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Title: Having a Ball
Rating: 15
Summary: Evil plotting always has consequences. Always.
Characters: Draco Malfoy, Ginny and Ron Weasley and Pansy Parkinson
Disclaimer: They ain't mine. They’re JKRowling’s. *sob*
Author’s note: Written for absolut_jmo’s birthday. Enjoy!
~ + ~
For years later, at Weasley family gatherings, Ginny always got the blame.
Admittedly, Draco deserved half the blame, but as Fred always observed, “You expect that sort of low-down evil planning from a Slytherin. Ginny, on the other hand…”
The exact circumstances of Draco and Ginny’s evil plotting had apparently been devised one early morning in that alcohol induced stage of post-coital sleepiness when almost any idea sounds like a good one. Tired of sneaking around from one bed-sit to another, minutes behind one of her friends arriving, or one of Draco’s buddies popping round, Ginny wanted just one night with Draco. Draco, though he would rather have died than admit it to Ginny at that time, wanted nothing more than that himself. One might well have turned out to have been on the winning side against Voldemort after all, but dammit! Malfoys had standards of public decency and sneering to keep up after all.
So one of them thought up the masked ball.
How they managed to get their boss in the Aurors Department to a) agree to it, and b) think it was his idea, Draco and Ginny never explained, but within days of the ball being set up and announced throughout the Ministry of Magic, it became clear it was going to be a success. More than a success, a raging triumph. Tickets were selling and reselling for more galleons each time, the actual venue was changed three times (each time to one with a bigger capacity) and the Auror Department started to slip behind with the ordinary caseloads.
Of course, Ginny had to publicly hate having to work with Draco Malfoy on all this extra work, but she was a Weasley after all, and wasn’t going to let a Malfoy ruin this event for everyone. Draco naturally spent his time moaning loudly and publicly to all the surviving ex-Slytherins about how he could make this a glittering social event if he wasn’t so hobbled by having to work with one of those damned Weasleys. All the time of course, the two of them had the perfect excuse to disappear off from work and seclude themselves away in prolonged make-out sessions, while appearing to be working on the event.
Draco and Ginny both couldn’t be more privately happy, and publicly disgruntled. Naturally, this backfired on them.
~ + ~
They later admitted when everything came out into the open, that perhaps that last flaming public row might have been too much. That maybe the death threats were excessive. That threatening to hex the other into the middle of next week might possibly have gone too far. (Draco did at this point, try to explain that they had just had a particularly good session together in the file-room, and that no-one could really blame him for feeling so on top of the world that he threw himself wholeheartedly into the row, but the assembled Weasley glare shut him up before he could divulge too many details. Hermione, on the other hand, was much more concerned about the files.)
The upshot of that particular confrontation, delivered on the night before the ball, was that Ron insisted on escorting Ginny to the ball. Just in case ‘that git Malfoy’ tried anything, as was clearly stated in the emergency Weasley family summit. Ginny was of course delighted to have such a dependable, trustworthy escort, and immediately owled Draco.
Draco, then at Malfoy Manor, was having a similar problem. Although inwardly touched (and outwardly sneering) at the number of his old Slytherin friends and acquaintances who had shown up to support him, he rapidly found himself over-ruled by the members of this little grouping he supposedly led, and agreeing to take Pansy Parkinson as his date to the ball. Pansy, who by now was one of the more vicious verbal fighters around, was judged to be the best suited to save Draco from himself.
Any protestations that he could take care of himself were taken as false modesty. Finally agreeing to the idea just to get them out of his house, Draco dodged Pansy’s blatant flirting attempts and outright leers and thankfully shut the door behind the last of them. It was then that Ginny’s owl arrived, and Draco started to get an inkling of a very, very dirty plan.
~ + ~
The night of the ball arrived. Hurried owl communications and evil plotting throughout the night had caused Ginny and Draco to devise a plan of sorts. Well, they hoped it was a plan. Maybe a vague notion and fervent prayers would be a better way to describe it truthfully.
Either way, the two of them were still in charge of setting up the actual event during the daytime, and had arranged a few things in advance. Acquiring the duplicates of each other’s pre-arranged costumes took a little more ingenuity, but a quick visit to Gringotts to get the bribe and then to Madame Malkins did the trick. Not of course, that Madame Malkin was too sure of exactly what a muggle fireman did precisely, let alone what they looked like.
As it was, Ron hadn’t even thought about a costume until Ginny presented him with it, and then gratefully accepted the outfit. Ginny was also smart enough to get Hermione to pop in just to be sure of getting Ron into the costume in the right manner. Hermione, though quite happily settled down with Harry now, did seem to quite appreciate the way Ron filled it out though. Ginny just grinned inwardly and distracted herself with the thought of Draco in the same clothes.
Pansy turned out to be the hard sell. Oddly enough, for a girl that had managed to at least kiss each and every man in their little Slytherin group, she balked at the scanty muggle nurse’s outfit. Draco tried begging her, ordering her, wheedling her and briefly considered blackmailing her into it, before he realised that it was the muggle origin that she objected to. Briefly closing his eyes in pain, Draco sent the next 10 minutes explaining in words of as few syllables as he could manage, the concept of a muggle themed fancy dress party and that with the theme being muggles, maybe she should wear the muggle outfit.
Even blaming the theme on Ginny didn’t work. Fortunately, wearing his fireman outfit that was very tight across his body did. Pansy practically flew upstairs to get changed.
~ + ~
Stage two of Operation Lose The Escorts started when they got to the ball. It was crowded and busy already by the time they and their companions arrived. People were lined up at the wizarding bars laughing and talking loudly, the butterbeers and wine was flowing freely and some of the younger wizards were trying to dance to the muggle music with mixed results.
In that loud chaotic environment, expertly avoiding the other and their unwelcome partner was easily done. Getting the ‘special’ drinks that they managed to put aside earlier was also easily achieved. Spiking Ron’s drink was easy – Ginny simply bet him he couldn’t down her first pint of the ‘special brew’ in one go. After that, she could basically pour the remaining stuff almost directly into his butterbeer.
Pansy, again, was the awkward one. In the end, Draco told her directly not to even think about sampling his drink, and then managed to turn his back directly on it for five minute while having the most fascinating conversation with Goyle on great beaches he had visited. Oddly enough, when he turned round, the contents of his drink appeared to have vanished and Pansy had a glassy expression in her eyes. The most unladylike burp was also a clue.
Around midnight by pre-arrangement, the lights started dimming. Both Ron and Pansy were well on their way to complete stupors, so as the older wizards started heading towards home, the younger set settled down for some hard drinking and more than a little kissing and exploration of just how muggle clothing functioned precisely.
Stage three simply involved shoving the now completely pissed Ron and Pansy into one of the side-rooms that had been sneakily locked before, and disappearing off together while everyone else was too happily occupied to realise the switch. Ron was snoring away quite happily in his corner, while Pansy seemed to be extremely attached to her last two bottles of Draco’s drinks and refused to let anyone else take them away from her. That is, when she actually came round long enough to notice anything.
Draco and Ginny quickly disappeared off to an upstairs room at the ball that had also been cunningly locked, and spent several long and energetic hours rewarding themselves for all the hard work they’d put into this. Eventually emerging near 5am, they brushed each other down and sauntered off looking completely innocent to take their respective escorts back home.
While everyone else at the Ministry the next day alternated before congratulating them on the ball and begging for hangover cures, Draco and Ginny smirked secretly at each other, and indeed for the next two weeks solid.
Five weeks after that, Pansy found out she was pregnant.
~ + ~
Of course, that upset turned out to be nothing compared to what happened after Hermione developed the DNA tracking spell.
It was a coin flip as to who was more flabbergasted: Pansy, Ron himself or Molly Weasley. Howlers went everywhere.
Draco whimpered and tried to get a transfer to America arranged before anyone managed to connect this all back to the night of the ball.
Ginny was not impressed by this, and had a flaming row with him in the Aurors Department.
Which led to the inevitable make-up in the file-room. Which led to the making out in the file-room. Which led to the sex session in the file-room.
Which, when Hermione needed the Compton Manor file, led to the public unveiling of Draco and Ginny as a couple.
~ + ~
Suddenly, things started falling into place for a lot of people.
Draco could never quite decide whether having to explain everything to Narcissa, or having the assembled Weasley family glaring at him in the Burrow was the worse event. Ginny, on the other hand, had no doubts that Narcissa was the scarier one.
Although pressured into making Ron and Pansy’s upcoming nuptials a double wedding, somehow Draco and Ginny managed to get out of it. Sneakily making both sets of family think that it was their idea to make the two of them move in together in a London flat though was Draco’s idea.
Naturally, Ginny got the blame years later when Bill figured that one out as well.
Still, looking at her nephew Miles Weasley running around at the family meets, and his four brothers and sisters, Ginny didn’t think things had turned out too bad after all. Ron and Pansy were still together, she and Draco finally had their first-born on the way, and she’d even caught Fred being nice to Draco the other day.
Yes, things were pretty good. But Draco still deserved half the blame though….
End
Rating: 15
Summary: Evil plotting always has consequences. Always.
Characters: Draco Malfoy, Ginny and Ron Weasley and Pansy Parkinson
Disclaimer: They ain't mine. They’re JKRowling’s. *sob*
Author’s note: Written for absolut_jmo’s birthday. Enjoy!
~ + ~
For years later, at Weasley family gatherings, Ginny always got the blame.
Admittedly, Draco deserved half the blame, but as Fred always observed, “You expect that sort of low-down evil planning from a Slytherin. Ginny, on the other hand…”
The exact circumstances of Draco and Ginny’s evil plotting had apparently been devised one early morning in that alcohol induced stage of post-coital sleepiness when almost any idea sounds like a good one. Tired of sneaking around from one bed-sit to another, minutes behind one of her friends arriving, or one of Draco’s buddies popping round, Ginny wanted just one night with Draco. Draco, though he would rather have died than admit it to Ginny at that time, wanted nothing more than that himself. One might well have turned out to have been on the winning side against Voldemort after all, but dammit! Malfoys had standards of public decency and sneering to keep up after all.
So one of them thought up the masked ball.
How they managed to get their boss in the Aurors Department to a) agree to it, and b) think it was his idea, Draco and Ginny never explained, but within days of the ball being set up and announced throughout the Ministry of Magic, it became clear it was going to be a success. More than a success, a raging triumph. Tickets were selling and reselling for more galleons each time, the actual venue was changed three times (each time to one with a bigger capacity) and the Auror Department started to slip behind with the ordinary caseloads.
Of course, Ginny had to publicly hate having to work with Draco Malfoy on all this extra work, but she was a Weasley after all, and wasn’t going to let a Malfoy ruin this event for everyone. Draco naturally spent his time moaning loudly and publicly to all the surviving ex-Slytherins about how he could make this a glittering social event if he wasn’t so hobbled by having to work with one of those damned Weasleys. All the time of course, the two of them had the perfect excuse to disappear off from work and seclude themselves away in prolonged make-out sessions, while appearing to be working on the event.
Draco and Ginny both couldn’t be more privately happy, and publicly disgruntled. Naturally, this backfired on them.
~ + ~
They later admitted when everything came out into the open, that perhaps that last flaming public row might have been too much. That maybe the death threats were excessive. That threatening to hex the other into the middle of next week might possibly have gone too far. (Draco did at this point, try to explain that they had just had a particularly good session together in the file-room, and that no-one could really blame him for feeling so on top of the world that he threw himself wholeheartedly into the row, but the assembled Weasley glare shut him up before he could divulge too many details. Hermione, on the other hand, was much more concerned about the files.)
The upshot of that particular confrontation, delivered on the night before the ball, was that Ron insisted on escorting Ginny to the ball. Just in case ‘that git Malfoy’ tried anything, as was clearly stated in the emergency Weasley family summit. Ginny was of course delighted to have such a dependable, trustworthy escort, and immediately owled Draco.
Draco, then at Malfoy Manor, was having a similar problem. Although inwardly touched (and outwardly sneering) at the number of his old Slytherin friends and acquaintances who had shown up to support him, he rapidly found himself over-ruled by the members of this little grouping he supposedly led, and agreeing to take Pansy Parkinson as his date to the ball. Pansy, who by now was one of the more vicious verbal fighters around, was judged to be the best suited to save Draco from himself.
Any protestations that he could take care of himself were taken as false modesty. Finally agreeing to the idea just to get them out of his house, Draco dodged Pansy’s blatant flirting attempts and outright leers and thankfully shut the door behind the last of them. It was then that Ginny’s owl arrived, and Draco started to get an inkling of a very, very dirty plan.
~ + ~
The night of the ball arrived. Hurried owl communications and evil plotting throughout the night had caused Ginny and Draco to devise a plan of sorts. Well, they hoped it was a plan. Maybe a vague notion and fervent prayers would be a better way to describe it truthfully.
Either way, the two of them were still in charge of setting up the actual event during the daytime, and had arranged a few things in advance. Acquiring the duplicates of each other’s pre-arranged costumes took a little more ingenuity, but a quick visit to Gringotts to get the bribe and then to Madame Malkins did the trick. Not of course, that Madame Malkin was too sure of exactly what a muggle fireman did precisely, let alone what they looked like.
As it was, Ron hadn’t even thought about a costume until Ginny presented him with it, and then gratefully accepted the outfit. Ginny was also smart enough to get Hermione to pop in just to be sure of getting Ron into the costume in the right manner. Hermione, though quite happily settled down with Harry now, did seem to quite appreciate the way Ron filled it out though. Ginny just grinned inwardly and distracted herself with the thought of Draco in the same clothes.
Pansy turned out to be the hard sell. Oddly enough, for a girl that had managed to at least kiss each and every man in their little Slytherin group, she balked at the scanty muggle nurse’s outfit. Draco tried begging her, ordering her, wheedling her and briefly considered blackmailing her into it, before he realised that it was the muggle origin that she objected to. Briefly closing his eyes in pain, Draco sent the next 10 minutes explaining in words of as few syllables as he could manage, the concept of a muggle themed fancy dress party and that with the theme being muggles, maybe she should wear the muggle outfit.
Even blaming the theme on Ginny didn’t work. Fortunately, wearing his fireman outfit that was very tight across his body did. Pansy practically flew upstairs to get changed.
~ + ~
Stage two of Operation Lose The Escorts started when they got to the ball. It was crowded and busy already by the time they and their companions arrived. People were lined up at the wizarding bars laughing and talking loudly, the butterbeers and wine was flowing freely and some of the younger wizards were trying to dance to the muggle music with mixed results.
In that loud chaotic environment, expertly avoiding the other and their unwelcome partner was easily done. Getting the ‘special’ drinks that they managed to put aside earlier was also easily achieved. Spiking Ron’s drink was easy – Ginny simply bet him he couldn’t down her first pint of the ‘special brew’ in one go. After that, she could basically pour the remaining stuff almost directly into his butterbeer.
Pansy, again, was the awkward one. In the end, Draco told her directly not to even think about sampling his drink, and then managed to turn his back directly on it for five minute while having the most fascinating conversation with Goyle on great beaches he had visited. Oddly enough, when he turned round, the contents of his drink appeared to have vanished and Pansy had a glassy expression in her eyes. The most unladylike burp was also a clue.
Around midnight by pre-arrangement, the lights started dimming. Both Ron and Pansy were well on their way to complete stupors, so as the older wizards started heading towards home, the younger set settled down for some hard drinking and more than a little kissing and exploration of just how muggle clothing functioned precisely.
Stage three simply involved shoving the now completely pissed Ron and Pansy into one of the side-rooms that had been sneakily locked before, and disappearing off together while everyone else was too happily occupied to realise the switch. Ron was snoring away quite happily in his corner, while Pansy seemed to be extremely attached to her last two bottles of Draco’s drinks and refused to let anyone else take them away from her. That is, when she actually came round long enough to notice anything.
Draco and Ginny quickly disappeared off to an upstairs room at the ball that had also been cunningly locked, and spent several long and energetic hours rewarding themselves for all the hard work they’d put into this. Eventually emerging near 5am, they brushed each other down and sauntered off looking completely innocent to take their respective escorts back home.
While everyone else at the Ministry the next day alternated before congratulating them on the ball and begging for hangover cures, Draco and Ginny smirked secretly at each other, and indeed for the next two weeks solid.
Five weeks after that, Pansy found out she was pregnant.
~ + ~
Of course, that upset turned out to be nothing compared to what happened after Hermione developed the DNA tracking spell.
It was a coin flip as to who was more flabbergasted: Pansy, Ron himself or Molly Weasley. Howlers went everywhere.
Draco whimpered and tried to get a transfer to America arranged before anyone managed to connect this all back to the night of the ball.
Ginny was not impressed by this, and had a flaming row with him in the Aurors Department.
Which led to the inevitable make-up in the file-room. Which led to the making out in the file-room. Which led to the sex session in the file-room.
Which, when Hermione needed the Compton Manor file, led to the public unveiling of Draco and Ginny as a couple.
~ + ~
Suddenly, things started falling into place for a lot of people.
Draco could never quite decide whether having to explain everything to Narcissa, or having the assembled Weasley family glaring at him in the Burrow was the worse event. Ginny, on the other hand, had no doubts that Narcissa was the scarier one.
Although pressured into making Ron and Pansy’s upcoming nuptials a double wedding, somehow Draco and Ginny managed to get out of it. Sneakily making both sets of family think that it was their idea to make the two of them move in together in a London flat though was Draco’s idea.
Naturally, Ginny got the blame years later when Bill figured that one out as well.
Still, looking at her nephew Miles Weasley running around at the family meets, and his four brothers and sisters, Ginny didn’t think things had turned out too bad after all. Ron and Pansy were still together, she and Draco finally had their first-born on the way, and she’d even caught Fred being nice to Draco the other day.
Yes, things were pretty good. But Draco still deserved half the blame though….
End
The End.
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This story is a favorite of 26 members. Members who liked Having A Ball also liked 1498 other stories.
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