It's hard to learn how to live without that one person you thought would be in your life forever. But Ginny Weasley had always been a quick study, and there are always certain grey-eyed boys to help speed up the learning process...

Category: Works in Progress
Rating: Sorta Naughty
Characters: Draco Malfoy, Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley
Compliant with: All but epilogue
Era: Future AU
Genres: Humor, Romance
Warnings: None
Completed: No
Series: None

Story notes: Voted "Sweetest Fic" in the 2008 dgficexchange on LiveJournal.

Thank you to my absolutely fabulous beta, eternalhope08, for dealing with all my freak outs, break downs and general hysteria while writing this fic, in addition to, you know, actually editing it. This is only part of the reason that she is the Shakespeare to my Homer. Love*

Also, all my information on Beedle the Bard came from here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1000179911. Part of my prompt was to include some reference to the Tales of Beedle the Bard in a situation completely unrelated to children, and so I tried to include at least some sort of parallel in each Chapter, in addition to an overall allegory. See if you can catch them!

Enjoy!

1. Commencement at Dusk (Reviews - 44) 1456 words

2. Cry. (Reviews - 2) 452 words

All potions ingredients came from the fabulous and ever-helpful Harry Potter Lexicon.

3. Read a Book that You Love. (Reviews - 7) 1081 words

Just a quick side note: Pablo Neruda is, I think, the only writer that I actually enjoyed reading in the two years that I took Spanish Lit. (Actually no that's a lie- Garcia Lorca was pretty sweet too. But that is beside the point.) So if you've never read anything by Pablo Neruda, go. Now. Read. Well actually, first read this chappie, leave a lovely little happy review telling me how much you adore me, and then go read.

...Yeah, something like that.

Enjoy!

4. Make Mud Pies. Stick Pins in Voodoo Dolls. (Reviews - 5) 1129 words

5. Uncover a Deep, Dark Secret. (Reviews - 15) 1233 words

This segment was added practically at the last minute right before I sent in my fic to the dgficexchange, but I think it definitely ended up being one of my favorite parts out of this whole thing.

6. Eat Ice Cream. (Reviews - 14) 1516 words

I poked a little fun at J.K. Rowling's epilogue here. I just don't understand how she could've placed Draco with Astoria Greengrass when his soulmate is obviously standing over there - no, there - you know, that one with the red hair and brown eyes and name that starts with a "G" and ends with an "inny." I mean, seriously Jo. Get with the program.

7. Take a Long Walk on a Cold Winter Night. (Reviews - 14) 2590 words

A huge (huge huge HUGE) part of this chapter was written by my beta (graceliness on this site, eternalhope08 on fanfiction.net) so many props and hugs and gooey, chocolate, cholesterol-infested things go to her.

8. Stay Up All Night Gossiping With Your Friends. (Reviews - 4) 1122 words

9. Dance. Jump in Puddles. (Reviews - 14) 1562 words

This is probably my favorite chapter out of this entire story. It’s hard to explain- most likely it's the result of far too many Disney movies as a child combined with the genetically ingrained hopeless romantic in me. And thunderstorms. I love thunderstorms.

Enjoy!

10. Count the Stars. (Reviews - 19) 1830 words

Sorry for the long interlude in updates- real life gets hectic for me in the summertime.

This chapter took a while to edit- in fact, I practically ended up rewriting the whole thing. Not completely satisfied with what came out, but I wanted to get this thing posted. So any comments or criticism is, as always, welcome!

Just a side note: all my information on the Draco constellation came from dear old Wikipedia.

11. Bake Cookies. (Reviews - 19) 1668 words

Wow, it has certainly been a while since I’ve updated this fic. Sorry about that – real life has been overwhelming these past couple months, with the workload from my classes and some family stuff and a couple really obnoxious personal situations and being mauled by a Bengal tiger while traveling on a safari across the world. (Um, yeah – kidding on that last one.) Any time I did have to dedicate to the wonder that is fanfiction I ended up spending on my fic piece for the Fall 2008 DGFicExchange. (If anyone’s interested, I did start posting the fic on both this website and my page over on FanFiction.net. It’s a lot different from this fic – a bit darker, a bit angstier – but it won “Best Prose� for the round, so I suppose it’s not completely worthless. And yes, that was some shameless pimping. I have no morals.)

Anyways, point is – I’m back! Hopefully, at least. This fic is completely written, so it shouldn’t be this hard to post up the remaining chapters – I guess I’m just having trouble finding the time to edit lately. I promise to update a lot more often if you promise to – oh, I don’t know – review, perhaps? ;)

Well, in any case, enjoy!

12. Catch Snowflakes on your Tongue. (Reviews - 7) 1458 words

13. Lie in the Grass. (Reviews - 14) 1523 words

This is completely irrelevant to this chapter; however, I have recently somehow become hopelessly and irrevocably obsessed with Snow Patrol. I'd heard a couple of their songs before, but I never realized how utterly fantastic they are. No, really – if you ever find some free time, go listen to some of their songs. I suggest Set the Fire to the Third Bar, The Planets Bend Between Us, Crack the Shutters, Riot Please and Disaster Button. But really, that is just the beginning.

Ahem, anyway... on to the story!

14. Catch Up with an Old Friend. (Reviews - 11) 1687 words

I cannot even begin to express how sorry I am that I have not been updating. And it is ridiculous that I haven’t been because as I’ve said before, this fic is done. Written. FINISHED. And it has been ever since I wrote it for the 2008 Spring DGFicExchange, so really I’m just a huge slacker who owes anyone who might still be following this story an apology. There’s five chapters left, including this one. My goal is to have this entire fic up and posted before my classes start on September 2nd. That’s pretty reasonable, don’t you think?

This chapter’s a bit on the short side, but don’t fret – it’s just the swirling calm before the storm.

15. Paint with Your Fingers. (Reviews - 8) 2152 words

The last few paragraphs between Draco and Ginny in this chapter – the part with the window – aren’t completely of my own design. The scenario actually comes from this promotional music video for an old Taiwanese drama titled “It Started with a Kiss�. (Here’s the link on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lbsBte4uCo.) I don’t know if it makes a lot of sense, partially because you need to know what’s going on in the show and partially because it’s in Chinese – but basically the girl is cute but socially inept and very clueless, and she’s totally in love with the guy but he thinks that she is the most annoying thing on the planet and enjoys messing with her because he knows she likes him, but inexplicably, illogically, he finds himself starting to feel attracted to her…It’s a pretty typical angst-filled, teenage drama, except in Chinese. The music video is completely endearing though, and the idea I stole comes right at the end, in the last thirty seconds or so.

Oh, and in case any of you lovely duckies care – and I’m hoping you do, because otherwise I’m just a vain little duckling flashing her own feathers – there’s a small fragment in here that won the Snarkiest Conversation award at the Spring 2008 DG Fic Exchange.

16. Fly For So Long You Can No Longer Feel Your Arse. (Reviews - 21) 3272 words

It was the perfect weather for writing today: all dappled sunlight and warm breezes in the afternoon, then a cool, misting rain shower at sunset, probably one of the last summer rainstorms for a while. It put me in the perfect mood for working on this chapter – oh, and believe me, this chapter needed a major amount of editing. I hope you enjoy it!

17. Go Skinny-Dipping. Soak Up the Sun. (Reviews - 14) 2247 words

18. And Finally... (Reviews - 19) 2494 words

I tremble. I weep. I throw myself across the ground at your collective feet and grovel – nay, beg – for your forgiveness. This chapter is so, so, SO overdue. And I owe you all a huge apology. (I will owe you all a bigger apology at the end of this chapter, but I’ll get to that in the chapter end notes.)

I could go on and on about why this is so late and how trying of a year this has been – and believe me, it’s been a monster of a year – but I have a feeling that you all would rather have me shut up and just get on with the story! And so I shall.

Quick warning: there is one teensy, eensy, four-letter word in here that is not fir for children’s ears. I tried doing without it, but it just seemed so much more British and Ginny with it there. And so you will just have to put up with my foul language.

Enjoy!

19. ...Find What Little Courage You Have... (Reviews - 30) 5706 words

Right. So I've been working on this, I promise, really I have. But the words just weren't coming, and when I'm blocked like that, I can't force it, I kind of just have to let it sit and mull and – well, and then before I've noticed it's become six months since my last update.

But then today was hectically busy and I was scampering all over the city running errands…and then it started to snow. I don't know if I can begin to describe how much I love snow; everything I'd say would be a cliché but snow is just so wonderful. And it makes me think. And today, walking home in the snow, following the dozen of footprints littered over the sidewalk, watching the way the flakes managed to catch what light there was even when the moon was hidden behind a fleet of clouds – well, I thought of Notes on Falling Out of Love.

So here it is: the next chapter, long overdue. You have my sincerest of apologies. Enjoy!