I Learned Your Pulse

"You want her to be happy, correct?"

Draco could tell Weaslette was struggling not to laugh, but she did chuckle a small bit before composing herself again. "What are you going to tell her? When?"

"I don't know. Soon."

"I'll tell her if you don't do it tomorrow."

"What?" Weasley yelped, and Draco heard feet hit the floor. He must have jumped to his feet.

"Calm, Ron! I said I'll tell her if you don't do it tomorrow."

"Why tomorrow? Why not later?"

"You've put it off an entire summer, Ron. If she's single tomorrow, she'll have the best shot at a love-life this year could give her."

"But - b-but, I -"

"You want her to be happy, correct?"

"Yes, of course!"

"Then don't delay what she'll figure out is coming. She's extremely bright, Ron, you know that, she'll probably see it coming three days from now. Don't make her heart break any longer than it should, don't drag it out. Abrupt, clean breaks can hurt just as much, but she's used to abrupt things by now."

Draco hated admitting how wise Weaslette sounded just then, but she did. Weasley seemed more ready to admit it, though, than Draco did, and sat back down.

"Are you... are you sure?"

"Positive, Ron. Do it tomorrow night, when she has the chance to cry in her sleep. I can comfort her if I need to." she sounded much older than Draco knew she was. "And she'll have lessons in the morning, and she'll never miss them, you know that. Maybe the normalcy will help."

Silence.

More silence.

Finally...

"Fine, tomorrow then."

Ginny sighed. "Alright, good. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to tell Harry."

"Tell Harry? Why?"

"He's my boyfriend, Ron, I tell him everything."

"Who's to say he won't leave you?"

There was an imediate whooshing sound as Weaslette pulled out her wand. Ron gasped, but Draco heard nothing but silence.

"Harry will never leave me," Weaslette said, her voice containing wisdom he wasn't sure anyone but Dumbledore had had. "And we both know that."

More silence. Draco was finding increasingly difficult to breathe. The air was tense.

"Why won't you leave him?"

"Because unlike you, Ron, I'm tough." Her tone was acidic again. Draco could only imagine how her eyes would be blazing, and was very, very glad he was not Weasley. "And I'm not going to lose yet another person in my life because I can't have one of them."

Weasley was, understandably, shocked. "Gin..."

Weaslette had put her wand away. "He'll be in there?" she asked him coldly.

Draco's heart sped up. She was going to come over there, see him, know he'd been listening...

"Yes," Wesley answered, still breathless. "Third on the right."

"Thank you."

Footsteps.

Draco thought quickly. He did not want to be caught eavesdropping on something like that. With panic, he reached for the door to fly back inside, but he knew she'd see him moving. But he'd already opened it -

An idea. Draco thanked his brain immensely and shut the door loud enough for both Weasleys to hear. He then closed his eyes part-way and rubbed at them, aywning sleepily as he walked with a wobble toward the middle of the room. He could tell both people had frozen, and he pretended to have just seen them - he froze to, and put on a sorry expression at the sight of Weaslette in her rather short, tight-fitting nightgown.

"Should I go?" he asked, careful to make his voice sound groggy.

Weasley seemed to buy it. He shook his head, and his longer-than-usual ginger hair splayed around his face. "I was just leaving," he murmured, slipping past Weaslette and entering the boys' dormitory.

But Weaslette wasn't fooled. "How much did you hear?" she asked.

Draco lost the sleepy act. "I heard you ask, 'He'll be in there?' and then him answer you, and then you say thanks," he said quickly, but not too quickly. He had learned to pace his speech just right when he'd been put on trial...

Weaslette raised an eyebrow. "You heard more than that," she accused.

Draco held up his hands in mock surrender. "Alright, so you also said you weren't going to leave Potter because you're tough."

She seemed satisfied, but then over-mothery. "Go to bed," she ordered, "but wake Harry and tell him I need to speak with him out here."

Draco raised an eyebrow this time. "You think he'll believe me?"

Weaslette thought for a moment, and sthen sighed. "Fine. I'll do it. But go to bed, I don't want you listening again."

Draco nodded and began to go back into the room, but paused, a sudden thought occurring to him. "Weaslette," he asked, turning back to her, making her stop, as she had followed him. Her red hair was slightly messe up, but she had dimples nobody could miss, eve when she wasn't smiling. "Why are you up so late?"

Weaslette seemed at a loss for an answer - scratch that, she didn't want to give an answer. "Bad dream," she said. Draco didn;t believe her, but he had no reason to care, so he went back to the door and held it open for her.

But she was still standing in the middle of the room, pale and outllined against the darkness. she was looking out of a window, obviously lost in thought.

"Aren't you going to talk to Potter?" Draco called quietly.

She seemed to remember he was there. "No," she whispered back, quietly. "It can wait until morning."

And with that, she turned and went back into the girls' room, closing the door slowly behind her.