Match Me~ Drinny

Shielded Hearts

It was obviously Ginny and someone with her. The way they were sitting revealed that they were intimate with each other. He could sense it in the picture. Though he couldn't see the guy's face, the way Ginny had her cheek pressed against his...

But the way she had reacted. Why?

There was something going on with Ginny and that guy and he wanted to find out what it was.

But he didn't get a chance too. After that night, Ginny seemed different. It was a week before she owled him to ask when and where they were going to meet. They when he had replied saying to meet in a park near Soul Mates, her answer surprised him:

Malfoy,

I think it's getting too cold to stay outside and the November wind will blow any papers that we bring away. Do you think we can just meet in my office at work? That would be better. Thanks.

Ginny

When Draco arrived at Soul Mates, he headed for Ginny's office. Grace saw him coming and ran out the door, muttering that she had to use the bathroom. He pushed open the door and there was Ginny, hair in the bun and buttoned up white blouse, the perfect picture of a businesswoman.

"Hey Malfoy."

Draco nodded in acknowledgment. "Weasley."

"So here you go," Ginny said, passing him more papers. "These are some girls that might be suitable."

That was all that happened that meeting. Ginny was all businesslike and proper. The feisty girl that had emerged the last time he met her had disappeared. Draco wondered if it was a façade or if it was real.

The next time he came with a rose, an orange one. He didn't know what possessed him to buy it for her, then to actually give it to her.

Ginny froze when she saw the rose. Her mouth nearly dropped in shock when he held it out to her. She blushed. "For me?"

"For you."

She still didn't take it. "Why?"

"I saw it and wanted to give it to you."

It was a lovely rose, not yet fully bloomed but beautiful in its entirety. Ginny remembered what Hermione had told her about roses.

Ginny was walking with Hermione when she saw a flower shop. She ran inside and got a yellow rose.

" Look Hermione, isn't it beautiful?" She breathed.

Hermione nodded, "Did you know that roses are over thirty five million years old?" When Ginny shook her head, she smiled. "They are also symbols for war and politics, but above all, love." This was when she started sounding like a textbook.

"Of course."

"In the muggle world, many kings and queens loved roses. The Tudor family – a royal line, like Purebloods – "she added, seeing Ginny's confusion, "used a red rose laid upon a white rose as their crest to symbolize the union of the two feuding families before them. There was even a War of the Roses according to legend. It's fascinating, isn't it?" seeing Ginny's astonished face.

She continued, "Even the color of roses or how fresh they are creates a different impression. There are many different interpretations. A yellow rose can mean love everlasting or friendship or joy or even jealousy. It just all depends on which one you want to believe."

Did Draco intentionally pick it out by color? What did an orange rose mean?

But she took the rose, telling herself that she just couldn't resist the rose.