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One
Not all of the Bang Babies manifested their powers right away, and needed them to be triggered. Some were labeled superheroes or supervillains, depending on how they used said powers, but some never wanted to be outed. They kept their abilities to themselves, not wanting to be seen as different.
Ginny Weasley was the youngest of seven and the only girl in her family. She loved them to pieces, but the chaos of all her brothers, their wives and children in their small home for her twentieth birthday was too much to take. When her oldest nephew crashed into one of the middle children during a raucous game of tag, the noise woke two of the sleeping babies, causing them to cry. Three mothers rushed in to police the madness, then her mother got involved, howling when she saw that ashes from the fireplace were tracked all over the house, her favorite vase broken, and the glass over the family portrait was broken. This woke the toddlers from their naps, adding to the wailing in the house.
Desperate to escape the chaos, Ginny had shut herself in her room. That wasn't far enough, however. She could still hear it as if she was standing in the middle of it all.
That was when she flew from her window to the tree house across the yard, rattling the floorboards with the force of her crash landing.
Startled, Ginny vowed to keep silent. There was enough going on at home as it was. She didn't know how her family members felt about Bang Babies; there had been no reason to talk about it before, and none of her brothers ever manifested a power. Not everyone exposed to the radiation clouds did, after all. Perhaps this was because Ginny continued to live in the Cloud Zone throughout her teen years, while her oldest brothers had left. Though her next oldest brother Ron would surely have manifested if that was the reason, as he was only a year and a half older than her, and constantly was stressed about something.
Whatever the reason, she didn't want to tell them, and knew she would have to control this somehow. It wouldn't do to fly around town.
There were no further episodes of flight that evening or throughout the week. Ginny did try to avoid any stressful situations, though. She knew of a field and forested area near school, and figured it was an isolated enough area to practice controlling her flight. The only creatures there were animals. Sometimes one would stand and watch her, possibly for the novelty of it, though Ginny found it odd when they didn't leave at the sound of her crashing. It was a different kind of animal every time she visited the area, so she doubted it was an individual getting used to her. Perhaps animals were affected by the Bang's radiation, too? The field was barely in the Cloud Zone, and the forest not at all. Still, it was a peaceful place to practice between classes. Her parents didn't need to know what she was studying, after all.
One day, when a class was unexpectedly canceled, she headed to the field. A young man was crouching there, surprising her. He had white-blond hair, light eyes, sharp features and an angular, lanky build. She could tell because he wasn't wearing any clothes. "Hey!" she called out, startled.
The man met her gaze and seemed familiar. His features grew panicked, and he turned to dart into the forest. Without thinking about it, Ginny quickly flew over the field to be at his side. Just as she was about to grasp his arm, he transformed into a deer and galloped into the forest at top speed. Gaping in shock, she didn't follow him.
No animals stared at her practice after that.
Two
Following graduation, Ginny moved to the city and got an apartment with her friend Luna. Luna had majored in psychology with a focus on parapsychology, and had worked with a number of outed Supers that had registered in the pilot program. The city's mayor had started the program to keep track of Supers, and offered free counseling and job placement in exchange for services rendered. So far, Luna reported the program a success. Ginny preferred to keep her flight secret and work as a secretary. It wasn't glamorous, but she wouldn't have a car thrown at her head.
There wasn't much opportunity to fly in secret, so she tended to hover or do tight somersaults in her room at night for hours on end. It didn't occur to her that it was still good practice until there was a fire a few blocks away from her apartment building one night. She heard screams on her way home from work, and in horror watched someone jump from the top story to escape the flames. None of the mayor's golden Supers were around to help, and others looked ready to jump as well.
She had no time to lose. Ginny tucked her ponytail under a cap pulled low, then pulled the hood of her coat over her head as well. Leaping up, Ginny felt the snap that signaled her break with gravity. One by one, she caught the trapped people and brought them carefully to the ground before making a tight circle and flying up again.
The last person was the young man from the field.
"You!" he cried in between hacking coughs. He eyed her suspiciously. "You're not in uniform," he accused.
"I kind of didn't register," she admitted. "Did you?"
"No," he admitted after a moment.
"So why can't you just fly away?" she asked as they neared the ground. "Being a bird must be really cool."
"I can't do birds. Just land animals."
"Ah. That makes sense," Ginny said sagely. "I'm Ginny," she told him as they landed safely on the ground.
"Draco." He smiled as they shook hands. "Twice we've met now."
"More if you count the meadow."
"I don't." He paused. "It's a big city. And we didn't know each other before."
"So it was meant to be for us to meet."
He grimaced a bit. "That sounds hokey, doesn't it?"
"But it feels about right," she replied with a gentle smile.
After swapping numbers, Ginny flew home as circumspectly as she could. Luna wasn't home yet, thank God, and she showered away the scent of ash and smoke.
Saving those people had felt good, like it was what she was meant to do with this power. Somehow, she would keep doing it, even without formally registering and making herself a target.
Three
Ginny and Draco met up a lot, enough to make her endure teasing from Luna. She told him about her six brothers and wanting to help citizens of the city on her own terms. Draco told her about being a monied only son, worried his parents would disown him for being a Bang Baby. "I wasn't supposed to be there that day," he explained. "But a friend was down in the area, needed a ride. I wasn't going to say no."
"And your friend?"
"Died of an overdose," Draco said sadly, shaking his head. "It was stupid, the whole thing. So... I'll help you. I don't know how useful land animals are going to be, not like flying, but I'll do it."
There was no clothing that would survive his transformations, so Ginny got many an eyeful of his naked body. She at least pretended not to look, to spare him his dignity, but oh yes, she liked what she saw. He helped to design her costume, a hooded cowl covering her telltale tresses. The costume was mostly black, with just a pop of red and yellow, in case her hair came loose. She took on the code name Blackbird as a result, and liked the sound of it.
She also noted how closely Draco watched her in the cat suit, though he tried to hide it. It was kind of funny, how they danced around the interest during their practices, training in hand to hand combat and defensive moves, just in case.
"You know," Draco said one day after the cool down, just a little too casually. "Your roommate thinks we're dating."
"We do spend a lot of time together," she agreed with a smile. Draco was going to have to work for this date, not simply assume it was a done deal.
"Well, I'd like to actually date," he said. Well. Right to the point. Good for him.
"What did you have in mind?" Ginny asked, smiling.
He seemed surprised she didn't balk at the idea, but recovered well. "Dinner at the new French place near my apartment, dancing afterward."
Ginny grinned, pleased. "I'd like that a lot."
His relief was palpable as he grinned back at her. "Six thirty?"
"Fantastic," she enthused. Was she actually hovering off the ground in her joy?
Maybe this powers thing wasn't so bad after all.
Four
Dating and training was really fun, and Ginny found herself doing tight spirals and rolls in the living area of Draco's duplex apartment. It was a posh place, nicer than the building that had caught fire, with fifteen foot high ceilings in most of the rooms, and a main living area with ceilings a full thirty feet high. The upper hall overlooked the living room with a balcony, leading to an open space that he usually used as a reading nook. Ginny practiced nosedives and pulling up hard before she hit the ground, scaring him half to death, and encouraged him to practice leaping in his animal form. "I'll catch you," she promised. "Or at least slow you down so you hit the ground safely."
It worked in short distances, and Draco wasn't sure if it would with larger ones. He generally tried to be smaller animals for the exercise, just so he would be easier for her to catch. Neither understood how his transformations worked; he seamlessly morphed into whatever animal he wanted to be, appearing with their coloring and average weight, even if he turned into something the size of a gerbil.
Draco didn't talk with his parents much; they were busy with business prospects and charity work, and weren't entirely pleased that he was dating a secretary. The strain had gotten worse when they had tried to arrange a dinner for their parents to meet; Narcissa called Ginny a gold digger, Lucius mentioned the daughter of a family friend that still had a crush on him, Arthur took a swing at Lucius and Molly screeched that her daughter was worth ten Malfoys. Neither family spoke about the other again, and occasionally Molly would pressure Ginny to date Ron's friend Harry. "He's a nice boy with a solid family, you know. He's over all the time, the dear. You used to like him when you were a little girl."
Ginny had rolled her eyes at her mother. "When I was a little girl, Mum. I've grown, and he's not what I want anymore."
"What does Draco have, then?" Molly asked.
That was really silly when it came right down to it. Not that Ginny cared about the money, as convenient as it was, but she and Draco shared a secret and about a dozen different interests. There was no way to tell Molly about any of it in a coherent way, so she simply stared at her mother with an exasperated look until Molly sighed.
"All right, I won't complain until he does something stupid and you break it off with him. Fair enough?"
"I'll accept that," Ginny agreed, and the subject was dropped. She suspected that there were more complicated conversations in the Malfoy household, but didn't ask Draco until a few months later, when he seemed agitated after a visit with his parents. "They still don't like me, do they?" she asked sympathetically, rubbing his back as she sat beside him on the couch.
"What?" he asked confused for a moment as he was drawn from his reverie. "Oh. That. Well, not really," he admitted apologetically. "They tell me I can do better. But it's not that that worries me. My father mentioned that the research into the Bang Babies is almost complete."
"And this is serious because...?" she prompted, sensing there was more to the story.
"The theory is that everyone always had these genes, but the Bang just forced them into expression. The research is how to turn them on or off," he said when he noticed her blank expression. "So if someone wants to hurt us..."
"Do you have access?" When Draco shook his head, Ginny gave him a mischievous look. "So how are your breaking and entering skills?"
This was how they found themselves on a Friday night working their way into Malfoy Enterprises' research labs. Apparently they weren't the only ones trying to get into the lab that night. They were both shocked to see Narcissa Malfoy dressed all in black, her blonde hair pulled back severely into a ponytail, her face scrubbed clean of all makeup. She looked drawn and worried, almost haggard. "You..." she sputtered, seeing Ginny in her stolen Malfoy Enterprises uniform. "What are you doing here?"
Draco, who had been hiding in her pocket in gerbil form, scampered out and fell to the floor. Ginny opened her bag and took out his clothes as he resumed his normal form. The look on Narcissa's face was almost comical. "We're here to destroy the research that Father was talking about."
She blinked at them, stunned. "It's already destroyed."
"Oh, good," Ginny said nonchalantly, getting socks and shoes for Draco. "Saves us the trouble, then. We can get out of here and go on an ordinary date, then."
"So you know about Draco?" Narcissa asked faintly, really looking at Ginny for the first time. Ginny could almost see her rearranging her perceptions.
"For almost two years now," Ginny replied.
"When did you know?" Draco asked his mother, finishing the last button on his shirt.
"For three," Narcissa replied. "I saw you in the yard." She turned to Ginny, brows furrowed in concern. "Why doesn't it bother you?"
Ginny shrugged and then decided to hover off of the floor. "Because I'm the Blackbird. Draco helped me design the costume."
Narcissa took a deep breath and released it. "I think we all need to talk."
While Draco looked a little pensive as he put on his shoes, Ginny gave her a genuine smile. "You know, I think I'd like that."
Five
With Narcissa's opposition gone, Lucius fell into sulky silence. The Weasleys were mostly quiet in their comments, so Ginny was able to easily ignore them. She and Draco decided to move in together when her lease was up and Luna was being assigned to Star City to pilot another registration program. "I'll miss you," she had said, giving them both enthusiastic hugs. "But once I'm settled, I'll invite you over." Luna smiled at them both. "I want you both to be using this time to really get to know each other, and I'd better get an invitation to the wedding."
Draco may have choked as he tried to take a drink of his beer at the going away party, Ginny only laughed. "We'll definitely let you know."
After the party, Ginny went back to Draco's apartment. They started kissing as soon as they were inside, her arms around his neck to keep her balance as he walked her backward toward the couch. She fell over the arm on the side, and they laughed as they tumbled onto the cushions, then onto the floor. Sprawled on the floorboards, Draco covered her body as he kissed her, fingers tangled in her bright red hair. "We should probably take this upstairs," he murmured between kisses. "Softer."
"Mmm. That's an idea," she began, unbuttoning his shirt. "I'd love—"
The police scanner squawked angrily, and Ginny broke off abruptly to groan. "That better not be something for Blackbird," she complained.
"The City Supers could get it, maybe," Draco murmured, also pitching his ear to listen.
Robbery at a downtown jewelry store closed for the evening. The Supers wouldn't be called in for something like this. He dropped his forehead onto hers with a sigh. "So. Want me along for the ride?"
"How else are you going to pick out an engagement ring I like?" Ginny teased.
Suiting up was second nature at this point, and Draco playfully leered as she poured herself into the cat suit. He checked their shoulder bag to be sure a change of clothes had been placed into it, and got out of his own. "Sure we have to go right away?" he teased, flashing her his naked body.
Ginny snickered and swatted his arm playfully. "Play your cards right, you'll be enjoying the adrenaline rush when we get back."
He changed into a hamster and she picked him up. She grabbed the shoulder bag and then launched herself off of the balcony into the city night. It took no time at all to get to the jewelry store, and she was ahead of the police. Honestly, they probably took their time because this wasn't all that great a neighborhood, the owners weren't present, and it was past midnight. There were plenty of good police officers, in Ginny's opinion, but they tended not to work in this particular area.
She threw herself at the thieves, who thankfully weren't armed with more than batons and knives. Draco shifted from the hamster form into that of a mountain lion, claws out and fangs bared. Without adding to the damage in the store, the two of them fought the five thieves and managed to subdue them without getting cut up or bruised too badly. Ginny used the zip ties from the shoulder bag to tie the thieves' hands together and then left them attached to the street light outside. Draco turned himself into a Great Dane and sat down heavily in front of the broken window and Ginny flew in circles to patrol the area until police cars were on their way.
She nodded at Draco and scooped him up in her arms when he transformed into a ferret to burrow under her cat suit. Giggling, she took off for his apartment, feeling the rush of flying coming over her. "I love this," she called out to him. He could only make the happy squeaky ferret noise in reply.
It was about a week later when Draco arrived at the office where Ginny worked, dressed in a button down shirt and crisp slacks, looking rather pleased with himself. "What?" she asked, frowning at him. "I'm not supposed to have visitors..."
He pulled a small box out of his pocket and knelt in front of her, a chorus of "Aw! Look at that!" behind him. Grinning, he opened the box to present it to her. "I saw the perfect ring that night," he told her. It was a gold band with a bird in flight across the top, a brilliant ruby caught in its beak, an emerald chip for its eye. "Ginny Weasley, will you marry me?" he asked.
Ginny held out her hand so he could slide the ring on her finger. "It's perfect. You're perfect. Absolutely, I'll marry you!"
And if they had blackbirds at the wedding, no one needed to know exactly why the theme was so important.
Not all of the Bang Babies manifested their powers right away, and needed them to be triggered. Some were labeled superheroes or supervillains, depending on how they used said powers, but some never wanted to be outed. They kept their abilities to themselves, not wanting to be seen as different.
Ginny Weasley was the youngest of seven and the only girl in her family. She loved them to pieces, but the chaos of all her brothers, their wives and children in their small home for her twentieth birthday was too much to take. When her oldest nephew crashed into one of the middle children during a raucous game of tag, the noise woke two of the sleeping babies, causing them to cry. Three mothers rushed in to police the madness, then her mother got involved, howling when she saw that ashes from the fireplace were tracked all over the house, her favorite vase broken, and the glass over the family portrait was broken. This woke the toddlers from their naps, adding to the wailing in the house.
Desperate to escape the chaos, Ginny had shut herself in her room. That wasn't far enough, however. She could still hear it as if she was standing in the middle of it all.
That was when she flew from her window to the tree house across the yard, rattling the floorboards with the force of her crash landing.
Startled, Ginny vowed to keep silent. There was enough going on at home as it was. She didn't know how her family members felt about Bang Babies; there had been no reason to talk about it before, and none of her brothers ever manifested a power. Not everyone exposed to the radiation clouds did, after all. Perhaps this was because Ginny continued to live in the Cloud Zone throughout her teen years, while her oldest brothers had left. Though her next oldest brother Ron would surely have manifested if that was the reason, as he was only a year and a half older than her, and constantly was stressed about something.
Whatever the reason, she didn't want to tell them, and knew she would have to control this somehow. It wouldn't do to fly around town.
There were no further episodes of flight that evening or throughout the week. Ginny did try to avoid any stressful situations, though. She knew of a field and forested area near school, and figured it was an isolated enough area to practice controlling her flight. The only creatures there were animals. Sometimes one would stand and watch her, possibly for the novelty of it, though Ginny found it odd when they didn't leave at the sound of her crashing. It was a different kind of animal every time she visited the area, so she doubted it was an individual getting used to her. Perhaps animals were affected by the Bang's radiation, too? The field was barely in the Cloud Zone, and the forest not at all. Still, it was a peaceful place to practice between classes. Her parents didn't need to know what she was studying, after all.
One day, when a class was unexpectedly canceled, she headed to the field. A young man was crouching there, surprising her. He had white-blond hair, light eyes, sharp features and an angular, lanky build. She could tell because he wasn't wearing any clothes. "Hey!" she called out, startled.
The man met her gaze and seemed familiar. His features grew panicked, and he turned to dart into the forest. Without thinking about it, Ginny quickly flew over the field to be at his side. Just as she was about to grasp his arm, he transformed into a deer and galloped into the forest at top speed. Gaping in shock, she didn't follow him.
No animals stared at her practice after that.
Two
Following graduation, Ginny moved to the city and got an apartment with her friend Luna. Luna had majored in psychology with a focus on parapsychology, and had worked with a number of outed Supers that had registered in the pilot program. The city's mayor had started the program to keep track of Supers, and offered free counseling and job placement in exchange for services rendered. So far, Luna reported the program a success. Ginny preferred to keep her flight secret and work as a secretary. It wasn't glamorous, but she wouldn't have a car thrown at her head.
There wasn't much opportunity to fly in secret, so she tended to hover or do tight somersaults in her room at night for hours on end. It didn't occur to her that it was still good practice until there was a fire a few blocks away from her apartment building one night. She heard screams on her way home from work, and in horror watched someone jump from the top story to escape the flames. None of the mayor's golden Supers were around to help, and others looked ready to jump as well.
She had no time to lose. Ginny tucked her ponytail under a cap pulled low, then pulled the hood of her coat over her head as well. Leaping up, Ginny felt the snap that signaled her break with gravity. One by one, she caught the trapped people and brought them carefully to the ground before making a tight circle and flying up again.
The last person was the young man from the field.
"You!" he cried in between hacking coughs. He eyed her suspiciously. "You're not in uniform," he accused.
"I kind of didn't register," she admitted. "Did you?"
"No," he admitted after a moment.
"So why can't you just fly away?" she asked as they neared the ground. "Being a bird must be really cool."
"I can't do birds. Just land animals."
"Ah. That makes sense," Ginny said sagely. "I'm Ginny," she told him as they landed safely on the ground.
"Draco." He smiled as they shook hands. "Twice we've met now."
"More if you count the meadow."
"I don't." He paused. "It's a big city. And we didn't know each other before."
"So it was meant to be for us to meet."
He grimaced a bit. "That sounds hokey, doesn't it?"
"But it feels about right," she replied with a gentle smile.
After swapping numbers, Ginny flew home as circumspectly as she could. Luna wasn't home yet, thank God, and she showered away the scent of ash and smoke.
Saving those people had felt good, like it was what she was meant to do with this power. Somehow, she would keep doing it, even without formally registering and making herself a target.
Three
Ginny and Draco met up a lot, enough to make her endure teasing from Luna. She told him about her six brothers and wanting to help citizens of the city on her own terms. Draco told her about being a monied only son, worried his parents would disown him for being a Bang Baby. "I wasn't supposed to be there that day," he explained. "But a friend was down in the area, needed a ride. I wasn't going to say no."
"And your friend?"
"Died of an overdose," Draco said sadly, shaking his head. "It was stupid, the whole thing. So... I'll help you. I don't know how useful land animals are going to be, not like flying, but I'll do it."
There was no clothing that would survive his transformations, so Ginny got many an eyeful of his naked body. She at least pretended not to look, to spare him his dignity, but oh yes, she liked what she saw. He helped to design her costume, a hooded cowl covering her telltale tresses. The costume was mostly black, with just a pop of red and yellow, in case her hair came loose. She took on the code name Blackbird as a result, and liked the sound of it.
She also noted how closely Draco watched her in the cat suit, though he tried to hide it. It was kind of funny, how they danced around the interest during their practices, training in hand to hand combat and defensive moves, just in case.
"You know," Draco said one day after the cool down, just a little too casually. "Your roommate thinks we're dating."
"We do spend a lot of time together," she agreed with a smile. Draco was going to have to work for this date, not simply assume it was a done deal.
"Well, I'd like to actually date," he said. Well. Right to the point. Good for him.
"What did you have in mind?" Ginny asked, smiling.
He seemed surprised she didn't balk at the idea, but recovered well. "Dinner at the new French place near my apartment, dancing afterward."
Ginny grinned, pleased. "I'd like that a lot."
His relief was palpable as he grinned back at her. "Six thirty?"
"Fantastic," she enthused. Was she actually hovering off the ground in her joy?
Maybe this powers thing wasn't so bad after all.
Four
Dating and training was really fun, and Ginny found herself doing tight spirals and rolls in the living area of Draco's duplex apartment. It was a posh place, nicer than the building that had caught fire, with fifteen foot high ceilings in most of the rooms, and a main living area with ceilings a full thirty feet high. The upper hall overlooked the living room with a balcony, leading to an open space that he usually used as a reading nook. Ginny practiced nosedives and pulling up hard before she hit the ground, scaring him half to death, and encouraged him to practice leaping in his animal form. "I'll catch you," she promised. "Or at least slow you down so you hit the ground safely."
It worked in short distances, and Draco wasn't sure if it would with larger ones. He generally tried to be smaller animals for the exercise, just so he would be easier for her to catch. Neither understood how his transformations worked; he seamlessly morphed into whatever animal he wanted to be, appearing with their coloring and average weight, even if he turned into something the size of a gerbil.
Draco didn't talk with his parents much; they were busy with business prospects and charity work, and weren't entirely pleased that he was dating a secretary. The strain had gotten worse when they had tried to arrange a dinner for their parents to meet; Narcissa called Ginny a gold digger, Lucius mentioned the daughter of a family friend that still had a crush on him, Arthur took a swing at Lucius and Molly screeched that her daughter was worth ten Malfoys. Neither family spoke about the other again, and occasionally Molly would pressure Ginny to date Ron's friend Harry. "He's a nice boy with a solid family, you know. He's over all the time, the dear. You used to like him when you were a little girl."
Ginny had rolled her eyes at her mother. "When I was a little girl, Mum. I've grown, and he's not what I want anymore."
"What does Draco have, then?" Molly asked.
That was really silly when it came right down to it. Not that Ginny cared about the money, as convenient as it was, but she and Draco shared a secret and about a dozen different interests. There was no way to tell Molly about any of it in a coherent way, so she simply stared at her mother with an exasperated look until Molly sighed.
"All right, I won't complain until he does something stupid and you break it off with him. Fair enough?"
"I'll accept that," Ginny agreed, and the subject was dropped. She suspected that there were more complicated conversations in the Malfoy household, but didn't ask Draco until a few months later, when he seemed agitated after a visit with his parents. "They still don't like me, do they?" she asked sympathetically, rubbing his back as she sat beside him on the couch.
"What?" he asked confused for a moment as he was drawn from his reverie. "Oh. That. Well, not really," he admitted apologetically. "They tell me I can do better. But it's not that that worries me. My father mentioned that the research into the Bang Babies is almost complete."
"And this is serious because...?" she prompted, sensing there was more to the story.
"The theory is that everyone always had these genes, but the Bang just forced them into expression. The research is how to turn them on or off," he said when he noticed her blank expression. "So if someone wants to hurt us..."
"Do you have access?" When Draco shook his head, Ginny gave him a mischievous look. "So how are your breaking and entering skills?"
This was how they found themselves on a Friday night working their way into Malfoy Enterprises' research labs. Apparently they weren't the only ones trying to get into the lab that night. They were both shocked to see Narcissa Malfoy dressed all in black, her blonde hair pulled back severely into a ponytail, her face scrubbed clean of all makeup. She looked drawn and worried, almost haggard. "You..." she sputtered, seeing Ginny in her stolen Malfoy Enterprises uniform. "What are you doing here?"
Draco, who had been hiding in her pocket in gerbil form, scampered out and fell to the floor. Ginny opened her bag and took out his clothes as he resumed his normal form. The look on Narcissa's face was almost comical. "We're here to destroy the research that Father was talking about."
She blinked at them, stunned. "It's already destroyed."
"Oh, good," Ginny said nonchalantly, getting socks and shoes for Draco. "Saves us the trouble, then. We can get out of here and go on an ordinary date, then."
"So you know about Draco?" Narcissa asked faintly, really looking at Ginny for the first time. Ginny could almost see her rearranging her perceptions.
"For almost two years now," Ginny replied.
"When did you know?" Draco asked his mother, finishing the last button on his shirt.
"For three," Narcissa replied. "I saw you in the yard." She turned to Ginny, brows furrowed in concern. "Why doesn't it bother you?"
Ginny shrugged and then decided to hover off of the floor. "Because I'm the Blackbird. Draco helped me design the costume."
Narcissa took a deep breath and released it. "I think we all need to talk."
While Draco looked a little pensive as he put on his shoes, Ginny gave her a genuine smile. "You know, I think I'd like that."
Five
With Narcissa's opposition gone, Lucius fell into sulky silence. The Weasleys were mostly quiet in their comments, so Ginny was able to easily ignore them. She and Draco decided to move in together when her lease was up and Luna was being assigned to Star City to pilot another registration program. "I'll miss you," she had said, giving them both enthusiastic hugs. "But once I'm settled, I'll invite you over." Luna smiled at them both. "I want you both to be using this time to really get to know each other, and I'd better get an invitation to the wedding."
Draco may have choked as he tried to take a drink of his beer at the going away party, Ginny only laughed. "We'll definitely let you know."
After the party, Ginny went back to Draco's apartment. They started kissing as soon as they were inside, her arms around his neck to keep her balance as he walked her backward toward the couch. She fell over the arm on the side, and they laughed as they tumbled onto the cushions, then onto the floor. Sprawled on the floorboards, Draco covered her body as he kissed her, fingers tangled in her bright red hair. "We should probably take this upstairs," he murmured between kisses. "Softer."
"Mmm. That's an idea," she began, unbuttoning his shirt. "I'd love—"
The police scanner squawked angrily, and Ginny broke off abruptly to groan. "That better not be something for Blackbird," she complained.
"The City Supers could get it, maybe," Draco murmured, also pitching his ear to listen.
Robbery at a downtown jewelry store closed for the evening. The Supers wouldn't be called in for something like this. He dropped his forehead onto hers with a sigh. "So. Want me along for the ride?"
"How else are you going to pick out an engagement ring I like?" Ginny teased.
Suiting up was second nature at this point, and Draco playfully leered as she poured herself into the cat suit. He checked their shoulder bag to be sure a change of clothes had been placed into it, and got out of his own. "Sure we have to go right away?" he teased, flashing her his naked body.
Ginny snickered and swatted his arm playfully. "Play your cards right, you'll be enjoying the adrenaline rush when we get back."
He changed into a hamster and she picked him up. She grabbed the shoulder bag and then launched herself off of the balcony into the city night. It took no time at all to get to the jewelry store, and she was ahead of the police. Honestly, they probably took their time because this wasn't all that great a neighborhood, the owners weren't present, and it was past midnight. There were plenty of good police officers, in Ginny's opinion, but they tended not to work in this particular area.
She threw herself at the thieves, who thankfully weren't armed with more than batons and knives. Draco shifted from the hamster form into that of a mountain lion, claws out and fangs bared. Without adding to the damage in the store, the two of them fought the five thieves and managed to subdue them without getting cut up or bruised too badly. Ginny used the zip ties from the shoulder bag to tie the thieves' hands together and then left them attached to the street light outside. Draco turned himself into a Great Dane and sat down heavily in front of the broken window and Ginny flew in circles to patrol the area until police cars were on their way.
She nodded at Draco and scooped him up in her arms when he transformed into a ferret to burrow under her cat suit. Giggling, she took off for his apartment, feeling the rush of flying coming over her. "I love this," she called out to him. He could only make the happy squeaky ferret noise in reply.
It was about a week later when Draco arrived at the office where Ginny worked, dressed in a button down shirt and crisp slacks, looking rather pleased with himself. "What?" she asked, frowning at him. "I'm not supposed to have visitors..."
He pulled a small box out of his pocket and knelt in front of her, a chorus of "Aw! Look at that!" behind him. Grinning, he opened the box to present it to her. "I saw the perfect ring that night," he told her. It was a gold band with a bird in flight across the top, a brilliant ruby caught in its beak, an emerald chip for its eye. "Ginny Weasley, will you marry me?" he asked.
Ginny held out her hand so he could slide the ring on her finger. "It's perfect. You're perfect. Absolutely, I'll marry you!"
And if they had blackbirds at the wedding, no one needed to know exactly why the theme was so important.
The End.
Eustacia Vye is the author of 37 other stories.
This story is a favorite of 2 members. Members who liked Freedom of Flight also liked 243 other stories.
This story is a favorite of 2 members. Members who liked Freedom of Flight also liked 243 other stories.
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