. . . . . .
It is always incomprehensible to a man that a woman should ever refuse an offer of marriage. A man always imagines a woman to be ready for anybody who asks her. – Jane Austen
. . . . . .
Ginny blinked. “You what?” she asked politely, hoping she had misheard but inwardly fearing she hadn’t.
Draco grinned ferally. “I accept, Weasel. Let’s get married.”
“Wait a second,” she said, somewhat frantically. Behind Draco, Severus was standing quickly from the rock he’d been sitting on. He was glaring furiously at Draco as she’d never seen him glare at anyone else before. “Draco,” he said warningly, his low voice threatening pain and torture.
Draco, however, didn’t reply. He was too busy smirking at Ginny, who still knelt at his feet, trembling with rage.
“Malfoy,” she hissed, “I would rather marry Filch than you.”
He simply smirked in his supremely irritating way. “That’s not what you swore to me a few minutes ago.”
Ginny jumped to her feet so she could look him in the face. He was nearly a foot taller than she was, but that didn’t stop her from poking him hard in the chest and giving him her best imitation of Ron’s death glare. “You know perfectly well that I didn’t mean that,” she growled. “You took advantage of me, and I will not put up with it!”
Draco shrugged. “All right, leave then.” Ginny turned away from him, but stopped at his next words. “See what happens when you fail to honor your oath.” She froze, knowing perfectly well that she could not go back on her word, not when she’d sworn a wizard’s oath on his ring on this ancient land. Her own powers would rebel against her, and the powers of the Malfoys- well, just the one Malfoy, now- would take their revenge as well. She couldn’t do anything, and she knew that Draco knew it, too, which was what made it all so frustrating. It was all she could do to keep from beating him senseless.
Draco was still looking at her with immense amusement on his face when Severus placed a hand on Ginny’s shoulder. It was gentle, but she could feel him trembling with barely suppressed rage. “Ginny, could you leave and let Master Malfoy and I talk for a while?”
Draco raised an eyebrow. “No, Severus, I think you had better leave instead. I need to talk to my fiance in private.” Ginny wanted to speak up at that, but she could tell that there was much more to the situation than met the eye, and she wanted to figure out what it was before they made her leave.
The two men stared at each other for a long while until Severus finally flinched and looked away. “All right, but I promise you, Draco, we will have words later.”
Draco nodded lazily, watching the older man walk away. Just before Severus reached the disappeared into the trees, Draco called out again. “Oh, and Severus? No one finds out about what happened here. If anyone does, they will promptly find out about the Cuban incident, and I’m sure you don’t want that to happen.” Severus blanched, but gathered his dignity and stormed away.
Ginny was trying her best to kill Draco with her expression, but he just smiled arrogantly offered her his arm. “Allow me to escort you out of the woods . . . my lady.”
. . . . . .
Draco had to admit, he’d almost been as surprised at his acceptance of Ginny’s hand as she herself obviously had been. It had been entirely a foolish impulse, with no pre-planning involved.
The more he thought about it, though, the more he liked the idea. His marriage to such an inconsequential girl would be great publicity for him, and could help soften the image the public had of him as a rich elitist. Also, a connection to the Weasley family, who were growing increasingly influential in middle-class wizard England and the Ministry of Magic, could only be seen as advantageous.
He would have someone to look after him, and he would no longer have to worry about finding a wife or being stuck with some horrid arranged marriage. There would be no threat of Pansy Parkinson. And it wasn’t like there was anyone else he’d rather marry- although he’d had his share of girlfriends, he’d never met anyone he would consider marrying. And once Draco was twenty-five and was out of danger from Severus’ control of the estate, he and Ginny could divorce and both would be free to find someone new.
He would have someone with whom to produce an heir- despite all his taunting of the Weasleys, he knew perfectly well that they were an old wizard line with nearly unblemished blood and notoriously strong powers. He would have Ginny, who, despite that dreadful hair, was not a bad-looking girl and had a rather nice figure. He had a sneaking suspicion that she would clean up very nicely and look very well on his arm at parties.
The best part was that it would give the Slytherin Horde one in the eye. He could just imagine their horror when they discovered he intended to marry the daughter of a family whom some of them referred to among themselves as “the wizarding shame.” That would teach them how to deal with Draco Malfoy- if they pushed him, he would push back harder. All in all, marrying Ginny Weasley seemed like a fantastic idea. Now if he could only convince her of that.
Ginny was glaring at the arm he’d offered her and threatening him with her wand. “I swear, Malfoy, you take your ruddy acceptance back or so help me-”
“Don’t work yourself into a heart attack,” he said drily as he grabbed her arm, slid it through his and began walking down the path. She tried to squirm away from him, but the muscles he’d acquired from years of playing Quidditch kept her in place. She eventually stopped struggling and settled for releasing a nearly unbroken stream of curses and threats, which didn’t bother Draco, as he’d had plenty of practice ignoring such.
In a few minutes they were out of the woods, and he led her inside the house to his study. With a mock bow he showed her to a seat, which she fell ungracefully into, glaring at him all the while.
A devilish grin crossed his face as he turned away to grab a chair. Apparently convincing her might be harder than expected; he, however, was a Malfoy, and as such was very charming when he wanted to be. Erasing the grin, he turned around, sat down and reached out for Ginny’s hands, his face arranged into his most warm, sincere expression. Ginny promptly slapped his hands and sat back in her chair, folding her arms over her chest. She did not look impressed.
Draco ignored this and began his speech, using a well-practiced tone of voice that was tender and earnest and just low enough to be almost sensual. “I know we’ve gotten off to a bad start, but Virginia-”
“That’s not my name.”
“What?” He was startled out of his act.
“My name is not Virginia.”
“What is it then?”
“None of your business,” she hissed, scowling at him.
Draco looked at her, eyebrows raised, then shook his head and continued, falling back into his false warmth. “All right, just Ginny, I know we’ve gotten off to a bad start, but the truth is that all those years, I treated you the way I did because . . .” Here he looked down for effect. “The truth is, I did it because I love you. I always have, but I’ve never known how to tell you.” This speech, Draco knew, with his perfect delivery, would have had most girls throwing themselves at him. At just the right moment, he looked up a bit bashfully as though to see her reaction.
Ginny still sat in the same position, her arms folded across her chest. As Draco looked pleadingly at her, she cocked an eyebrow at him, still looking supremely uninterested. “All right,” she said boredly, “now that’s out of your system, would you like to tell me the real reason for trying to make me marry you?”
With a laugh, Draco sat back and folded his arms, mimicking her pose. “Fine, then,” he said in a mocking tone. “I’m not in love with you. I have my own reasons for wanting to marry you which I do not intend to share with you. All you need to know is that I am totally serious in my proposal.”
Ginny sighed, settling back into the leather armchair. “You must be losing your touch. I really thought you were clever all these years, but if you’re serious about this, you must be out of your mind.”
Draco leaned back a little, surprised and a little pleased with himself. “You’ve always thought I was clever?”
Ginny stared at him a moment, then shook her head. “And that was the moment I knew he was insane,” she commented to no one in particular. “Although the time he wanted to marry me was a close second.”
“What’s so crazy about it?” Draco demanded, slightly annoyed. “You’d have more money than your whole family has had in the last thousand years, you’d live in a castle instead of that dump you call a house, and you’d be one of the most influential women in England, instead of being the dregs of society. What’s not to like?”
“What’s not to like,” Ginny said drily, “is being married to someone who managed to give as many insults to my family as he did reasons I should marry him.”
“Well, if I really bother you that much,” Draco said, “we can get divorced after, oh, a year and half. And after you bear me an heir.”
Ginny blinked, then leaned forward, as though she had misheard him. “An heir?” she asked with a deliberately false show of pondering, pretending to seriously consider his words. “Bear your child? Have my own flesh and blood be half Malfoy?” She snorted and shot him a copy of his mocking look. “It’s tempting, Malfoy, but somehow I’m still not convinced.”
Before he could send a really scathing remark back at her, there was a knock at the door. “What is it?” Draco shouted, annoyed.
“Visitor at the door for you, sir,” came the voice of Bernard, the house elf.
Shooting a glare at Ginny that told her to stay put, Draco crossed the room with his usual grace and threw open the door. “Who is it? he demanded.
“Master Zabini is here for you,” Bernard said unaffectedly, being well accustomed to Draco’s bad moods.
Draco sighed. Why did that brute have to come here now? “All right,” he told the house elf. “Show him into the parlor and tell him I’ll be up shortly. I need to finish my conversation with-” he shot a glance back at Ginny- “my fiance.” Bernard’s large eyes widened at the word fiance, but he simply nodded and pulled the door closed.
When he turned back to Ginny, she was visibly seething at him. “I am not your fiance,” she told him.
“Actually, legally, you are,” he drawled, smirking. “A wizard’s oath, like the one you just swore, is both legally and magically binding. I’m sure even you knew that.”
“Yes, but whose side do you think the law will be on when I tell them you tricked me into making the oath?”
“An oath’s an oath,” Draco retorted, “and besides, I’m a Malfoy. I think you’ll find the law always decides to be on my side.” In truth, though, Draco knew she was absolutely right. Such an oath may have been legally binding, but when the Ministry of Magic discovered the circumstances surrounding it, they would undoubtedly take Ginny’s side and force him to retract his acceptance. If he was to make this work, he couldn’t rely on the binding of the oath. He would have to convince Ginny to stay of her own free will.
He looked at Ginny, who was still looking at him as though she wanted to see him dead. “All right,” he said, sighing in unfeigned exasperation, “let’s be perfectly straight about this. Weaselette, why won’t you marry me?”
“Are you serious?” she asked, cocking her head and studying his face. When he nodded, she shrugged. “Well, let’s see.” She made a great show of pondering the quesiton. “Well, for one thing, I hate you. Do you think I’ve forgotten how you treated me and my friends and family at school? Or how because of your father, I opened the Chamber of Secrets and almost killed my classmates? And I certainly haven’t forgotten what a prat you were during the war, always ‘Get me this’ or ‘Make me that’ or ‘Ginny, rub my feet.’ Somehow, that really didn’t endear you to me.”
Draco shrugged nonchalantly. Inwardly, though, he was cursing himself for how his earlier actions had come back to haunt him. It was unfortunate, because the more he thought about it, the more he thought marrying Ginny was the perfect solution to his problems. He had to get out of Slytherin Horde’s marriage plans relatively quickly, but he didn’t have that many choices of women he could propose to. Most of the desirable women he knew hated him because he’d dated all of them and all their relationships had ended up in messy breakups. Any women he hadn’t dated probably had that status because he couldn’t stand them, so marrying them was right out.
Ginny, though, would be different than all those other women he had and had not dated. She wasn’t madly in love with him, so she wouldn’t become clingy and needy. She didn’t have expensive tastes, so she wouldn’t waste all his money. And most of all, he actually liked Ginny Weasley. Not very much, and not everything about her, but the time they’d spent together in the Order had shown him that they were very similar. Both were hot-blooded and resented being told what to do, and both had wicked senses of humor. The big difference was that while both could be caustic and sarcastic, he tended further toward the rude end of the spectrum, while she could never really be unkind to anyone. In fact, while she was tending to the ill and the wounded, she was almost angelic. He’d never told her this, of course, but seeing her again, even five years later, was reminding him that despite how much she hated him, she was the only one of the Order he’d ever been able to tolerate.
Lost in thought, Draco nearly didn’t notice that Ginny was continuing her rant. “And second, I don’t trust you any farther than I can throw you. Even if I was madly in love with you, I would never have accepted that proposal. I mean, you don’t love me, and you won’t tell me why you want to marry me? Do you know how suspicious that sounds? I’m sure you have some ridiculous scheme going on, and I’m not going to give you any leverage to use in it.”
That, Draco reflected, was very sensible. He was impressed by her level-headedness. He was also annoyed at it, because it certainly wasn’t helping his own cause, but he was impressed, nonetheless. “Fine, Weasel,” he said with a sigh, “I’ll tell you why I want to marry you.”
Then he told her all about the Slytherin Horde, their plans for his marriage, and Severus’ control over the estate. She listened to it all quietly, nodding every so often. “I don’t know if you’ve seen Pansy Parkinson lately,” Draco said, “but she’s-”
“So dreadful that you’d rather marry a Weasley?” Ginny piped in, grinning wryly.
Draco had the distinct impression that she felt he deserved the unpleasant situation he was currently in. “Yes. So, that’s the truth,” he said. “That’s why.”
“Draco, that’s a very tragic story,” Ginny said, “and I wish you luck. But I really need to be getting back to work, so if you’ll be so kind as to take back your accepting my oath, I’ll be on my way.”
“Come on, Weasel,” he said, struggling to control his annoyance. “You asked for the truth and I gave it to you. Could you at least do me the courtesy of considering it?”
“I have considered it,” she said with a sigh, “just to be nice. But even you have to see how ludicrous it is. Even if I believed your intentions were pure, do you really think I’d accept? What would my family say? What would the rest of the wizarding world say?”
“What would Saint Potter say?” Draco cut in nastily. He knew being snide was not a good way to deal with the situation, but some habits were just too strong. Ginny shot him a withering look.
Draco returned the look. “Come on, Weasel. I’m proposing marriage, not asking you to spend the rest of your life with me.” Ginny gave a short laugh of amusement and disbelief, and Draco raised an eyebrow at her, thoroughly confused. “And I won’t make you bear me an heir if you don’t want to.”
“Goodbye, Draco. It was sort of nice seeing you again. Send me an announcement when you marry Pansy.” Ginny stood and lifted her medical bag, then turned and headed out of the study.
Draco followed close behind. “I wouldn’t waste the parchment on an announcement for you,” he said snidely, but inside he was resigned. Well, it was a good idea, he thought, but I’m simply going to have to find another way out of this marriage.
. . . . . .
After a few steps, Ginny had to move to the side to allow Draco to move into the lead, as she had no idea how to get to the front door. As the pair moved in silence through the castle, Ginny found herself grinning. Of all the men she’d ever known, this was the last one she would have expected to receive a proposal of marriage from. It was flattering, in its way, as well as somewhat disturbing. Of course, he wasn’t proposing out of any great affection, but he must have decided that he could bear living with her, which was quite a compliment coming from Draco Malfoy.
She wondered, chuckling silently, what her friends would say if they knew she’d gotten an offer of marriage from the rich and famous Draco Malfoy. As she imagined the looks on their faces, another group of faces popped into her mind, and her smile fell. Never, ever mention this to anyone, she told herself firmly, because if Harry, Ron or Hermione ever finds out I will never hear the end of it. She knew exactly what their reactions would be. Hermione would go straight to her textbooks from law school, research wizard’s oaths, declare that they were going to take legal action against Draco, and then spend days tirading about the repression of the lower classes by the rich. Ron would be silent a long moment while his entire face turned beet red, and then he would start to shout, threatening Draco with horrible deaths, and she would have to restrain him from going out to make good on his threats.
And Harry . . . Ginny sighed as she thought of him. Harry would look wounded, silently shocked at the way she had been treated, and then take on his Sir Harry role, the tragic hero willing to fight Draco for his lady’s honor. Which, Ginny supposed, would be very flattering if she wanted Harry as her knight. But she didn’t- she hadn’t for a long time. She’d fallen out of love with Harry some time during school, and was content to be just his friend. But then, inexplicably, he’d decided, sometime during the war, that he and Ginny belonged together, and he had tried to court her several times since. Ginny had refused him every time. It wasn’t that she didn’t like Harry- it was just that she didn’t like Harry. This did not please Mrs. Weasley, who wanted the Boy Who Lived as a son-in-law. At every family gathering, she still pestered Ginny about her indifference to Harry, which only made her want to be near him less. If it kept up, she was in a fair way to hate Harry in a month or two.
Draco opened the door to the front hall just then, interrupting Ginny’s thoughts. Bernard appeared out of nowhere, getting ready to open the front door for her. “Hold on,” Draco said, and Ginny thought he still sounded put out by her refusal. “I’m going to go see if Zabini has anything urgent to say, and then I’ll be back out with the money for St. Mungo’s.” He crossed the entryway and opened a door, which seemed to lead into a sitting room.
He left the door open, and Ginny could found she could hear the conversation. She tried not to- that was eavesdropping, after all- but the temptation was just too great, and she gave in and listened.
“What an unpleasant surprise, Zabini. What brings you-”
An unfamiliar, angry voice burst out of the room, making Ginny step back a little. “Draco Malfoy! What on earth do you think you’re playing at?”
“Well, I was trying to receive my courteous guest-”
“You know perfectly well what I mean!” the obnoxiously loud voice continued. “Your house elf tells me you were talking to your fiance! Draco, what are you thinking, getting engaged?”
Ginny, supremely irritated by the man’s voice and attitude, raised an eyebrow in distaste. Well, I thought you wanted him to get married, she thought with irritation.
Draco, still standing in the doorway, cocked his head. “But Zabini,” he said in a falsely innocent voice, “I thought you wanted me to get married.”
Ginny blinked. That was creepy.
“Yes,” Zabini said, exasperated, “but to someone suitable. Your house elf says that he has reason to believe that the woman you were with was a Weasley!” His voice dropped almost to a whisper at those last words, as though afraid someone was listening. “Draco, I forbid you to marry a Weasley.”
“Why?” Draco, feigning ignorance, while in the entryway Ginny felt her blood starting to boil.
A fist slammed against a table in the sitting room. “Because they’re Weasleys! They’re a disgrace to society. They oughtn’t even be allowed to be wizards! To have a red-haired Weasley moving in our social circle, attending all our gatherings, would be humiliating to everyone involved.”
Ginny was halfway across the entryway before she realized what she was doing. She didn’t stop, though, driven on by the furious pounding of blood in her ears. Zabini was still talking. “Draco, tell me, are you engaged to the Weasley girl?”
Before Draco could reply, Ginny opened and shut another door in the entryway, then walked bouncily over to the sitting room, pretending she’d just gotten there. Draco turned to her, his face slightly confused. “Hey,” she said, a smile plastered on, “I got my bag from the house elves. I’m ready to leave.” She walked up to where he was standing and slipped her arm around his waist, then turned and feigned surprise when she saw the man in the sitting room.
“Oh, I didn’t know you were still here!” she said, then smiled up at Draco. His face was carefully neutral, as he was obviously unsure of what she was doing. Moving past him into the sitting room, Ginny came face to face with the man who had insulted her family so much. He was sitting on a sofa, his face a mix of confusion and distaste.
“I don’t believe we’ve met,” she said, sticking out her hand. Her logical side couldn’t believe what she was doing, but it was entirely buried under her rage and her need to give this man some comeuppance. When she opened her mouth, it was her fiery temper speaking, saying, for what would not be the last time, words that would get her into a lot of trouble. “I’m Ginny Weasley, Draco’s fiance.”
. . . . . .
It is always incomprehensible to a man that a woman should ever refuse an offer of marriage. A man always imagines a woman to be ready for anybody who asks her. – Jane Austen
. . . . . .
Ginny blinked. “You what?” she asked politely, hoping she had misheard but inwardly fearing she hadn’t.
Draco grinned ferally. “I accept, Weasel. Let’s get married.”
“Wait a second,” she said, somewhat frantically. Behind Draco, Severus was standing quickly from the rock he’d been sitting on. He was glaring furiously at Draco as she’d never seen him glare at anyone else before. “Draco,” he said warningly, his low voice threatening pain and torture.
Draco, however, didn’t reply. He was too busy smirking at Ginny, who still knelt at his feet, trembling with rage.
“Malfoy,” she hissed, “I would rather marry Filch than you.”
He simply smirked in his supremely irritating way. “That’s not what you swore to me a few minutes ago.”
Ginny jumped to her feet so she could look him in the face. He was nearly a foot taller than she was, but that didn’t stop her from poking him hard in the chest and giving him her best imitation of Ron’s death glare. “You know perfectly well that I didn’t mean that,” she growled. “You took advantage of me, and I will not put up with it!”
Draco shrugged. “All right, leave then.” Ginny turned away from him, but stopped at his next words. “See what happens when you fail to honor your oath.” She froze, knowing perfectly well that she could not go back on her word, not when she’d sworn a wizard’s oath on his ring on this ancient land. Her own powers would rebel against her, and the powers of the Malfoys- well, just the one Malfoy, now- would take their revenge as well. She couldn’t do anything, and she knew that Draco knew it, too, which was what made it all so frustrating. It was all she could do to keep from beating him senseless.
Draco was still looking at her with immense amusement on his face when Severus placed a hand on Ginny’s shoulder. It was gentle, but she could feel him trembling with barely suppressed rage. “Ginny, could you leave and let Master Malfoy and I talk for a while?”
Draco raised an eyebrow. “No, Severus, I think you had better leave instead. I need to talk to my fiance in private.” Ginny wanted to speak up at that, but she could tell that there was much more to the situation than met the eye, and she wanted to figure out what it was before they made her leave.
The two men stared at each other for a long while until Severus finally flinched and looked away. “All right, but I promise you, Draco, we will have words later.”
Draco nodded lazily, watching the older man walk away. Just before Severus reached the disappeared into the trees, Draco called out again. “Oh, and Severus? No one finds out about what happened here. If anyone does, they will promptly find out about the Cuban incident, and I’m sure you don’t want that to happen.” Severus blanched, but gathered his dignity and stormed away.
Ginny was trying her best to kill Draco with her expression, but he just smiled arrogantly offered her his arm. “Allow me to escort you out of the woods . . . my lady.”
. . . . . .
Draco had to admit, he’d almost been as surprised at his acceptance of Ginny’s hand as she herself obviously had been. It had been entirely a foolish impulse, with no pre-planning involved.
The more he thought about it, though, the more he liked the idea. His marriage to such an inconsequential girl would be great publicity for him, and could help soften the image the public had of him as a rich elitist. Also, a connection to the Weasley family, who were growing increasingly influential in middle-class wizard England and the Ministry of Magic, could only be seen as advantageous.
He would have someone to look after him, and he would no longer have to worry about finding a wife or being stuck with some horrid arranged marriage. There would be no threat of Pansy Parkinson. And it wasn’t like there was anyone else he’d rather marry- although he’d had his share of girlfriends, he’d never met anyone he would consider marrying. And once Draco was twenty-five and was out of danger from Severus’ control of the estate, he and Ginny could divorce and both would be free to find someone new.
He would have someone with whom to produce an heir- despite all his taunting of the Weasleys, he knew perfectly well that they were an old wizard line with nearly unblemished blood and notoriously strong powers. He would have Ginny, who, despite that dreadful hair, was not a bad-looking girl and had a rather nice figure. He had a sneaking suspicion that she would clean up very nicely and look very well on his arm at parties.
The best part was that it would give the Slytherin Horde one in the eye. He could just imagine their horror when they discovered he intended to marry the daughter of a family whom some of them referred to among themselves as “the wizarding shame.” That would teach them how to deal with Draco Malfoy- if they pushed him, he would push back harder. All in all, marrying Ginny Weasley seemed like a fantastic idea. Now if he could only convince her of that.
Ginny was glaring at the arm he’d offered her and threatening him with her wand. “I swear, Malfoy, you take your ruddy acceptance back or so help me-”
“Don’t work yourself into a heart attack,” he said drily as he grabbed her arm, slid it through his and began walking down the path. She tried to squirm away from him, but the muscles he’d acquired from years of playing Quidditch kept her in place. She eventually stopped struggling and settled for releasing a nearly unbroken stream of curses and threats, which didn’t bother Draco, as he’d had plenty of practice ignoring such.
In a few minutes they were out of the woods, and he led her inside the house to his study. With a mock bow he showed her to a seat, which she fell ungracefully into, glaring at him all the while.
A devilish grin crossed his face as he turned away to grab a chair. Apparently convincing her might be harder than expected; he, however, was a Malfoy, and as such was very charming when he wanted to be. Erasing the grin, he turned around, sat down and reached out for Ginny’s hands, his face arranged into his most warm, sincere expression. Ginny promptly slapped his hands and sat back in her chair, folding her arms over her chest. She did not look impressed.
Draco ignored this and began his speech, using a well-practiced tone of voice that was tender and earnest and just low enough to be almost sensual. “I know we’ve gotten off to a bad start, but Virginia-”
“That’s not my name.”
“What?” He was startled out of his act.
“My name is not Virginia.”
“What is it then?”
“None of your business,” she hissed, scowling at him.
Draco looked at her, eyebrows raised, then shook his head and continued, falling back into his false warmth. “All right, just Ginny, I know we’ve gotten off to a bad start, but the truth is that all those years, I treated you the way I did because . . .” Here he looked down for effect. “The truth is, I did it because I love you. I always have, but I’ve never known how to tell you.” This speech, Draco knew, with his perfect delivery, would have had most girls throwing themselves at him. At just the right moment, he looked up a bit bashfully as though to see her reaction.
Ginny still sat in the same position, her arms folded across her chest. As Draco looked pleadingly at her, she cocked an eyebrow at him, still looking supremely uninterested. “All right,” she said boredly, “now that’s out of your system, would you like to tell me the real reason for trying to make me marry you?”
With a laugh, Draco sat back and folded his arms, mimicking her pose. “Fine, then,” he said in a mocking tone. “I’m not in love with you. I have my own reasons for wanting to marry you which I do not intend to share with you. All you need to know is that I am totally serious in my proposal.”
Ginny sighed, settling back into the leather armchair. “You must be losing your touch. I really thought you were clever all these years, but if you’re serious about this, you must be out of your mind.”
Draco leaned back a little, surprised and a little pleased with himself. “You’ve always thought I was clever?”
Ginny stared at him a moment, then shook her head. “And that was the moment I knew he was insane,” she commented to no one in particular. “Although the time he wanted to marry me was a close second.”
“What’s so crazy about it?” Draco demanded, slightly annoyed. “You’d have more money than your whole family has had in the last thousand years, you’d live in a castle instead of that dump you call a house, and you’d be one of the most influential women in England, instead of being the dregs of society. What’s not to like?”
“What’s not to like,” Ginny said drily, “is being married to someone who managed to give as many insults to my family as he did reasons I should marry him.”
“Well, if I really bother you that much,” Draco said, “we can get divorced after, oh, a year and half. And after you bear me an heir.”
Ginny blinked, then leaned forward, as though she had misheard him. “An heir?” she asked with a deliberately false show of pondering, pretending to seriously consider his words. “Bear your child? Have my own flesh and blood be half Malfoy?” She snorted and shot him a copy of his mocking look. “It’s tempting, Malfoy, but somehow I’m still not convinced.”
Before he could send a really scathing remark back at her, there was a knock at the door. “What is it?” Draco shouted, annoyed.
“Visitor at the door for you, sir,” came the voice of Bernard, the house elf.
Shooting a glare at Ginny that told her to stay put, Draco crossed the room with his usual grace and threw open the door. “Who is it? he demanded.
“Master Zabini is here for you,” Bernard said unaffectedly, being well accustomed to Draco’s bad moods.
Draco sighed. Why did that brute have to come here now? “All right,” he told the house elf. “Show him into the parlor and tell him I’ll be up shortly. I need to finish my conversation with-” he shot a glance back at Ginny- “my fiance.” Bernard’s large eyes widened at the word fiance, but he simply nodded and pulled the door closed.
When he turned back to Ginny, she was visibly seething at him. “I am not your fiance,” she told him.
“Actually, legally, you are,” he drawled, smirking. “A wizard’s oath, like the one you just swore, is both legally and magically binding. I’m sure even you knew that.”
“Yes, but whose side do you think the law will be on when I tell them you tricked me into making the oath?”
“An oath’s an oath,” Draco retorted, “and besides, I’m a Malfoy. I think you’ll find the law always decides to be on my side.” In truth, though, Draco knew she was absolutely right. Such an oath may have been legally binding, but when the Ministry of Magic discovered the circumstances surrounding it, they would undoubtedly take Ginny’s side and force him to retract his acceptance. If he was to make this work, he couldn’t rely on the binding of the oath. He would have to convince Ginny to stay of her own free will.
He looked at Ginny, who was still looking at him as though she wanted to see him dead. “All right,” he said, sighing in unfeigned exasperation, “let’s be perfectly straight about this. Weaselette, why won’t you marry me?”
“Are you serious?” she asked, cocking her head and studying his face. When he nodded, she shrugged. “Well, let’s see.” She made a great show of pondering the quesiton. “Well, for one thing, I hate you. Do you think I’ve forgotten how you treated me and my friends and family at school? Or how because of your father, I opened the Chamber of Secrets and almost killed my classmates? And I certainly haven’t forgotten what a prat you were during the war, always ‘Get me this’ or ‘Make me that’ or ‘Ginny, rub my feet.’ Somehow, that really didn’t endear you to me.”
Draco shrugged nonchalantly. Inwardly, though, he was cursing himself for how his earlier actions had come back to haunt him. It was unfortunate, because the more he thought about it, the more he thought marrying Ginny was the perfect solution to his problems. He had to get out of Slytherin Horde’s marriage plans relatively quickly, but he didn’t have that many choices of women he could propose to. Most of the desirable women he knew hated him because he’d dated all of them and all their relationships had ended up in messy breakups. Any women he hadn’t dated probably had that status because he couldn’t stand them, so marrying them was right out.
Ginny, though, would be different than all those other women he had and had not dated. She wasn’t madly in love with him, so she wouldn’t become clingy and needy. She didn’t have expensive tastes, so she wouldn’t waste all his money. And most of all, he actually liked Ginny Weasley. Not very much, and not everything about her, but the time they’d spent together in the Order had shown him that they were very similar. Both were hot-blooded and resented being told what to do, and both had wicked senses of humor. The big difference was that while both could be caustic and sarcastic, he tended further toward the rude end of the spectrum, while she could never really be unkind to anyone. In fact, while she was tending to the ill and the wounded, she was almost angelic. He’d never told her this, of course, but seeing her again, even five years later, was reminding him that despite how much she hated him, she was the only one of the Order he’d ever been able to tolerate.
Lost in thought, Draco nearly didn’t notice that Ginny was continuing her rant. “And second, I don’t trust you any farther than I can throw you. Even if I was madly in love with you, I would never have accepted that proposal. I mean, you don’t love me, and you won’t tell me why you want to marry me? Do you know how suspicious that sounds? I’m sure you have some ridiculous scheme going on, and I’m not going to give you any leverage to use in it.”
That, Draco reflected, was very sensible. He was impressed by her level-headedness. He was also annoyed at it, because it certainly wasn’t helping his own cause, but he was impressed, nonetheless. “Fine, Weasel,” he said with a sigh, “I’ll tell you why I want to marry you.”
Then he told her all about the Slytherin Horde, their plans for his marriage, and Severus’ control over the estate. She listened to it all quietly, nodding every so often. “I don’t know if you’ve seen Pansy Parkinson lately,” Draco said, “but she’s-”
“So dreadful that you’d rather marry a Weasley?” Ginny piped in, grinning wryly.
Draco had the distinct impression that she felt he deserved the unpleasant situation he was currently in. “Yes. So, that’s the truth,” he said. “That’s why.”
“Draco, that’s a very tragic story,” Ginny said, “and I wish you luck. But I really need to be getting back to work, so if you’ll be so kind as to take back your accepting my oath, I’ll be on my way.”
“Come on, Weasel,” he said, struggling to control his annoyance. “You asked for the truth and I gave it to you. Could you at least do me the courtesy of considering it?”
“I have considered it,” she said with a sigh, “just to be nice. But even you have to see how ludicrous it is. Even if I believed your intentions were pure, do you really think I’d accept? What would my family say? What would the rest of the wizarding world say?”
“What would Saint Potter say?” Draco cut in nastily. He knew being snide was not a good way to deal with the situation, but some habits were just too strong. Ginny shot him a withering look.
Draco returned the look. “Come on, Weasel. I’m proposing marriage, not asking you to spend the rest of your life with me.” Ginny gave a short laugh of amusement and disbelief, and Draco raised an eyebrow at her, thoroughly confused. “And I won’t make you bear me an heir if you don’t want to.”
“Goodbye, Draco. It was sort of nice seeing you again. Send me an announcement when you marry Pansy.” Ginny stood and lifted her medical bag, then turned and headed out of the study.
Draco followed close behind. “I wouldn’t waste the parchment on an announcement for you,” he said snidely, but inside he was resigned. Well, it was a good idea, he thought, but I’m simply going to have to find another way out of this marriage.
. . . . . .
After a few steps, Ginny had to move to the side to allow Draco to move into the lead, as she had no idea how to get to the front door. As the pair moved in silence through the castle, Ginny found herself grinning. Of all the men she’d ever known, this was the last one she would have expected to receive a proposal of marriage from. It was flattering, in its way, as well as somewhat disturbing. Of course, he wasn’t proposing out of any great affection, but he must have decided that he could bear living with her, which was quite a compliment coming from Draco Malfoy.
She wondered, chuckling silently, what her friends would say if they knew she’d gotten an offer of marriage from the rich and famous Draco Malfoy. As she imagined the looks on their faces, another group of faces popped into her mind, and her smile fell. Never, ever mention this to anyone, she told herself firmly, because if Harry, Ron or Hermione ever finds out I will never hear the end of it. She knew exactly what their reactions would be. Hermione would go straight to her textbooks from law school, research wizard’s oaths, declare that they were going to take legal action against Draco, and then spend days tirading about the repression of the lower classes by the rich. Ron would be silent a long moment while his entire face turned beet red, and then he would start to shout, threatening Draco with horrible deaths, and she would have to restrain him from going out to make good on his threats.
And Harry . . . Ginny sighed as she thought of him. Harry would look wounded, silently shocked at the way she had been treated, and then take on his Sir Harry role, the tragic hero willing to fight Draco for his lady’s honor. Which, Ginny supposed, would be very flattering if she wanted Harry as her knight. But she didn’t- she hadn’t for a long time. She’d fallen out of love with Harry some time during school, and was content to be just his friend. But then, inexplicably, he’d decided, sometime during the war, that he and Ginny belonged together, and he had tried to court her several times since. Ginny had refused him every time. It wasn’t that she didn’t like Harry- it was just that she didn’t like Harry. This did not please Mrs. Weasley, who wanted the Boy Who Lived as a son-in-law. At every family gathering, she still pestered Ginny about her indifference to Harry, which only made her want to be near him less. If it kept up, she was in a fair way to hate Harry in a month or two.
Draco opened the door to the front hall just then, interrupting Ginny’s thoughts. Bernard appeared out of nowhere, getting ready to open the front door for her. “Hold on,” Draco said, and Ginny thought he still sounded put out by her refusal. “I’m going to go see if Zabini has anything urgent to say, and then I’ll be back out with the money for St. Mungo’s.” He crossed the entryway and opened a door, which seemed to lead into a sitting room.
He left the door open, and Ginny could found she could hear the conversation. She tried not to- that was eavesdropping, after all- but the temptation was just too great, and she gave in and listened.
“What an unpleasant surprise, Zabini. What brings you-”
An unfamiliar, angry voice burst out of the room, making Ginny step back a little. “Draco Malfoy! What on earth do you think you’re playing at?”
“Well, I was trying to receive my courteous guest-”
“You know perfectly well what I mean!” the obnoxiously loud voice continued. “Your house elf tells me you were talking to your fiance! Draco, what are you thinking, getting engaged?”
Ginny, supremely irritated by the man’s voice and attitude, raised an eyebrow in distaste. Well, I thought you wanted him to get married, she thought with irritation.
Draco, still standing in the doorway, cocked his head. “But Zabini,” he said in a falsely innocent voice, “I thought you wanted me to get married.”
Ginny blinked. That was creepy.
“Yes,” Zabini said, exasperated, “but to someone suitable. Your house elf says that he has reason to believe that the woman you were with was a Weasley!” His voice dropped almost to a whisper at those last words, as though afraid someone was listening. “Draco, I forbid you to marry a Weasley.”
“Why?” Draco, feigning ignorance, while in the entryway Ginny felt her blood starting to boil.
A fist slammed against a table in the sitting room. “Because they’re Weasleys! They’re a disgrace to society. They oughtn’t even be allowed to be wizards! To have a red-haired Weasley moving in our social circle, attending all our gatherings, would be humiliating to everyone involved.”
Ginny was halfway across the entryway before she realized what she was doing. She didn’t stop, though, driven on by the furious pounding of blood in her ears. Zabini was still talking. “Draco, tell me, are you engaged to the Weasley girl?”
Before Draco could reply, Ginny opened and shut another door in the entryway, then walked bouncily over to the sitting room, pretending she’d just gotten there. Draco turned to her, his face slightly confused. “Hey,” she said, a smile plastered on, “I got my bag from the house elves. I’m ready to leave.” She walked up to where he was standing and slipped her arm around his waist, then turned and feigned surprise when she saw the man in the sitting room.
“Oh, I didn’t know you were still here!” she said, then smiled up at Draco. His face was carefully neutral, as he was obviously unsure of what she was doing. Moving past him into the sitting room, Ginny came face to face with the man who had insulted her family so much. He was sitting on a sofa, his face a mix of confusion and distaste.
“I don’t believe we’ve met,” she said, sticking out her hand. Her logical side couldn’t believe what she was doing, but it was entirely buried under her rage and her need to give this man some comeuppance. When she opened her mouth, it was her fiery temper speaking, saying, for what would not be the last time, words that would get her into a lot of trouble. “I’m Ginny Weasley, Draco’s fiance.”
. . . . . .
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