Disclaimer: Canon characters do not belong to me.
Rhapsody
Chapter Fourteen – I Gave You My Music
Draco made his way to the Room of Requirement that night with a mixture of apprehension and delight in his stomach. He had never felt the things he felt with Ginny before, ever. The delicious tingles in his body when he touched her, the warm sensation that came over him just to think of her, none of these things had ever happened before to him. He was always a cold, ruthless Malfoy, even after he had betrayed his father. But, now, it was like his whole dark, dreary world was opening up and Ginny Weasley was his sun.
He intended to play his composition for her; his perfect melody, his rhapsody. The nerves in his stomach were so foreign to him, that he almost thought he was ill again. But he had reached the door to the Room of Requirement, and there was no turning back now.
The door was unlocked, so he stepped right inside. He stopped in the doorway and watched as that sodding piece of vermin Lovett snaked his way over to Ginny, told her he would never hurt her, and then pressed his vile, lying lips against hers. Draco waited only a moment for Ginny to push him off, but he could see that she was disarmed somehow. So he spoke up.
“Well, isn’t this cozy,” he said, voice deathly cold.
Ginny felt Charlie smile against her mouth, and she took advantage of his distraction to shove him roughly away from her. She looked to Draco, a calm expression belying the terror inside her. How much had Draco seen?
Draco strolled towards them with all the confidence, no, arrogance of his younger years, patented Slytherin smirk on his lips.
“Draco, I can explain,” she started to say, but he held up a finger to shush her.
“I don’t need to hear any excuses from you,” he said, the coldness in his tone still readily apparent.
“Come on now, mate, we’re all adults here. I think we can treat this in the most civil and gentlemanly manner,” Charlie piped up, with a satisfied smile.
“Adults? I see only one adult here, and it is I. So therefore, I see no qualms in treating you like the children that you are. Fifteen points each from Gryffindor for your illicit meeting and your blatant disregard for the rules,” Draco answered, surprising himself with just how much his godfather had rubbed off on him. If the situation weren’t so serious, he might have laughed.
“Draco, let me explain!” Ginny said angrily. She stepped forward to get closer to Draco, but he stopped her with a defiant look.
“I’ll allow your explanation in a moment, Miss Weasley, but first there is something else I must do,” he said. A quizzical look appeared on Ginny’s face, but she fell silent. Unease settled over her, the tension in the room was exceedingly palpable.
Draco turned to Charlie, who looked expectantly at him. Charlie had presumed Draco to rage, or possibly just turn right around and leave, but this calmness was unnerving. Charlie drew himself up to his fullest height – they were about equal, Charlie only that much shorter, so it was hardly intimidating.
“Lovett, I would like to tell you a little story,” Draco finally said, staring straight into the younger boy’s eyes. “I assure you, you will find it most…interesting.”
“I don’t really want to hear anything from you, Malfoy, so why don’t you take your story and shove it up your arse,” Charlie said crassly.
Draco made a noncommittal noise before saying, “Adult, indeed, little boy. Didn’t your mother ever teach you any manners? I had thought Gryffindors were supposed to be noble. Oh well, no matter, back to my story.”
“I said, I don’t want to hear it, Malfoy,” Charlie spat. He started to brush past Draco to leave the room, but Draco gripped him very roughly on the arm and forced him backward until he was sitting on the couch with Draco standing over him.
“No reason you can’t be comfortable while I talk,” Draco said quietly, eyes flashing dangerously.
Ginny didn’t know quite what to do with herself. She was angry that Charlie had forced a kiss upon her, ashamed that Draco had seen them, and scared, now, for what would happen. Funnily enough, she didn’t care what happened to Charlie – she just did not want to see Draco jeopardize everything he had worked for. She slowly inched forward, but Draco held up a hand to stop her in her tracks. She huffed impatiently, fiery temper starting to rise up, but she just stopped, folding her arms across her chest to hear the story Draco was going to tell.
Draco began to pace, looking like a vulture circling its prey as he started his story. “At the beginning of this year, Lovett, a nosy little imp spied on my playing the piano. I sent her on her way, but she somehow managed to keep popping up and around and about when I played. I began to, well, I began to sort of fancy the idea of her coming around, adding to my music. Then, I started to fancy this little imp just for who she was. But then, a certain prat came into her life and started to tear away at my little imp.”
He looked pointedly at Charlie, slowly, menacingly drawing his wand from his robe pocket.
“This prat even went so far as to try and break my little imp. He set her up for humiliation,” Draco continued, moving forward to hold the tip of his wand between Charlie’s eyes.
“You wouldn’t dare,” Charlie said, although his voice wavered slightly as he truly did indeed believe that Draco would dare.
“Oh I would, make no mistake, I most certainly would dare,” he said, conversationally, as if he hadn’t just threatened someone. “Although, I’d prefer not to…waste of energy, you understand.”
“Okay, this is ludicrous,” Ginny spoke up, “What next, a bloody wizard’s duel over me?”
“Don’t flatter yourself,” Draco said, voice still a mockery of Snape’s.
Ginny’s eyes narrowed, but inwardly, she felt the most obscene pain in her heart.
Draco turned his attention back to Charlie, who had attempted to stand up while Draco’s gaze was on Ginny. Draco pushed him back down. “Don’t even think about moving, Lovett, I’m not through just yet.”
Charlie started to speak but, seeing the look of intense hatred on Draco’s face, kept his mouth shut.
“Now, where was I? Oh yes, I was just getting to the good part.” Draco, swift as lightning, grabbed Charlie by front of his shirt and yanked him to his feet. Draco held Charlie at arms-length. “If you even so much as brush past Ginevra Weasley ever again, rest assured that I will hurt you.”
He let go of Charlie and started to turn to Ginny. As an afterthought, he spun back around quickly, curling his left hand into a fist. He connected squarely with Charlie’s jaw, satisfied with the resounding crack. He only vaguely heard Ginny gasp, absorbed in how much his hand hurt.
Charlie fell to the ground, whimpering and clutching his soon-to-be-bruised mouth. Draco shook out his hand, and then turned back to Ginny. She ran up to him, taking his injured hand into hers and kissing it.
“Are you all right?” she asked, unconcerned at that moment about whatever he might have felt about her.
“I’m fine now,” he said quietly, looking deeply into her brown eyes.
“You know, I didn’t kiss him back…I didn’t want to, anyway, and I’m sorry it happened, and I know you must hate me--” He interrupted her stream of babbling with a fervent kiss.
She was startled. “What? I – wait, I thought you were…”
“I’m going to kiss you until all you can taste is me, and no one else,” he said. His expression was intensely passionate, and the pains in Ginny’s heart began to subside.
“I thought you were angry with me,” she said softly.
“I was; I am, but I still…”
He trailed off. Did he dare to finish that thought? Was that even what he felt? So many things had changed for him over the year; he didn’t want to admit to them. Almost all of them had deconstructed everything he’d ever been taught to believe. But his father was gone, his mother was dead, and he was, according to legal records, not a Malfoy anymore. Surely he could accept himself as he was now, new…changed…happy.
“Love me?” she asked breathlessly, scarcely having the nerve to hope.
He looked through her. If he said yes, it would mean accepting once and for all that he was no longer the man he had always thought he was.
Ginny looked into his piercing eyes. They appeared restless to her, like he was thinking a million and a half things all at the same time. She slid her slender hands up his arms and asked, “Do you love me?”
Draco shrugged out of her grip and turned around. Ginny’s hands curled into fists and then dropped limply at her sides. She started to leave.
“Yes.”
Ginny froze. Draco had said yes. It was practically inaudible and he hadn’t turned around, but he had said YES. “What did you say?”
Draco spun around, passion blazing in his normally cold grey eyes. “Damn it, Ginny, I said yes, and you know it! Yes, yes, yes, I love you. I love you, Ginny!”
Ginny started to cry. He loved her – he, Draco Malfoy, had admitted to being capable of love, and it was she who he loved. Draco gathered her into his arms and brushed away her tears with his thumb.
“Don’t cry. Please don’t cry, Ginny, I’ll take it all back if you want,” he said, misunderstanding her tears.
“Never take it back! Never!” she cried, hugging him close to her. “I love you, Draco.”
He stiffened in her arms. It hadn’t occurred to him that her feelings would be reciprocal. Really, they hadn’t been truly together for all that long, but if…sweet Merlin, if she could love him…
“So…so we love each other,” he said awkwardly. It felt so foreign, and yet…so welcome.
“We love each other,” she repeated resolutely. She stood up on tiptoe and pressed a gentle kiss to his lips. “We love each other.”
Draco looked down at his little imp; she was so full of life, beauty, truth, everything and anything he could possibly want. And she was his. He smiled; he loved.
He kissed her then, forgetting that just moments ago she had been snogging someone else. He kissed her, pouring every feeling he had for her into that simple action. She sighed softly against his mouth – this was absolute bliss.
“Oh please, you’re both nutters,” Charlie piped up, dragging himself up from the floor.
Draco’s eyes narrowed. He took a slow breath in and out and then smiled at Ginny. “Why don’t you get on back to the party? I’ll join you there later, if you’d like.”
“I – well – what about--"
“I will take care of the garbage, Ginny,” he said, the Snape voice returning.
Ginny curled her lips into a peculiar sort of smile. “Be careful, please,” she whispered. She kissed him quickly again and left the room to return to the party.
Draco turned back to Charlie, who had stood up.
“Now, let’s see…how do I want this part of the story to end?” Draco asked himself, smiling wickedly.
----
June came much too quickly for Ginny’s liking. The entire month of May was spent studying like mad for the tests that would determine the rest of her life. Although she secretly still harbored her wish to make a career of her vocal talent, she understood that the chance of fame was one in a million, especially when one came from the wizarding world. She was still determined to try; but, her N.E.W.Ts would be what decided her future.
She had just finished her final N.E.W.T, the practical Defense Against the Dark Arts examination. She knew she had passed it with flying colors – it had always been her strongest subject, thanks to Harry in her fourth year and all the training she had done with the Order for the war. In fact, she was almost positive that most of her fellow 7th year students had aced the DADA tests.
Ginny and Jordi walked down the hallway, sweat dripping down their foreheads. Ginny wiped her brow with her hand, and they continued walking toward the entrance hall so that they could go out on the grounds and find some shade.
“Ginny, Jordi!”
The girls turned around to see Elizabeth running to catch up with them. “Hey, Lizzie, how do you think you did?” Ginny asked.
“Oh, fine, fine I guess. I know I aced Transfiguration and Charms, and that was pretty much all I cared about,” she said, nonchalantly. Elizabeth’s dream had always been to open a spa in the West End, so she didn’t exactly need too much magic which was actually funny considering that she was a pureblood witch. But her parents were very supportive of her decision, as long as she married a nice wizard. Lizzie was certainly up for that.
“Nice work, Elizabeth. Well, Ginny and I were just going outside, come with?”
“It’s ghastly hot out there!” she exclaimed.
“Yeah, but Fitz told me that James Farrell wanted to start a football game – shirts vs. skins!” Jordi said, raising her eyebrows.
Elizabeth had been about to ask what football was, but her eyes widened in delight. “And which team is he on?”
“Let’s go find out,” Ginny said, laughing. She shook her head. Some things never changed. Jordi and Elizabeth started down the hall, but Ginny hung back for a moment.
“Aren’t you coming, Gin?” Elizabeth asked.
“I’ll catch up in a minute,” she answered. Jordi winked at her and took Elizabeth by the arm to go outside.
Ginny doubled back to find Draco; she knew he would be waiting in the Room of Requirement for her. Since they had been interrupted the last time, he’d been waiting for the right moment to play something for her – he’d been perfecting it, or so he said, and she had been dying to hear it.
Ginny placed a Silencing charm on her shoes and walked into the Room of Requirement. He was in there, as she had thought he would be, and she tiptoed up behind him.
Draco’s eyes were closed, but before she could reach the piano, he began to play. The song was unfamiliar to her, so she remained quiet listening.
The music washed over her, resounding deeply within her. It began lightly, like a trickle of water and then a crescendo gave it a new sound. It was twisting and undulating. Draco’s fingers rolled passionately over the keys, almost as though he was massaging them. The swelling melody then became angry, furious – frustrated. Ginny felt choked up inside; she wanted to free it. But the melody soothed itself, rolling out again in waves of beauty.
She crept up closer to the piano, not wanting to disturb, but she had to see what he was playing. She couldn’t see from her angle, so she walked up right behind Draco and looked over his shoulder. There was the sheet music – raw, penciled in. Her hand flew to her mouth to stifle the emotion that threatened to surge out of her.
Rhapsody for Ginny
Composed by D. Malfoy
The music began to come to its conclusion and Ginny struggled to hide the tears that she had begun to cry.
Draco stopped abruptly, taking his pencil from behind his ear. “I just can’t get the ending,” he said. Ginny watched him try several different chords to end it, but none sounded right. Slowly she reached around him and played exactly the right final note.
Draco watched her depress the key and an overwhelming sense of completion washed over him. “That’s perfect,” he said quietly.
“It fits,” she replied. “As do you.”
He leaned back to kiss her. She smiled and said, “No – that fits.”
Draco smiled back. “Perfectly.”
----
Note: Chapter title is from the All I Ask of You (Reprise) from Andrew Lloyd Webber's PHANTOM OF THE OPERA.
Draco made his way to the Room of Requirement that night with a mixture of apprehension and delight in his stomach. He had never felt the things he felt with Ginny before, ever. The delicious tingles in his body when he touched her, the warm sensation that came over him just to think of her, none of these things had ever happened before to him. He was always a cold, ruthless Malfoy, even after he had betrayed his father. But, now, it was like his whole dark, dreary world was opening up and Ginny Weasley was his sun.
He intended to play his composition for her; his perfect melody, his rhapsody. The nerves in his stomach were so foreign to him, that he almost thought he was ill again. But he had reached the door to the Room of Requirement, and there was no turning back now.
The door was unlocked, so he stepped right inside. He stopped in the doorway and watched as that sodding piece of vermin Lovett snaked his way over to Ginny, told her he would never hurt her, and then pressed his vile, lying lips against hers. Draco waited only a moment for Ginny to push him off, but he could see that she was disarmed somehow. So he spoke up.
“Well, isn’t this cozy,” he said, voice deathly cold.
Ginny felt Charlie smile against her mouth, and she took advantage of his distraction to shove him roughly away from her. She looked to Draco, a calm expression belying the terror inside her. How much had Draco seen?
Draco strolled towards them with all the confidence, no, arrogance of his younger years, patented Slytherin smirk on his lips.
“Draco, I can explain,” she started to say, but he held up a finger to shush her.
“I don’t need to hear any excuses from you,” he said, the coldness in his tone still readily apparent.
“Come on now, mate, we’re all adults here. I think we can treat this in the most civil and gentlemanly manner,” Charlie piped up, with a satisfied smile.
“Adults? I see only one adult here, and it is I. So therefore, I see no qualms in treating you like the children that you are. Fifteen points each from Gryffindor for your illicit meeting and your blatant disregard for the rules,” Draco answered, surprising himself with just how much his godfather had rubbed off on him. If the situation weren’t so serious, he might have laughed.
“Draco, let me explain!” Ginny said angrily. She stepped forward to get closer to Draco, but he stopped her with a defiant look.
“I’ll allow your explanation in a moment, Miss Weasley, but first there is something else I must do,” he said. A quizzical look appeared on Ginny’s face, but she fell silent. Unease settled over her, the tension in the room was exceedingly palpable.
Draco turned to Charlie, who looked expectantly at him. Charlie had presumed Draco to rage, or possibly just turn right around and leave, but this calmness was unnerving. Charlie drew himself up to his fullest height – they were about equal, Charlie only that much shorter, so it was hardly intimidating.
“Lovett, I would like to tell you a little story,” Draco finally said, staring straight into the younger boy’s eyes. “I assure you, you will find it most…interesting.”
“I don’t really want to hear anything from you, Malfoy, so why don’t you take your story and shove it up your arse,” Charlie said crassly.
Draco made a noncommittal noise before saying, “Adult, indeed, little boy. Didn’t your mother ever teach you any manners? I had thought Gryffindors were supposed to be noble. Oh well, no matter, back to my story.”
“I said, I don’t want to hear it, Malfoy,” Charlie spat. He started to brush past Draco to leave the room, but Draco gripped him very roughly on the arm and forced him backward until he was sitting on the couch with Draco standing over him.
“No reason you can’t be comfortable while I talk,” Draco said quietly, eyes flashing dangerously.
Ginny didn’t know quite what to do with herself. She was angry that Charlie had forced a kiss upon her, ashamed that Draco had seen them, and scared, now, for what would happen. Funnily enough, she didn’t care what happened to Charlie – she just did not want to see Draco jeopardize everything he had worked for. She slowly inched forward, but Draco held up a hand to stop her in her tracks. She huffed impatiently, fiery temper starting to rise up, but she just stopped, folding her arms across her chest to hear the story Draco was going to tell.
Draco began to pace, looking like a vulture circling its prey as he started his story. “At the beginning of this year, Lovett, a nosy little imp spied on my playing the piano. I sent her on her way, but she somehow managed to keep popping up and around and about when I played. I began to, well, I began to sort of fancy the idea of her coming around, adding to my music. Then, I started to fancy this little imp just for who she was. But then, a certain prat came into her life and started to tear away at my little imp.”
He looked pointedly at Charlie, slowly, menacingly drawing his wand from his robe pocket.
“This prat even went so far as to try and break my little imp. He set her up for humiliation,” Draco continued, moving forward to hold the tip of his wand between Charlie’s eyes.
“You wouldn’t dare,” Charlie said, although his voice wavered slightly as he truly did indeed believe that Draco would dare.
“Oh I would, make no mistake, I most certainly would dare,” he said, conversationally, as if he hadn’t just threatened someone. “Although, I’d prefer not to…waste of energy, you understand.”
“Okay, this is ludicrous,” Ginny spoke up, “What next, a bloody wizard’s duel over me?”
“Don’t flatter yourself,” Draco said, voice still a mockery of Snape’s.
Ginny’s eyes narrowed, but inwardly, she felt the most obscene pain in her heart.
Draco turned his attention back to Charlie, who had attempted to stand up while Draco’s gaze was on Ginny. Draco pushed him back down. “Don’t even think about moving, Lovett, I’m not through just yet.”
Charlie started to speak but, seeing the look of intense hatred on Draco’s face, kept his mouth shut.
“Now, where was I? Oh yes, I was just getting to the good part.” Draco, swift as lightning, grabbed Charlie by front of his shirt and yanked him to his feet. Draco held Charlie at arms-length. “If you even so much as brush past Ginevra Weasley ever again, rest assured that I will hurt you.”
He let go of Charlie and started to turn to Ginny. As an afterthought, he spun back around quickly, curling his left hand into a fist. He connected squarely with Charlie’s jaw, satisfied with the resounding crack. He only vaguely heard Ginny gasp, absorbed in how much his hand hurt.
Charlie fell to the ground, whimpering and clutching his soon-to-be-bruised mouth. Draco shook out his hand, and then turned back to Ginny. She ran up to him, taking his injured hand into hers and kissing it.
“Are you all right?” she asked, unconcerned at that moment about whatever he might have felt about her.
“I’m fine now,” he said quietly, looking deeply into her brown eyes.
“You know, I didn’t kiss him back…I didn’t want to, anyway, and I’m sorry it happened, and I know you must hate me--” He interrupted her stream of babbling with a fervent kiss.
She was startled. “What? I – wait, I thought you were…”
“I’m going to kiss you until all you can taste is me, and no one else,” he said. His expression was intensely passionate, and the pains in Ginny’s heart began to subside.
“I thought you were angry with me,” she said softly.
“I was; I am, but I still…”
He trailed off. Did he dare to finish that thought? Was that even what he felt? So many things had changed for him over the year; he didn’t want to admit to them. Almost all of them had deconstructed everything he’d ever been taught to believe. But his father was gone, his mother was dead, and he was, according to legal records, not a Malfoy anymore. Surely he could accept himself as he was now, new…changed…happy.
“Love me?” she asked breathlessly, scarcely having the nerve to hope.
He looked through her. If he said yes, it would mean accepting once and for all that he was no longer the man he had always thought he was.
Ginny looked into his piercing eyes. They appeared restless to her, like he was thinking a million and a half things all at the same time. She slid her slender hands up his arms and asked, “Do you love me?”
Draco shrugged out of her grip and turned around. Ginny’s hands curled into fists and then dropped limply at her sides. She started to leave.
“Yes.”
Ginny froze. Draco had said yes. It was practically inaudible and he hadn’t turned around, but he had said YES. “What did you say?”
Draco spun around, passion blazing in his normally cold grey eyes. “Damn it, Ginny, I said yes, and you know it! Yes, yes, yes, I love you. I love you, Ginny!”
Ginny started to cry. He loved her – he, Draco Malfoy, had admitted to being capable of love, and it was she who he loved. Draco gathered her into his arms and brushed away her tears with his thumb.
“Don’t cry. Please don’t cry, Ginny, I’ll take it all back if you want,” he said, misunderstanding her tears.
“Never take it back! Never!” she cried, hugging him close to her. “I love you, Draco.”
He stiffened in her arms. It hadn’t occurred to him that her feelings would be reciprocal. Really, they hadn’t been truly together for all that long, but if…sweet Merlin, if she could love him…
“So…so we love each other,” he said awkwardly. It felt so foreign, and yet…so welcome.
“We love each other,” she repeated resolutely. She stood up on tiptoe and pressed a gentle kiss to his lips. “We love each other.”
Draco looked down at his little imp; she was so full of life, beauty, truth, everything and anything he could possibly want. And she was his. He smiled; he loved.
He kissed her then, forgetting that just moments ago she had been snogging someone else. He kissed her, pouring every feeling he had for her into that simple action. She sighed softly against his mouth – this was absolute bliss.
“Oh please, you’re both nutters,” Charlie piped up, dragging himself up from the floor.
Draco’s eyes narrowed. He took a slow breath in and out and then smiled at Ginny. “Why don’t you get on back to the party? I’ll join you there later, if you’d like.”
“I – well – what about--"
“I will take care of the garbage, Ginny,” he said, the Snape voice returning.
Ginny curled her lips into a peculiar sort of smile. “Be careful, please,” she whispered. She kissed him quickly again and left the room to return to the party.
Draco turned back to Charlie, who had stood up.
“Now, let’s see…how do I want this part of the story to end?” Draco asked himself, smiling wickedly.
----
June came much too quickly for Ginny’s liking. The entire month of May was spent studying like mad for the tests that would determine the rest of her life. Although she secretly still harbored her wish to make a career of her vocal talent, she understood that the chance of fame was one in a million, especially when one came from the wizarding world. She was still determined to try; but, her N.E.W.Ts would be what decided her future.
She had just finished her final N.E.W.T, the practical Defense Against the Dark Arts examination. She knew she had passed it with flying colors – it had always been her strongest subject, thanks to Harry in her fourth year and all the training she had done with the Order for the war. In fact, she was almost positive that most of her fellow 7th year students had aced the DADA tests.
Ginny and Jordi walked down the hallway, sweat dripping down their foreheads. Ginny wiped her brow with her hand, and they continued walking toward the entrance hall so that they could go out on the grounds and find some shade.
“Ginny, Jordi!”
The girls turned around to see Elizabeth running to catch up with them. “Hey, Lizzie, how do you think you did?” Ginny asked.
“Oh, fine, fine I guess. I know I aced Transfiguration and Charms, and that was pretty much all I cared about,” she said, nonchalantly. Elizabeth’s dream had always been to open a spa in the West End, so she didn’t exactly need too much magic which was actually funny considering that she was a pureblood witch. But her parents were very supportive of her decision, as long as she married a nice wizard. Lizzie was certainly up for that.
“Nice work, Elizabeth. Well, Ginny and I were just going outside, come with?”
“It’s ghastly hot out there!” she exclaimed.
“Yeah, but Fitz told me that James Farrell wanted to start a football game – shirts vs. skins!” Jordi said, raising her eyebrows.
Elizabeth had been about to ask what football was, but her eyes widened in delight. “And which team is he on?”
“Let’s go find out,” Ginny said, laughing. She shook her head. Some things never changed. Jordi and Elizabeth started down the hall, but Ginny hung back for a moment.
“Aren’t you coming, Gin?” Elizabeth asked.
“I’ll catch up in a minute,” she answered. Jordi winked at her and took Elizabeth by the arm to go outside.
Ginny doubled back to find Draco; she knew he would be waiting in the Room of Requirement for her. Since they had been interrupted the last time, he’d been waiting for the right moment to play something for her – he’d been perfecting it, or so he said, and she had been dying to hear it.
Ginny placed a Silencing charm on her shoes and walked into the Room of Requirement. He was in there, as she had thought he would be, and she tiptoed up behind him.
Draco’s eyes were closed, but before she could reach the piano, he began to play. The song was unfamiliar to her, so she remained quiet listening.
The music washed over her, resounding deeply within her. It began lightly, like a trickle of water and then a crescendo gave it a new sound. It was twisting and undulating. Draco’s fingers rolled passionately over the keys, almost as though he was massaging them. The swelling melody then became angry, furious – frustrated. Ginny felt choked up inside; she wanted to free it. But the melody soothed itself, rolling out again in waves of beauty.
She crept up closer to the piano, not wanting to disturb, but she had to see what he was playing. She couldn’t see from her angle, so she walked up right behind Draco and looked over his shoulder. There was the sheet music – raw, penciled in. Her hand flew to her mouth to stifle the emotion that threatened to surge out of her.
Composed by D. Malfoy
The music began to come to its conclusion and Ginny struggled to hide the tears that she had begun to cry.
Draco stopped abruptly, taking his pencil from behind his ear. “I just can’t get the ending,” he said. Ginny watched him try several different chords to end it, but none sounded right. Slowly she reached around him and played exactly the right final note.
Draco watched her depress the key and an overwhelming sense of completion washed over him. “That’s perfect,” he said quietly.
“It fits,” she replied. “As do you.”
He leaned back to kiss her. She smiled and said, “No – that fits.”
Draco smiled back. “Perfectly.”
----
Note: Chapter title is from the All I Ask of You (Reprise) from Andrew Lloyd Webber's PHANTOM OF THE OPERA.
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