Chapter Twenty-Two: In the End
"I always thought that when you make the biggest mistake ever, something good comes out of it."
--Draco Malfoy
"The love that nurtures in supreme misfortune and adversity is the most exceptional and everlasting of all."
--Albus Dumbledore
"He does have me in a podium, Virginia, but he's got you in his arms."
--Pansy Parkinson
"It's not courage, Hermione, it's love."
--Virginia Weasley
You were always the cold one
But I was never that sure
You were all by yourself
Staring at a dark gray sky
I was changed.
--Mandy Moore
"I love you everywhere," Harry repeated as Ginny stared at him with wide and questioning eyes. She didn't know why he was here, and why he was saying these words to her. She held Malfoy's package closer, as if she was afraid he would take it away from her.
"What do you mean?" she asked, her voice vibrating through the castle walls.
Harry walked towards her until he was in front of the painting as well, his face bathed in the red light that was produced from Ginny's wand. He reached out a hand inside the door and pulled out crispy petals that once belonged to a rose. When Ginny peered inside the door, she saw that there were lots of those dead roses, kept inside the hidden door and slowly passed away in time.
"Snape," Harry said, his voice as soft as a whisper, "he had cast the charm on this painting to hide his past. Ego amare tibi perubique translates into-"
"I love you everywhere," Ginny piped in, suddenly understanding.
"Yes," Harry agreed, nodding solemnly, "Hermione translated it yesterday, and that was how I knew about this chamber."
"But why would Snape hide her journal inside this?" Ginny asked, still not being able to put two and two together. "I don't understand."
Harry reached out and pulled out the parchments entitled as Lily's Journal and placed it in Ginny's hands.
"Open it," he commanded gently.
Ginny reluctantly flipped through the pages of the journal and gasped in surprise.
There was nothing in it.
All the pages were blank.
She looked up at Harry just as he was reaching inside the little room once more, this time, holding out a battered piece of notebook.
"This is my mother's journal," Harry explained as he placed the moldy notebook on her hands, "Snape got hold of it."
Although the notebook was very old, Ginny could tell that it was quite expensive. The journal was hard-bound, and through the faded color, Ginny knew that it was once colored midnight blue.
"How?" she asked, confused. "How did Snape have gotten hold of this?"
"As Professor McGonagall said, it was the same way Malfoy got gold of your journal."
"No one knows about that!" Ginny exclaimed in surprise. "I didn't even mention it when Professor Dumbledore asked me to go to his office! I mean, no one knew how Malfoy got my diary, although my Potions class knew that it was with him."
"You think no one saw you when you bumped Malfoy a month ago?" Harry asked teasingly. "If you don't remember, Neville and Colin were there, seeing you as bright as day. You're confused now, I can tell. Let's see.did Neville mention anything about keeping your plant in the Owlery for no one to see?"
"Yes," said Ginny, nodding enthusiastically.
"Well, he overheard Ron and I talking about my mom's journal, and how we were sure that it was somewhere in this castle. Neville and Colin had been with us ever since, trying to find out where it was exactly. When Neville saw Malfoy slip your diary in his bag, he told it to us, me, Ron and Hermione, immediately, so that we can help you. The next day, do you remember how Colin took a picture of you so that you'd know where he and Neville were sitting at the Great Hall? (A/N: See chapter 2 for reference)"
"Yes," Ginny answered.
"When that picture got developed, which was of course, after the Shrinking Snape accident and after you received your punishment from Snape, Colin knew from right then that something was wrong. It wasn't you that was captured in the picture. It was Lily."
"But that's impossible!" Ginny exclaimed in surprise.
"That was what we thought at first, a trick on the light or something like that," said Harry as he placed a reassuring hand on her arm, "but Hermione told us something that made us change our minds completely. When Ron was cleaning out the trophies in his second year for detention, he saw a small pad filled with messy writings of Filch. He asked him what it was, and Filch said that it was his scribbling pad as a kid in Hogwarts, turns out that he was a snitch even as a kid. He mentioned something about a great potions disaster in his time. So naturally, when Ron mentioned this, we were quickly reminded of you and the Shrinking Potion accident.
Hermione looked up at the yearbooks and it turned out that Filch was in the same year as Snape and my mom. We felt that there was a connection between that Potion accident in my mom's year and your accident. We asked Filch for more information but he wouldn't budge. So we decided to sneak into his office and try to get hold of those parchments Ron was talking about."
"What happened, and who sneaked in?"
"It was Ron and I who sneaked in, but we never saw the scribbling pad, as Filch puts it. Ron thought he lost it, but I thought it's impossible for Filch to lose such a precious thing. We all know how much a terrible person Filch is! So as you can see, it was as if we were stuck in one situation where we couldn't find the answer.
Until I remembered something.
What if he didn't lose it? What if someone stole it? And who else steals Filch's things? Who else would stoop that low to annoy Filch?"
"Fred and George," said Ginny, finally understanding.
"Precisely. As soon as I came up with that theory, Ron instantly owled Fred and George, asking if they had Filch's pad or not and if they did, can they tell us what exactly was the Potions accident that happened in his year and who was involved in it.
When they owled us back after a few days, we were so surprised that Neville fainted, the way he does every class in Defense Against the Dark Arts. The potion that was spilled was a Shrinking Potion, spilled by my mom and because of Snape threatening to read this journal-" and here, Harry held up the moldy notebook for her to see, "-out loud and in front of the whole class. The same exact thing that Malfoy threatened to do."
"The same exact thing." Ginny mumbled.
"I asked Professor McGongall about this, and I asked her about the punishment they gave my mom. It was the same punishment that Snape gave you."
"And the things that happened next," said Ginny, her heart beating fast, "Malfoy blocking the Bludger, me joining the Slytherin team, and the whole sunset event-are you telling me that Snape did cast a spell on us so that history may repeat itself? So that this time Lily, or me, chooses him, or Malfoy?"
"No, Ginny, all of that was your choice. Maybe the picture was just a mysterious way of my mom telling me that something was going to happen between the two of you, or maybe it really was a trick of the light. I don't know, even Hermione doesn't know. But in the end, it was still your will that made you fall in love with Malfoy. However, I do believe that Malfoy, who knew all about this secret, thought there really was a spell that made the two of you to be together. The way he mentioned the soul mates when we were in Quarterly Galore at Hogsmeade, he was pretty convinced that some unknown force was pushing the two of you together."
"But-why? Why did your mom choose James in the end?" asked Ginny, her voice quivering.
Harry looked away for a moment, his eyes glazed over, as if deep thoughts were penetrating inside his mind. When he answered her question, he was looking at her in the eyes determinedly.
"Because she never knew that Snape felt something for her. This chamber was never known to my mom-this chamber holds all the things that Snape meant to give her, but he ended up not giving it to her after all. That's why they've been kept here in time. He was too scared." his voice drifted away, his words becoming a whisper that echoed in the halls, ".too scared to lose her."
Ginny stared at Harry, knowing that there was something he wasn't telling her. Whatever it was, she was sure that he would never end up telling her after all, the way Snape kept his secrets inside only for too long.
"Is that from Malfoy?" Harry asked, staring at the box beside her.
"Yes."
"I think I know what's inside of that."
Ginny reluctantly opened the box beside her, in case there was a singing card of some sort inside.
She gasped when she saw what was inside.
It was a couple of roses-but this time, they were fresh and not dead. Beneath the pile was her diary, as good as new, with no fingerprints at all, telling her that Malfoy never read it out of courtesy. Under the diary was a new expensive journal colored midnight blue and was hard bound. On the top was her name, engraved in golden letters, and on the center of the journal was the picture of him and her in the Hogwarts Monthly, entwined in each other's arms and kissing passionately. When she turned on the first page of the journal, she saw Malfoy's neat and cursive handwriting that said simply: I want to spend a lifetime of memories with you.
"He's careful not to lose you," Harry whispered close to her, "you know, just in case."
Ginny knew all of a sudden what Harry wasn't telling her. For this time around, in this present year, it wasn't Snape who was keeping his secrets inside-it was James. What Snape did was noble. He didn't express his feelings for Lily because he knew that she was already in love with James, he didn't want to cause any trouble.
But for the sake of loving, Ginny was sure that Snape bought Lily a white dress for her to wear in the ball, as he watched her dancing away with James, knowing that it was all to late.
*.*
"Malfoy!"
Ginny saw Malfoy turn around slowly in his seat, as she breathlessly ran through the empty Slytherin stands, her hair illuminating the orange tinge that the setting sun in front of them was giving. When she reached him, she took a minute of trying to catch her breath, as she placed the journal that he gave her, in the one of the benches.
"Tired from snogging Potter?" Malfoy remarked rudely as he eyed her grimly.
"Why, Malfoy?" she asked, giving him a smile. "Jealous?"
"Hell no!" He cried out, his eyes not giving a hint of forbearance.
"Okay then," said Ginny, chuckling, "may I sit beside you?"
"No," Malfoy uttered as Ginny settled herself beside him, the journal he had given her placed snugly in her lap.
They watched the sun set in silence, satisfied once more. The fiery sun was taking its time, its rays orange and red, settling behind the fluffy white clouds in front of it. There was no snow in sight, and the Slytherin stands were still filled with crumpled paper and cans of pumpkin juices, as it still wasn't cleaned from the match this afternoon. Malfoy's breathing was even, and when Ginny leaned in his shoulder, she felt him drew his breath in, before finally relaxing in her touch.
"Umm.Malfoy?" Ginny called out quietly.
"Shut up," he responded instinctively.
"I just realized something."
"Yes, I think you're mentally capable of realizing such things, your mother must be proud."
"I love you like I loved Harry before we met," said Ginny, aiming to please.
Malfoy was suddenly quiet for a few minutes, seeming to Ginny as if he was thinking about what she said. Afterwards, Malfoy gave a smirk and said, "What an insult."
Ginny gave out a cheerful laugh that lightened Malfoy's heart. "I wasn't trying to insult you."
"You could have said something like," Malfoy paused, scrunching up his face as if he was thinking, "something like this. I love you like I love Potions."
"But I don't love Potions."
"I do," was his soft reply.
Ginny snuggled in his shoulder contentedly and wrapped her arm around his. "You make me laugh, Draco," she uttered, remembering his insult a few weeks ago. Though it only happened in a short span of time, she felt as if it was a lifetime ago, as if it was part of a past that she cherishes.
Draco.
The name was sweet as it rolled off her tongue.
"It would take a tiny, shriveled Professor teaching Potions and a wet, miserable Malfoy in the showers before a laugh can come out of you-" Malfoy, or should Ginny say, Draco, halted once more, before saying her name as sweetly as she had uttered his name, "-Ginny."
"No," she responded, remembering his exact words, "sometimes, it just takes a Malfoy."
Draco laughed, this time it was empty from the icy and hollow sound that he makes when he laugh. This time, it was a soft, real laugh that made Ginny smile. "I believe we all learned something from all of this."
"And what is that? That it takes a Malfoy before a Weasley laughs and vice versa?
"No, it's that sometimes," and here, Draco turned towards her, his eyes filled with emotions as he reached out to touch her cheek, and as he softly pulled her closer to him. He had the same look he had when he was leaning towards her in the Great Hall, but back then he only tricked her about him kissing her lips.
Ginny's eyes closed unwillingly, as she anticipated at what Draco would say. Would it be something sweet? As sweet as what he said in the Yule Ball? As sweet as what he wrote in her new journal?
The mood was perfect. In front of them, the sun was setting, bathing them in dark orange and red light. The wind was calm between them. It wasn't hot and it wasn't cold. They were alone in the vast Quidditch field. The grass below them was still wet from the snow. The poles were glistening in the sunlight. The castle that loomed beside the field was ever so enticing, giving off romantic moods for Draco and Ginny to embrace.
Finally, he whispered, "sometimes, a Weasley's clumsiness actually pays off."
Ginny, nevertheless, was more than satisfied.
And like the scorching sun setting down to meet the skies, James' lips dawned on Lily's, finally entering the secret chambers of her heart. And as Lily's lips touches James', he felt the boundaries that he had created in the past around his heart, to protect
himself from being hurt, crash into smithereen
s, just like ice that never lasts.
But this time, unlike the winter that had come and gone on the course of their meeting, their love was meant to last forever.
*.*
Severus Snape, two years later, was in the library, having just enough of arguing with Pince, the librarian, and decided to hide himself between rows and rows of Hogwarts Yearbooks. It despised him to be staring at those leather-bound books, seeming to him that if one wanted to have a quick and painless death, the yearbooks were always there to help them.
However, as if an invisible force was telling him to do so, Snape reached out and took out the yearbook from two years ago, the year that his favourite student graduated. He flipped quickly through the pages, spitting at the Awards List for Potter, Granger and Weasley occupied most of them, and finally landing on the last page, where all the miscellaneous pictures were.
First he saw the nauseating photo of Weasley and Granger caught kissing, with the photographer, as stated, being Potter himself.
The next was Jessa Whitefield, an annoyingly polite Slytherin, locked in Potter's arm, with the photographer being, as expected, Weasley.
The third one was Longbottom, Creevey, and the Weasley he punished, Virginia, sitting in a bench and sipping butterbeer, while Derrick in the background was apparently trying to push a mirror in between Virginia's skirt, so that he may be able to glance at her underwear.
'What a dirty kid', thought Snape, disagreeing.
He scanned through the entire page until his eyes focused on the last one, a particularly group picture that made his lips purse.
It was a photo of the whole Slytherin team all cloaked in their graduating robes, except for Virginia, who was wearing her ordinary school robes, as Malfoy's arm linked with hers on the left side, and with Parkinson's arm linked also with hers but on her right side.
She was in the center.
'She's not in the team', was Snape's first thought.
But as he placed the yearbook back to its appropriate place, Madam Pince, who had sneaked into the shelves, trying to find Snape, swore up until this date, that she saw the said Professor..
Smiling.
The End
A/N: I hope you all liked the ending! I won't work on my next fic up until the fifth book comes out, but I can assure you that it's still Ginny/Draco but this time, will be after Hogwarts and with Draco being a sexy, sexy spy! So watch out for it!
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