly as he had dared to look in her eyes in the first place, uncharacteristically ashamed and weak. 'Draco? Weak?' she silently laughed at the irony.

"Here, take it," he said, taking his sketchbook out of his arm and placing it in her lap without looking at her. "I don't want it anymore." He stood up to leave.

Ginny felt relieved that Draco has given her something else to look at, though a little uncomfortable when she recognized it as the sketchbook that she has seen. The one that had the picture of her in it. The one that had started the mess.

"Well..." she began uncomfortably and slow, thoroughly flabbergasted. "I really don't want this, Draco."

'Stop it, Ginny!' she yelled at herself. 'He'll get comfortable, you're all alone, who knows what will happen!? You know Draco! You know what he's capable of!' she screamed and fretted.

"So take your stupid book back!" she yelled, hurting Draco's ears, though he didn't flinch. She angrily picked it out of her lap and flung it down the hill. It slid on the snow, spinning around and around until it hit a bank, spine side engulfed in white snow. She stood up hastily to leave, brushing snow off her left side.

"Yeah, I figured you'd do something like that." He gave a cold, disembodied laugh, his head pointed towards the ground. She stopped moving. "Me?" He looked up and looked at her. She looked so beautiful in the moonlight, her hair blowing to one side of her head and her freckles dimmed by the intense light. "I tried to throw it in the fire. Unfortunately, Blaise Zabini intercepted it and told me to give it to you."

She eyed him from where she stood. "Why would you, Malfoy, listen to the advice of someone else, much less take it?" He shrugged his shoulders. "I dunno why, I mean, it seemed like a good idea at the time, which was probably eight minutes ago or so, and I figured that I have nothing to lose. I can obviously see that I was wrong to assume so." He took a step back and crunched the freezing snow, wrapping his cloak tighter around him. 'It must be getting late', he thought. 'The temperature has dropped several degrees already.' "And technically," he continued after a pause. "Since you're in it, I thought you might want to see what else is in it. I dunno, I thought that you might appreciate it."

"Dra - Malfoy, why would you think I would appreciate your work?" she asked testily. "You and your family mean nothing to me. Your name is like the dirt under my shoes and your sketchbook is like mush left behind after everyone has stepped on the snow. It just goes to show how weak you Malfoys really are."

Swallowing hard and clenching his hands into fists, he treaded through the snow to where his book lay. His mood flared like oil to a fire as he thought about what she had just said. Some of the pages were wet with snow, and melted snowflakes lay on the cover.

You and your family mean nothing to me.

He picked it up and wiped it on his already wet robe.

Your name is like the dirt under my shoes and your sketchbook is like mush left behind after everyone has stepped on the snow.

Head down, he took out his wand from the interior of his robe and muttered a spell.

It just goes to show how weak you Malfoys really are.

From the tip of it sprouted a tiny red flame, which he placed at the corner of his sketchbook.

Angry at being ignored and heart-breaking, Ginny stormed through the snow and mush to where Draco stood, shielding his back from the cold wind that threatened to extinguish the small flame. She grabbed the book out of Draco's hands and flung it behind her, trying to ignore the tingling sensation that she felt when their hands had touched.

"Whatever you're doing to make me feel sorry for you, stop it. And whatever you've done to make me like you, take it off!" she commanded boldly, glaring into his gray eyes. She was surprised to see sorrow, sadness, and regret. He looked to the side, away from her eyes. She waited and glared, heart beating wildly.

Draco took a deep breath. She had done it, crossed the line of dignity and disgust. With as much restraint as he could, he would not hurt her. But he'd make it quite clear that he was not at fault.

"Whatever I'm doing to you?! You, Weasley?" he demanded angrily. He glared back suddenly, and Ginny took a step back in surprise at the turn of the mood. "You? Do you have any idea what you do to me? Everytime something comes out of your mouth, everytime I even think about you, you know what happens to me? My heart breaks, and I feel hope just fade away into oblivion. Whatever's going on with you is nothing to what I'm feeling; it's something so deep I doubt you will ever experience it!" He sound brash and harsh, raw anger and untainted love flowing free through his veins. He had gained the upper hand that he had lost when she first saw his sketchbook.

For the first time since the library, Ginny felt afraid. The fear of his outburst shone in her brown eyes and she clamped her hands over her freezing cold ears and jammed her eyes closed. Her mind ran over the words he had just said. Do you have any idea what you do to me? Everytime something comes out of your mouth, everytime I even think about you, you know what happens to me? What was she doing to him? How could she stop anything that she wanted to happen?

'No', she thought, firmly. 'You know what happens when you trust the enemy. It happened to Tom, you know that it'll happen with Draco'

"Go away, Draco," she said, her voice, painfully thick. A large lump was developing the back of her throat. Her head throbbed. "Go away and don't talk to me. Ever again." Tears welled up in her eyes. Draco looked at her, wanting to hold her crying figure in his arms and embrace her warmly, telling her that everything was going to be alright, and yet, he restrained himself. He knew he shouldn't. He knew that it would break his heart when he let go.

"Is - is that what you want?" he asked, uncertainly, trying to regain composure. Seeing Ginny cry had unnerved him; it was something that was rarely seen by anyone - she was a Weasley and Weasley's never cried. Fear of a bleak crept into him; a future that she was commanding him to. One he knew he would comply to.

"No," she hiccuped, wiping the tears away from her eyes. She looked at him through blurred vision. He stood in front of her, his handsome face impassive as stone. "It's not what I want at all. Damnnit, I love you back, I really do. But it's what is right. Please, Draco, leave. Go. Don't look back at me and don't talk to me and don't think of me and don't love me."

'She loves me, she loves me, damnnit, she loves me!' he thought. He lifted his shoulders, than heaved them quickly as if they had heavy weights on them that were taken away, only to be replaced with heavier ones. He took a deep breath as if it was his last. It was the last one as he knew it.

"If that's what you want, fine. I am so in love with you, Ginny, that I'll do it for you. I am so in love with you that it scares me on a daily basis just what I will do because I love you." He walked over to where she stood and leaned over, kissing the top of her red head and took a step back. It was a small, chaste kiss, but he wanted so much more. He looked at her one last time, then turned and walked away, sloshing through the mushy snow, cloak trailing behind him. He didn't look back, like she had requested. But he couldn't stop thinking about Ginny.

And he couldn't stop loving Ginny. He would never stop loving Ginny.

~

I am so in love with you that it scares me on a daily basis just what I will do because I love you.

Ginny sobbed loudly as she thought over Draco's parting words. She had just sent away the one person who desired nothing more than to be with her for the rest of her life. She had sent away the one person that understood her better than her closest friends and family. She had just sent away the one person who made her go crazy with a passion that no one else could make her feel. She had just sent away the one person she loved. All because he was Draco Malfoy.

Draco Malfoy.

For the longest time, that name made her mad, made her angry. Now, it filled her with so much emotion, she wanted to scream and sing, laugh and cry, yell and whisper - all at the same time.

Draco Malfoy.

For the longest time, Ginny hated Draco with her heart. Her family would be so infuriated to find out that she had fallen in love with the family enemy.

Draco Malfoy

.

It had been a curse word, one that she and her brothers would laugh at on end. Now it was the angel's blessing and the devil's tease to hear it.

Draco Malfoy.

He was doomed as a deatheater, and they'd fight against him in an instant. Now the battle seemed more like a fight between her and her heart. Now, she seemed like the doomed one.

Cold tears streamed down her freckled face, tears of love and heartbreak. The top of her head where he had kissed her was burning, and the rest of her was as numb as ice. Snow was beginning to fall down, light flakes that glittered in the moonlight. She turned and walked blindly through the light snowfall, searching for Draco's sketchbook before it became consumed with the angel's sorrow.

Wiping the tears that trailed down her cheeks with her borrowed sleeve, she picked it up out of the snow, dried it, and tucked it securely under her arm. Ginny walked slowly to the castle through the courtyard and under the stone awnings where she and Draco had met up for a second time, imagining what it would have been like to have Draco walking by her side on that cold, winter night.