Stay With Me by Citrus587
Summary: Off a challenge over at Portkey. Decisions are tough, especially when you have to decide between people that you love. What will Ginny do?
Categories: Completed Short Stories Characters: None
Compliant with: None
Era: None
Genres: Romance, Humor
Warnings: None
Challenges:
Series: None
Chapters: 1 Completed: No Word count: 1650 Read: 2159 Published: Aug 01, 2004 Updated: Aug 01, 2004

1. Stay With Me by Citrus587

Stay With Me by Citrus587
Stay with Me

This is a challenge off Portkey, as well.

Challenge
-Draco and Ginny are either a couple or married.
-They get into a huge fight.
-Ginny decides to leave.
Lines that you do/don't have to put in, you decide, But I wish you'd put them in:
"Do I really have a reason to stay?"(Ginny)
"Well, there's me... That's a start... Isn't it?"(Draco)

Another fluffy cookie. Enjoy.

----

This had been the night from hell for Ginny Weasley. Not everyone could alienate everyone close to them in one shot, but tonight it proven possible.

The Weasley gatherings, as all the children had grown up and none of them had yet to reproduce, became more interesting. This was largely due to the alcohol now served at these gatherings.

Ginny had sworn off drinking ever since she was little, so she was usually the only person sober at these events. This time, however, she had brought her boyfriend, Draco Malfoy.

Her family seemed to get along with him, since she had told them earlier on in their long-term relationship just who it was that was monopolizing her time. It wasn’t until the night was almost giving way to morning did the claws come out.

“You are a Voldemort-loving death-eater!” Harry slurred out.

“You are a boy with a scar on his head screwing a mudblood!” he slung back, with just a bit more composure.

This was all it took for the fists to come out. Draco and Harry went at it, with the other brothers holding Ron back.

Ginny, coming closer to tears every minute, wrestled Draco off of Harry, who was bleeding at the nose and lip. She ushered him inside, and sat him down at the kitchen table, using a partial body-bind so he couldn’t move. Then she went back outside to heal Harry’s nose and lip.

When she got out there, the family was all crowded around Harry. She muttered the spells that would reverse the affects of the fight, but left the alcohol in his system. Maybe, she thought, if he got drunk enough and had a bad enough head ache the next morning, he would stop drinking.

As she turned to go heal Draco’s injuries, her father called her back. He was standing with his arm around his wife, all the rest of the clan was behind him.

“Don’t bring him back here, Ginevra. He isn’t welcome,” Mr. Weasley declared. His face was dead-pan, and left no room for reproach.

“But Daddy –,“ the tears almost making their way out of hiding.

“No. Look at what he did,” he indicated to Harry, “Make your decision.”

As Ginny turned away, she heard him mutter, “Make the right decision.”

Once she got back in the kitchen, she saw Draco still sitting wear she left him, although he was now slumped over. She healed the large bump on his head, from where Harry slammed it into the corner of the table. Then she healed his nose.

Ginny muttered ‘wingardium leviosa’ and floated Draco out the door and into his car. She turned the key in the ignition, and drove him back to their house. She put him in his bed, atop the covers. Then she went to the drawers and back a bag for herself.

She went outside, locked the door and put her arm out to catch the Knight Bus to the Leaky Cauldron. Hopefully Tom had a room for her.

Once she got on the bus, her tears that had built up from the night all spilled out. The drivers looked at her, clearly wondering if anything could be done. Ginny continued to cry, until she put on a presentable face to walk into the Leaky Cauldron.

“Hiya, Ginny, what can I do ya for this fine eve?” Tom greeted her perkily.

“I need a room, Tom. Have you any I could use?” she asked, as she dropped more than enough coins on the counter.

“Yes, I have. What’s wrong, Ginny? You don’t look so well?” he asked concerned.

“The room, Tom, can you show me to my room?” Ginny said, obviously not wanting to talk about it.

“Room number 4, miss, The usual. Let me bring up your bags, please.” He picked up the bag before she could protest, following her up the stairs. He laid the bag right inside the door, bidding Ginny a better day tomorrow than her night.

**

A week passed before Ginny left her room. It was another three days before Draco came.

He knocked on her door. She opened it, thinking it would be Tom, requesting more money for her stay. Her eyes instead received the sight of Draco Malfoy. He reached out to cup her cheek, but she nudged him away.

“Can I come in?” he asked softly.

Ginny didn’t say anything, but Draco read her eyes. She didn’t want to let him in.

“Please,” he added as a last ditch effort.

She stepped back, allowing him entrance to the place she had called home for the last week.

They went to sit at the small coffee table in her room. She stared at the table. Draco figured if they were going to get anywhere he would have to start the ball rolling.

“Gin, I’m sorry.” He looked for some sign of forgiveness from her. He didn’t get one, although he did get her to look up.

He wished he hadn’t. Her tear-stained cheeks broke his heart. The fact that he had caused them made it even worse.

“They don’t want you to ever come back. My father told me that I had to make a choice.”

She stopped there. He waited for her to go on before he spoke again.

“What do I have to do, Ginny, to get you back? I’d do anything to dry your tears. I want you to come home and stay with me,” he told her.

“Do I really have a reason to stay with you?” she choked out.

“Well, there’s me…. That’s a start… Isn’t it?” he asked, looking directly in her eyes.

“Can you make up for my family, Draco? I love them. I don’t think I can abandon my family for my boyfriend.”

“I’ll do everything I can to get there trust back, Gin. I’ll stop drinking. I’ll apologize to them,” he told her, his hands moving, trying to convey just how much he’d do for her.
“Show me, Draco. Don’t tell me,” she advised.

“You’ll come home?” he asked.

She didn’t answer.

**

A man on a mission. That was what Draco was. The mission name: Mission Impossible.

He knocked on the door of the Burrow, and stepped back. Mrs. Weasley finally came to the door.

“Mister Malfoy,” she said to him. “Arthur! There’s someone here to see you!” she called throughout the house.

“Actually, Mrs. Weasley, I was hoping I could speak with both of you. Please, ma’am,” he looked at her, and she bade him to sit at the kitchen table.

When Mr. Weasley came through the door, he immediately turned around. Luckily, Mrs. Weasley seemed to see something in Draco that he did not.

“Arthur Weasley, sit down this minute!” she told him.

He turned around, and after seeing the no-nonsense look in her eyes, he sat down.

“What have you to say, boy?” Mr. Weasley asked him.

“I’m sorry. From the bottom of my heart, I am sorry for offending your family so. I am sorry for injury a family member, and thus, injuring your relationship with your only daughter,” he told them.

“Thank you, Draco,” Mrs. Weasley cut in before her husband could say anything. “We accept your apology.”

“There is also something else I would like to talk to you about…”



“Draco, where are you taking me?” Ginny asked him urgently. This being blindfolded thing was not making her happy.

“Just a little bit more,” he coaxed, with a tight grip on her hand.
“We’re here,” he said at long last. “You can untie your blindfold.”

She got it off her faster than a little kid got the wrapping of a present at Christmas.

When she saw the sight that unfolded before her, she gasped. They were at the very place they had their first date, on the cliff known as ‘Peanut Butter Place’. The sun was setting, providing a great view.

When she tried to get closer to Draco, she nearly tripped over him, as he was kneeling on the ground.

She looked at him and laughed, “What are you doing on the ground. Your Armani pants will get dirty.”

He didn’t say anything, just smiled. Then he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a velvet box. All the breath in Ginny’s lungs wooshed out of her body as the realization of what was happening washed over her.

He opened the box, only for nothing to be in there. Ginny looked at him, heartbroken. He wasn’t going to ask her to marry him. Too bad, since with the background, it really was a romantic place.

Just as she thought all hope was gone, a smile spread across his face, and he let out a laugh. Then he reached into his pocket and procured a ring.

“Ginevra Malfoy, will you stay with me?” He asked, putting the ring on her finger.

She nodded, not able to say anything. He stood up and she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.

It really was a romantic place, that Peanut Butter Cliff.


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Whew! Another one down. This was actually my favorite of the three challenges I had done today. Hope you liked it. Review please!
This story archived at http://www.dracoandginny.com/viewstory.php?sid=868