Saint-Seducing Gold

Chapter Five: In the Moonlight

"It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden; too like the lightning, which doth cease to be ere one can say, It lightens."

-----

It was four in the afternoon and Ginny had just managed to shake Aubrey off with the excuse of wanting to go study with Ella in the library. Aubrey had given her a funny look. She was sure that Ginny was lying to her because of the way the redhead kept ripping pages out of her notebook and nervously tearing them to bits. But she didn't comment, merely let her friend do as she wanted and headed off alone.

And so Ginny found herself standing outside of her usual escape spot, a dusty little classroom on the third floor. She had discovered it late in her third year and had been using it ever since as her own personal haven. It was the perfect spot for her to sprawl out on the floor and write with her papers scattered all about her, as no one in the Common Room would let her. In fact, for the past two years that she'd used it, she had yet to observe anyone else even enter the room. As far as she was aware, even the House Elves didn't clean it; it was as dusty now as it had been the day she found it. For this reason, Ginny usually left most of her journals and experimental writings in a trunk in the corner of the room. It was rather incongruous of her to be hauling around stacks of parchment so she instead left them where she needed them.

Ginny opened the door with some wariness. It wasn't that she didn't think Draco wouldn't show up; it was just that she still wasn't quite sure what to expect out of the Slytherin. He had surprised her the night before, letting go of his normally bottled emotions enough to let her know that he still thought they might have something together. And she did agree with him, otherwise she wouldn't be here now. There was something peculiarly... right... about the way they could talk so easily to each other. Draco's view of life and love had been startlingly similar to her own (they were both hopeless romantics) and it didn't hurt that he seemed able to make her laugh at the drop of a hat. And besides, she could still recall that smile of his from their night of drunken revelry. No one had ever given her such a beaming look of utter joy as he had. She hadn't thought him capable of that much happiness, and for her to be the source of it still blew her away.

Thinking about all of this and wondering at how odd life truly was, Ginny peered around the doorjamb to see if Draco had found the right place. She wasn't disappointed. There he was, lying on his back and holding a piece of parchment up to his face so he could read it. Too late Ginny realized what Draco's natural curiosity had driven him to do.

"Don't read that!" She darted across the room before Draco even had a chance to lift his head up and snatched her paper from his hands. Smoothing it nervously against her stomach, she eyed the open trunk with its scattered papers. "How much did you read?" she demanded, sinking to her knees and trying to put them all back in some semblance of order.

Draco sat up slowly and watched her with interest. "It's about time you got here," he complained genially. "I was beginning to think you had stood me up."

"Don't be ridiculous, Draco," Ginny snapped, a little shaken at his discovery. "This is not a date. We just came here to talk." She shut the trunk with a muttered spell to lock it and twisted to face him. "And read, apparently."

"Hey." Draco raised his hands in self-defense and offered her his trademark smirk. "You were the one who let me be alone here with nothing to do." He pointed at her trunk. "You really should have a better spell on that. I opened it with a simple Alohomora."

Ginny crossed her arms and glowered. Draco smiled again.

"Listen, I didn't read all that much," he explained. "Just a few parts about Potter's apparently irresistible sex appeal when he--"

"DRACO!"

The blonde laughed. "Kidding. Just kidding. Actually, I was reading some story you wrote involving your brother Percy and some enchanted cauldrons. I had no idea you had such a vicious sense of humor, Weasley..." He laughed again as she chucked a quill at his head.

"I thought we came to talk," Ginny fumed. She really hadn't expected this. No one had ever read any of her writing before. She wasn't too sure that she was okay with Draco being the first.

"We're talking aren't we?" Draco asked with a more amiable smile. "I like you, Ginny. You're fun to hang out with, even if you do have a certain tendency to express your anger in more physical ways." Ginny rolled her eyes at him, but couldn't help the smile that stole across her face.

"You like me, huh?" She unfolded her arms and gave him a more serious look. "Unfortunately for you, I happen to enjoy your company as well, so you'll just have to put up with my 'physical anger' if you piss me off."

Draco sighed with fake sorrow. "Looks like all my best conversation is off limits then."

Ginny smiled and tapped him on the nose. "Beep," she agreed.

-----

Two months later, so much had changed in Ginny's life that she wondered if she was the same person.

She and Draco never failed to meet each other every day after classes had ended. Draco was a completely different person when he was with her. Together, they talked for hours about things that didn't matter, and sometimes about things that did. Draco helped Ginny with her Potions homework and Ginny found the patience to explain to him why Care of Magical Creatures really wasn't all that bad. Sometimes Draco just sat still and watched Ginny write (turns out he was excellent at coming up with plot bunnies). On weekends, the two managed to escape their regular friends and ran off to walk through the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest where they could be alone.

They'd agreed not to be friends in public. House enmities had been running so high lately that they were scared of what might transpire if someone found out about them.

Nevertheless, they still laughed at all the poor saps in the rest of the school lacking a relationship like theirs. They had to be soulmates, Draco said one day in mid-October. That was the only explanation for why they had become friends despite Houses and families and other previous hatreds. And Ginny agreed. Regardless of the fact that the two had only really known each other for two months, there was something incredible about the way they understood one another. And they didn't have any sort of physical relationship to tangle things up like other guy-girl duos, so everything was perfect. They were secret soulmates and Ginny had never been happier with her life.

-----

On Halloween, Ginny chose a seat between two of her roommates and her eyes immediately darted across the fantastically decorated Great Hall to look for Draco. It was an old habit by now for the two of them to have a brief bit of eye contact at each meal. When Ginny couldn't find her friend at the Slytherin table, she gave in to a moment of panic before remembering Dumbledore's long ago punishment. Draco was to watch Professor Sprout's Mandrakes tonight while she attended the Halloween Feast. Sighing, Ginny glanced about in appreciation at the decorations and felt a stab of pity that Draco had to miss it. It was one of the better holidays, Halloween.

There was a sharp clang of metal against glass as Professor McGonagall attempted to get the student's attention. "Attention!" she called vainly. "Attention, please!"

Seeing that his underling was having no luck, Dumbledore took up his wand and waved it sharply. The loud gonging of a school bell rang throughout the hall, and every student turned to look at the Headmaster expectantly.

Dumbledore gave Professor McGonagall a small smile as she sat down with a mutter and opened his arms wide to the student body.

"I am pleased to announce," he said in a very official tone, "the upcoming Yule Ball."

Everyone began to whisper at once, wondering what theme Dumbledore had planned for them this year. Ever since the first Yule Ball of Ginny's third year, the Headmaster had made the dance a new tradition. Every year they had a Yule Ball to which all students above fourth year were invited, and every year they had a different theme. Just last year it had been an Under the Sea Ball and the Great Hall had been transformed to look like the bottom of the Caribbean, complete with coral reefs and tropical fish. Ginny had gone with her friends and had a blast. Somehow, she thought the whole thing might be a little more depressing this year. All of her roommates currently had boyfriends, even shy Ella who had found a Ravenclaw boy even shyer than she. And Ginny knew she couldn't go with Draco because everyone would completely bug out to see the two of them together. House animosities had been so much worse than ever this year, and she really had no wish to be hexed into a million pieces just for going to a dance with a Slytherin. Life really is unfair sometimes, she thought grimly, watching her girlfriends giggle their guesses to each other.

Dumbledore allowed them all their few moments of speculation before going on. "This year we have something quite fun planned," he grinned, his eyes twinkling madly. "We are to have a Masquerade Ball!" Everyone let out a loud ooh of pleasure. "Magical costumes will be required," Dumbledore continued. "And all disguises will be lifted at midnight. The rules are the same as always. Fourth years and above are invited to attend. Lower years may come if asked by an older student, and the party stops after everything is revealed at midnight. There will, of course, be prizes for the best individual costumes and the best themed couples. Our guest band this year is the young wizarding pop group, Rebels Without Wands. I humbly suggest that anyone wishing to attend begin thinking of their costumes now. The ball will be held exactly one day before your winter vacation."

Dumbledore sat down amidst applause from his appreciative students, who were already plotting lists of disguise. Ginny propped her elbows up on the table and listened to her friends argue about whether they should dress in league with their boyfriends or go as individuals. She did not take notice of Harry Potter's furtive look of longing as his eyes grazed her face.

-----

Draco rubbed his eyes wearily as he made his way back from the greenhouses. Professor Sprout had come back on time, but insisted that he help her sing the mandrakes to sleep. Draco, who was fortunately blessed with a pleasant tenor voice, was nonetheless mortified that someone might find out about him singing duets with Professor Sprout in the greenhouses. Well, someone other than Ginny that was. He meant to tell her about it as soon as he saw her because he knew it would make her laugh. Draco found he'd do just about anything to hear Ginny laugh, even if it was at his own compromising circumstances.

Reaching the middle of a castle courtyard, Draco marveled at how bright everything was in the moonlight. The Slytherin had always had a particular love for nights such as this, when the moon cast a silver-white glow over everything below it. He already preferred night to day as most people his age did, but for him there was something enchanting about night itself. Another world emerged at night. One that was dark and forbidding, but alluring with its mystery. Different creatures inhabited the world that the moon governed. A different kind of people, too, lived their lives in the night. Draco worshipped these people even though most of them were woebegone artists, drunks, and figures in black who couldn't tell him what they did for a living. Someday he was going to shed his father's unreasonable expectations and run away to live in the night alone, or, at least, that's what he liked to think.

Staring up with a dreamy smile, Draco suddenly realized that his ambition had changed a bit. Before this year, he'd always expected that when he ran away it would be alone. Who would he have taken? His so-called friends in Slytherin were out because they didn't really understand him; they only saw him as their leader and someone to be obeyed at all costs. Not that he could blame them. He'd cultivated that image and thought he was better off without anyone, boy or girl, to understand his thoughts and desires. He'd preferred solitude most of the time, even though he usually never got it.

But then he had met Ginny, and everything had changed. Here was someone whom he had opened up to; in fact, the first someone that he had ever opened up to. Now he couldn't quite imagine living a life without her. She made his days complete.

Draco frowned. In the past two months, he'd never once thought about what would happen when he graduated school. Ginny, of course, would still have another year left at Hogwarts, and his father would probably try to instill him in some sort of Deatheater business right away. He did talk about it more often now, going on at great lengths about the Dark Lord when he knew Draco could overhear him. Frankly, the idea of Voldemort repulsed Draco. It made him sick that his father was Voldemort's lap dog; he really didn't want to end up the same way.

But Ginny! What would he do when forced to live without her? He could deal with his father when the time came by carrying out his original plan of running away. But how satisfying a life could that be without his soulmate to talk to every day? He frowned again, deeper, and wondered why in Merlin's name he'd never broached the subject with her before.

Glancing about the courtyard, Draco tried to think of a way to put his thoughts into words and tell Ginny what he felt. She knew about his less than enthusiastic feelings for his father and the Deatheaters, but nothing about him running away to live the nightlife indefinitely. He smiled to himself, thinking of how whimsical that sounded, when his searching eyes spied that he was standing next to Gryffindor Tower.

A sudden idea snatched the blonde's thoughts. He would climb up the tower, find Ginny, and bring her outside to show her the night itself. Then she would understand.

He nodded and walked over to the wall, feeling it for handholds. The stone wasn't smoothly interlocked, so Draco found the ascent rather easy. He had a Seeker's classic build, all wiry muscle and light as a feather, so climbing was no problem. It wasn't until he peered into the first dormitory window that he realized his real problem. He couldn't be sure which window was Ginny's!

As he reached the seventh window with his aching muscles about to give out on him, Draco caught a glimpse of long red hair spread across a pillow glowing white in the moonlight. Thanking Merlin, the sneaking Slytherin drew himself onto the windowsill and noiselessly pushed the unlocked window open. It was a peculiarly warm night for the end of October and the girls had left it open to catch the breeze. Draco dropped to the ground in a crouch and took a quick look around the room. All five beds were occupied and each occupant seemed in deep sleep.

Congratulating himself on his success, Draco stood and made his way over to Ginny's bed. When he was standing over her, he stopped and stared. The only time Draco had ever seen Ginny asleep before was that fateful night in Hogsmeade. Due to his state at the time (intoxicated with booze and happiness), he couldn't really remember what she had looked like with her eyes closed, but now he could see her in the full light of the moon. She looked different when she was asleep, younger and more trusting. One of her hands lay open at her side as though she were inviting someone to come lay down beside her and join in her world of dreams. Draco tilted his head and watched her chest rise slowly in the deep breathing of total sleep. He had never thought about it since that night, but Ginny really was a very attractive girl. Awash in the silver radiance of the moon, he could almost call her beautiful. She wasn't like the girls he normally chased, all flaunted beauty with makeup and teasing smiles. She seemed to put herself forward as humanly flawed. She never wore makeup and hardly ever cared to do more than pull her hair back with a ribbon. She didn't tease the boys she liked, but became their friends and gradually let them see that she could be more. She was utterly seductive in her innocence without even trying.

Draco suddenly felt hot all over. Here he was, standing over his sleeping best friend, and thinking about how good she looked. There was definitely something wrong with that. He rubbed his forehead and thought he might be a little light-headed from the climb up the tower.

Ginny mumbled something incoherent into her pillow and turned over so that she was lying on her back. Draco felt his eyes widen slightly as he identified the foreign feeling that was making him feel so shaky all of a sudden.

Love.

Scared out of his wits, Draco took a mental step backward and examined the feeling. After all, he'd never been in love before. He wasn't quite sure what love felt like. He knew stories made up silly things like feeling sick and seeing stars and hearing angel's sing, but he wasn't even sure that he'd ever experienced platonic love. He certainly didn't love his father. Oh, he had loved him the way any child loved a parent that scared them: in a constant state of frustration, trying forever to prove their love so the parent would be proud and love them, too. But he'd gotten over that recently.

Did he love his mother? His friends?

His mother had always favored him, spoiled him, fawned and cooed over him. He was fond of her doting, but he couldn't be sure if he loved her.

Most of his friends he wrote off without thinking twice. But Blaise? Grahm? He'd lived in the same dormitory as Blaise for seven years; he knew the dark-haired boy almost as well as himself. And Grahm had become a huge part of his life. But did he love them?

And Ginny - had he loved her before this new revelation? She was undoubtedly the closest friend he'd ever had in his life. Had he loved her unconditionally as a friend?

And was this love anyway? This rushing, roaring feeling that was overwhelming him as he looked at her? The thought came that he'd gladly die if it meant she could live, and then he knew.

He was in love.

And he knew that he would do anything for her. He knew that he wanted her the way he'd wanted her in Hogsmeade. He wanted to kiss her again, to feel her skin, hot against his own, again. He wanted to protect her in way he'd never wanted to protect anyone. He wanted so much...

So much that it was all too much. He stumbled back a few steps and shook his head. He couldn't feel this way! What if she didn't return his more than platonic feelings?

But he couldn't think of that either. He had been in love with her since the start, he knew that now. All it had taken was one moment of seeing her vulnerable to bring the feeling roaring to the surface, and now it was consuming him. He came back to the edge of her bed and reached out with a hand to brush the hair from her face. She stirred slightly under his touch and a small smile graced her lips as she slept on, unaware of his presence. Draco couldn't help himself at that. He leaned down to gently kiss her forehead.

Quite abruptly, Ginny felt the strange contact and awoke, jerking forward so that the two collided. Upon finding a stranger trying to kiss her she shrieked aloud, throwing herself toward her nightstand and fumbling for her wand. Draco, who was stunned but not stupid by any means, quickly leapt onto her bed and clapped a hand over the screaming girl's mouth.

"Would you shut up!" he hissed, jerking the curtains around the bed shut. "It's me! Draco!"

He saw the light of recognition in her eyes and took his hand away. Ginny sat there and gawked at him in amazement. "Draco?" she whispered, hardly believing it. "What on Earth are you doing here? It's midnight!"

"I wanted to--" Draco cut himself off as he heard the sounds of Ginny's roommates waking up.

"What's going on?" Aubrey's sleepily exasperated voice drifted out from the other side of the room.

"Ginny, are you all right?" Catherine inquired in a similar tone. Ginny darted Draco a look of terror as they heard the sound of one of the girl's feet hitting the floor. He gave her a pleading glance, willing her to think of something.

"I'm fine," Ginny said desperately. "Really. I just had a nightmare, that's all. I'm all right now."

"Are you sure?" The footsteps had stopped. Draco held his breath and watched through a crack in the curtains as the girl stared uncertainly at Ginny's bed.

"Yes. Go back to bed, Cat. I'm okay." The girl frowned and shook her head, but got back into her own bed as Ginny had requested.

Draco let his breath out in relief and cast a silencing charm around the bed as he turned back to Ginny. All of a sudden, the two seemed very close in the darkness. Draco could feel his heart thumping painfully in his chest.

Ginny offered him a little grin. "Draco," she said in a gently scolding voice, "How did you get up here?"

Draco returned her smile, suddenly remembering his original purpose for coming here. "I climbed up the wall," he replied. "It was easy."

"You climbed up the--Draco! You could've killed yourself!" She watched as he peered through the curtains. "What are you doing now?" she whispered in his ear, coming to sit beside him.

Trying not to let himself be distracted by the closeness of her body or the warmth that tickled his cheek when she spoke, Draco pointed toward the window. "Come on. I want to show you something."

"Show me what? Draco..." But he was already clambering off her bed and tip-toeing to the windowsill. Ginny's friends had all fallen back asleep, but he took care to stay quiet. Now if only he could contain the rush of feelings swirling in his head...

"Come on!" he urged Ginny, beckoning her with his hands. Ginny sighed as she slid out of bed and came to stand with him by the windowsill. Draco stuck his head out the window and checked to make sure there was no one in the courtyard below. Seeing that the coast was clear, he pulled himself up onto the windowsill and lowered himself onto the roof at his left. He looked up as Ginny cautiously drew herself up onto the sill.

"It's easy. Just jump down," he commanded in a whisper, moving to make room for her beside him.

"Easy," Ginny muttered to herself. "Stupid boy." She dropped down beside him a little clumsily, and stood there, shivering in her nightgown. Draco shrugged off his school robes and handed them to her.

"Go ahead. You can wear them," he said, picking his way across the roof. Ginny watched as he strode along as though the steep roof was nothing more than another piece of pavement. Coming to the conclusion that being a Seeker must lend him an unnatural fearlessness of heights, she tugged his robes on for warmth and started to follow him. The robes were a bit too long for her and the sleeves slid over her fingertips but at least she wasn't cold anymore. Holding her arms out for balance, she followed the blonde over the roof until he came to spot where they could both see the lake and the Forbidden Forest beyond. They sat down together and Ginny leaned against his shoulder so she wouldn't feel so disconnected from the world.

"You missed the announcement of the Yule Ball," she told him after a moment of silence. Draco shook his head.

"What has the old bat picked for the theme this year?"

Ginny punched his arm for calling Dumbledore an old bat but told him anyway.

"A Masquerade?" A wicked grin stole over the Slytherin's face. "Now that has possibilities."

Ginny shook her head, seeing that he was already as into it as everybody else was. She decided to change the subject. "How were the Mandrakes? Are you getting chummy with them yet?"

Draco rolled his eyes. "Sprout had me sing them to sleep." Ginny laughed as he regaled the entire story, including a few samples of Professor Sprout's singing voice, which made her cringe. After wiping the tears of mirth from her eyes, she remembered why he had dragged her out here.

"What is it that you wanted to show me?"

Draco gave her secretive smile and gestured to the sky with a careless arm. "This. I wanted you to see this."

Ginny stared up. The full moon and the endless multitude of stars surrounding it stared back at her. She smiled, catching Draco's mood. "It's beautiful," she remarked, leaning back so she could take it all in.

Draco wasn't really the type to babble incoherently, as some of his classmates tended to do when they were with a girl they liked. Draco was rather debonair about the whole thing, actually. He played it cool and acted like nothing was wrong.

"Ginny, I have a serious problem."

Ginny gave him an alarmed look. "What do you mean? Is something wrong?"

Draco cursed himself for an idiot and jammed his hands in his pockets. "Yeah. Something is definitely wrong with me," he whispered.

"What is it?" Ginny whispered back, her hazel eyes shimmering with fear. "Tell me."

Draco didn't answer for a moment. He couldn't possibly say in a few words all that he felt, so he wasn't sure what to tell her. "I have nowhere to go after I graduate," he admitted finally.

Ginny looked puzzled. "Surely your dad has--"

"Fuck him," Draco interrupted her with a growl. Ginny pulled away from him, startled by his malevolence. "The only thing my father cares about is keeping the family line pure and the family name intact. Which means that he wants me to follow in his footsteps. His exact footsteps," he said, giving her a meaningful look. She nodded, understanding what he meant, and let him talk on.

"But the night is so beautiful," he explained softly. "Everything about it is beautiful. When I was little, I used to sneak out at night just so I could see how the gardens looked in the darkness. Once, my mother didn't realize I was gone, and they didn't find me until the next morning. I had gone into town and was sitting at the bar with a dragon tamer. My father was never so angry at me when I told him that one day I was going to run away and become a vampire." Ginny giggled quietly beside him. He gave her a look of askance and she blushed.

"It's just..." She bit her lip and grinned. "I used to say the same thing. My parents always thought that Fred and George were telling me embellished stories, but the truth of the matter was that I liked living the nightlife. It was the only time I could ever be alone."

"Exactly," Draco agreed, his voice turning strange. "That's why..." His ashen eyebrows drew together in consternation. "I don't think it's very fair of me to ask you this." He looked at her and Ginny marveled at the turbulence clouding his already stormy grey eyes. This wasn't the only thing bothering him. "But I'm going to anyway. Ginny, do you think... that possibly, in any way, you might like to..."

He stopped quite abruptly. Ginny's eyes were nearly glowing in the moonlight with an eerie silver sheen as she looked at him in earnest. He couldn't ask this of her. She had her own life, and, at the moment, it had did not include running away with him. Hell, what was he thinking? There was one reason he could think of that would make her want to come with him, but as far as he was aware, she didn't return his feelings. However, Draco wasn't cowardly, and there was really only one way to find out.

"What is it, Draco?" Ginny asked, feeling bit put out. Was all that buildup for nothing? But Draco was looking at her very oddly... "Draco..?" she said again, arching an eyebrow. "Draco, would you please just spit it out?"

Draco drew a deep breath. There really was only one way. He leaned forward and, before Ginny could register what he was about to do, he kissed her. All at once, the dizzy feeling from Hogsmeade was back. But it quickly faded when Ginny didn't return the kiss. For one moment, they sat there, locked in tension, and then Ginny pushed him away.

"This is wrong," she said, looking terrified. She stood up. "It's wrong. We can't do this, Draco. We can't. It isn't right." And she began to walk away from him, making her way back to the window as fast as she could.

"But, Ginny!" Draco said in distress, leaping up to follow her. He slipped and his arms windmilled crazily as he tried to catch his balance. Ginny stopped and looked back anxiously, but he caught himself and started toward her. "Ginny, please--" But she shook her head, eyes shining, and hoisted herself up into the window.

"Ginny, wait!" Draco darted forward and grabbed her foot in a desperate attempt to stop her. The redhead was caught off guard and tripped, sprawling to the floor and knocking over her nightstand. Horrified that he had hurt her, Draco was pulling himself into the window as the other girls woke up from the sound of the crash. One of them spotted Draco's shadowy form on the windowsill and screamed. Cursing aloud, he dropped back onto the roof below him and scrambled across it as quickly as humanly possible. Behind him, he could hear the girls shouting after him, one of them laughing and another talking very fast in a high-pitched voice. Assuring himself that Ginny must be all right if they could laugh, he climbed down the wall and sped off to the dungeons.

It was well after midnight, and no one was around to see him as he staggered into the Common Room, and collapsed onto a chair by the fire. He ran his fingers through his hair and held his head in his hands, breathing ragged breath through his open mouth. It was very probably the worst night in his life and he was only glad that nobody was there to see him choke back his tears. After all, Malfoys never cried.