A Marriage of Convenience

Disclaimer: All that you recognise belongs to JKR.

Warning: None.

A/N: Can I just say THANK YOU for all the reviews!!! I have never had a fanfic receive so many reviews, and it just struck me today how amazing it is that I actually broke the 200 mark! (even 300 for FFnet!) THANK YOU!

I also would like to thank the two kind people who helped me with my Spanish reviewers. I can’t speak Spanish to save my life, so it’s great that people are willing to translate reviews for me that are in Spanish. Thanks! You’ve been a huge help!

Now, since I know that it has been a while since I last updated, I feel like I have to make my usual apologies, but I do want to make one teeny complaint here. I get a lot of reviews complaining that I take forever to update, and even though most of you are not so blunt, I do get the picture that some of you are frustrated with how long I am taking to update chapters. I understand that it can be annoying, but you have to understand that writing fanfiction is not my job. I can get maybe 10-20 minutes of free time on a computer if I’m lucky in a week, and clearly that does not give enough time to write a whole chapter. Those last few chapters you have read have been written between 12am-5am in the morning, and believe me, it gets very tiring after a while trying to keep doing that without falling asleep randomly during the day.

I am not a person who has immense amounts of free time. I have no life apart from university and dealing with real life issues. You have to understand that writing fanfiction is a treat for me, as I do not get to do it as much as I would like, and I simply cannot miss sleep anymore just to update faster. My chapters are between 7000-10000 words; this is much longer than most of the fanfiction I read myself (which I don’t even get time to read anymore) and so will take longer for me to write. I actually update much faster than any person I have on my alerts list, which just goes to show that I am not so bad as you think with updating.

So please, read my story if you enjoy it, review by all means, but do not demand me to update when it suits you. I am telling you now that it is impossible for me to do so; and receiving constant demands to update is actually stressing me out, as I, being the person that I am, feel obliged to actually try and do that, even though it really isn’t practical or sane for me to do so.

With that in mind, I would really, really appreciate it if you could just be patient and have a little understanding here for my situation. I know you want to find out what happens, but there really is just no way I’m going to be able to update this more than once a week, if even that.  

First Steps

The room was silent except for the soft, steady breathing coming from the two occupants in the bed. Their determination to stay far apart from each other during the night was painfully obvious, as both were precariously perched on the edge of the bed and facing opposite ways. The bed was large anyway, but for the two occupants it could never be large enough. Both had spent an uneasy night of anxious brooding, and that had only been worsened when a wayward foot would make contact with the other’s skin.

It was for this reason that the two had warily retreated to their current stations and had somehow forced their bodies to stay in the stiff position, not relenting even for a moment through their sheer force of will. Even in sleep they were conscious of how little they desired to be close to each other.   

A few rays of pale sunlight slipped through the green curtains, taunting the sleep from Ginny’s eyes and causing her eyelashes to flutter in protest. Groggily, she rolled over onto her back and placed an arm over her face to shut out the offending light. She was no early riser and felt rather irritated that the sun should be so demanding as to expect her to get up now. Her sleep had not been comfortable, and she refused to get out of bed when she was finally feeling warm and somewhat content. The sun would not be ignored, however, and continued to battle with her eyes until she could no longer cling to the sleepy drowsiness of her awakening.

In frustration, Ginny pulled her arm away from her face and stared up at the ceiling with a frown twisting her lips. It suddenly struck her that today was her first day in being a married woman, but in truth she would much rather have stayed asleep. She knew that for the next three days she would be expected to spend all her time with Draco, and considering the fact that she really did have no one else to talk to except him, she probably would end up doing just that.

Casting her eyes towards her husband’s sleeping form, she allowed her gaze to move over the marble-like skin of his back; following the curve of his spine up to his neck where his silvery blond hair fell in disarray. His face was turned away from her, but Ginny was still intrigued enough to roll over onto her side, tuck her hands up under her chin, and stare at him in contemplative silence.

It was strange to think that this man was her husband. She knew very little about him when she thought about it, and yet here she was lying next to him in the bed as his wife. Thankfully he had not pushed her to consummate their marriage through having intercourse, and if Ginny had it her way, he never would.

Last night she had felt the pressure to have sex with him—as was the custom of her society—but she just could not bring herself to do it. Having realised that she could persuade him against sleeping with her once, she was shrewd enough to realise that she could probably do it again.

Of course, a small part of her realised that eventually she would have to give in to her duty as his wife (for what choice did she really have if she wanted to have children of her own?) but Ginny had never agreed to follow that part of the marriage, and felt justifiably revolted at the thought of sleeping with a man she neither loved nor knew very well. Maybe when she was old, desperate, and nearly losing the ability to procreate, she would finally give in to duty, but until then he would just have to accept that this marriage was going to be one of sexual abstinence.

Ginny sighed and shifted uncomfortably in the bed. She still felt edgy being so close to him, even after having a night to recover her composure, but her common sense told her that she had nothing to be afraid of from her husband. Deep down she knew that Draco was not the kind of man to force his love onto her—if love was what you could call it. After all, throughout their whole engagement he had never tried to touch her or kiss her once, so why would he start now simply because they were married? Even last night he had agreed to her wishes with more grace and equanimity than she could have hoped from a newly wedded man.

There was no doubt to Ginny that he was not the kind of man to let his passions over-rule him when the other was not willing—if he even felt that passion towards her at all. She still remembered his reluctance to kiss her, and was not sure if it had been out of distaste for her, or whether he was just feeling as nervous and uncomfortable as she herself had been. Whatever his reason was, she still knew that either way he was not like the other men who seduced women for their own pleasure and amusement.

Draco, for all his many faults, was indeed a gentleman at heart, and though he was often brusque with Ginny, he had never given her (or any other woman for that matter) reason to believe that he did not respect her as a woman.

It was for this reason that Ginny was reassured that her maidenly virtue was quite safe with Draco, but that did not, unfortunately, stop her from still feeling terribly awkward around him. It would be rather ridiculous to assume that just because she was married to him, she would now be all jolly and open, not minding at all that she was expected to share a bed with him and Merlin knew what else. If anything, their marriage had only made the uncomfortable tension worse, for now she had to suffer the natural awkwardness of being thrown into close proximity with a man she barely knew and had disliked for most of her life, as well as dealing with the fact that there was this looming, silent command that she had to follow her wifely duties and be intimate with him.

Whether she was determined to hold out from Draco for as long as she could or not, there was no escaping the silent demands of a patriarchal society such as the one she had now married into. The Pureblood world demanded that she give him children immediately, but he himself had never said that she had to. In fact he had not really said much to her at all on how their marriage was supposed to be.

This then led her to a rather puzzling question. What was it that he actually wanted from her?

She frowned and tugged on her hair as she always did when she was trying to mull over something. He had never really spoken about what the marriage would entail, and he had never really spoken about why he had had to get married so quickly in the first place. All she had overheard from that infamous conversation so long ago was that his parents had wanted him to marry someone before the month was out, and his mother had chosen her—Ginny—as the ideal bride.

Why though? Why was it so important that he marry, and why had Narcissa chosen her?

No answer presented itself, and with a small sigh, Ginny removed her hands from under her chin and tugged the blankets up more over her body to get warm again. The chill of the morning was starting to sink in now, and in the hopes of trying to get a bit more sleep—however feeble that wish might be—Ginny closed her eyes and shifted to get more comfortable in the bed; even daring to spread her legs out a bit more to ease the claustrophobic feeling she had forced her body to suffer. She was sure that Draco wouldn’t mind that she had taken more room, he being asleep anyway, and thank Merlin that he was asleep too. She would have found it much more difficult to enjoy her morning sleep-in if he were awake. It was bad enough lying in bed next to him when he was harmlessly asleep.

After lying fruitlessly with her eyes shut for some minutes, Draco finally began to stir. Warning bells went off in Ginny’s head when she heard the small, sleepy noise from next to her, and cautiously she opened one eye to see Draco sit up in the bed and rub his eyes where the lingering remnants of sleep still clung. He looked, to put it simply, rather adorable in that moment—as odd as it was for Ginny to think that. It was the truth though, for it was hard not to find him endearing with his messy, blond hair sticking up in odd angles, his grey eyes heavy with sleep, and his expression so unguarded and sleepy that it was impossible to describe him as anything but cute.

Draco, of course, would have been horrified at such an assessment, but he was far too busy with smothering a yawn to notice Ginny’s covert gaze, and could hardly be expected to know what she was thinking anyway.

So it was that Ginny was given free reign to assess her husband’s ‘morning face’, and she could not help but feel pleasantly attracted by what she saw. Once she realised what she was doing, however, she duly started mentally upbraiding herself for allowing his good looks to lead her into such treacherous thoughts. Just because they were married did not mean that she was allowed to think that he was attractive, because he wasn’t! Well, maybe he was a little bit, but she was not going to yield to such base desires! And really, how dare he look so good in the mornings anyway? It was not fair! No man that frustrating and annoying should be allowed to look so damn good! Weren’t all the evil people supposed to be ugly? Not that he was evil of course, but Ginny was quite ready to believe that he might be for making her momentarily forget herself and start to look at him in such a way.

Draco seemed to finally sense that she was staring at him and turned his still sleepy gaze on her; meeting her glazed, slightly frustrated look with a silent, questioning stare. As always when he thought someone was doing something odd, his right eyebrow lifted ever so slightly, and his mouth twisted down into a puzzled frown.

“What?” he said bluntly; staring at her with a slightly wary expression.

Ginny blinked at the sound of his voice, flushed to the roots of her red hair, and then mentally cursed herself for being so foolish as to stare at him like some glassy-eyed fish. He always had had an uncanny way of catching her out when she was staring at him, and even more mortifying was the fact that he had caught her doing it when they were in a bed together after he had just woken up. It really was just her luck. She hated to think what he was thinking of her right now.

“I, um… I wasn’t staring at you,” she lied, edgily twisting the silky sheets between her fingers and her eyes falling to her hands in her discomfort. “I was just thinking, if you really must know.”

Well that wasn’t far from the truth. She had been thinking, and it just happened to be that she was thinking about how oddly attractive he had looked when he just woke up. She was not going to admit that though. Not only would it go against her pride to admit such a thing, but she was quite certain that she would die of shame if she did.

“I see,” was all he managed to say, still with that wary look in his eyes. Honestly did he think she was going to pounce on him or something?

Draco shifted uncomfortably and then stared down at his hands, his silvery blond hair falling down to obstruct his vision and catching the light to glow with a pale hue. It almost looked like a halo from Ginny’s point of view, and if circumstances were different, she would have indulged in having a hearty giggle and teasing him on how angelic he looked in that moment. As it was, she was far too conscious of the awkwardness of their situation to do much at all but fidget and stare at the ruffled blankets around her.

Silence settled around them, only building the tension in the room, and finally Ginny let out a small, frustrated sigh. There was just no escaping the awkwardness.

How could she talk to him like she used to? Even when she was engaged to him it had never been this bad! At least then she could run away when things got too tense, but what could she do now? Go hide in a cupboard? Sleep on the couch? Make a run for it and hope that some horrible spell wouldn’t activate to kill her? It was ridiculous!

Her eyes darted searchingly back to his face to discover what he thought of all this, but he was still staring at his hands; thinking whatever it was that Draco Malfoy thought about in the mornings after waking up for the first time next to his wife. Judging by his rather vacant stare, he was not intending to move anytime soon. It was annoying really, as she didn’t particularly feel like being the one to make the first move to get out of the bed, but she was quite certain that if she stayed here any longer she would end up screaming. Already she could feel a slight twitch creeping into her body because of her agitation and frustration.

Draco, on the other hand, seemed to be fascinated by staring at his hands. The only movement he made was the gradual drop of his mouth slowly descending into a heavy frown. It was clear that he was deep in thought, but that did nothing to help Ginny with her increasing frustration at the suffocating silence. She could feel her body just itching to do something, and finally she could not take it anymore. It was just too awkward and too uncomfortable. She needed to do something or she was quite sure that she would go crazy.

“Ugh, I can’t take this anymore!” she declared more to the room than to the man next to her.

Draco blinked in surprise and stared at her, just catching her thrusting the blankets roughly off her body as she got out of the bed. As she was only wearing her white petticoat, she moved over to where her belongings had been set out and rummaged through her bag to find her light blue dressing gown. Tugging it ruthlessly around her body, she stood back up from the ground and then stormed out of the room without a backwards glance.

He flinched as the door slammed shut behind her and then stared at the closed door with a puzzled frown on his face. That had been rather strange, but then she always had been a bit weird. It wouldn’t surprise him to find out that she was some psychotic psychopath in need of urgent medical attention. She always had been a little too free with her hexes (not that he had been any different) and sometimes he reminded her of a badly tuned muggle television. Her emotions just seemed to switch from one thing to the next, or else just stayed in some fuzzy medium that could never quite make up its mind to be angry or cheerful.

Maybe he was being too harsh though. Their situation was awkward, but she didn’t even understand the half of it. He had yet to disclose to her about the rest of his bargain with his parents, and a small part of him hoped that he would never have to. He could just imagine how that conversation would go, and judging by the way she was taking to just being married to him, he had no doubt that she really would become a psychotic psychopath then.

Sighing heavily to himself, Draco pushed the covers off his body and shifted so that his feet were on the floor. For a moment he just sat there silently; brooding about how he was ever going to confess to Ginny what this marriage was really all about.

It was clear from last night that she had no desire to sleep with him, and though in a way he was just as reluctant (he did have some morals after all) he still knew that everyone, especially his parents, would be expecting children. Children meant intercourse, and intercourse meant that he had to somehow charm Ginny into actually wanting to be intimate with him. It almost seemed like a task for Hercules himself.

“How am I ever going to do this?” he muttered to the empty room.

He couldn’t just rely on his money with her; he couldn’t even rely on the fact that he was considered the biggest catch in Pureblood society. Somehow he was going to have to work for this, and for a guy who had never tried to seduce a woman before, and who was not at all good with woman in the first place, it was a very daunting thought.

Even last night he had felt far too embarrassed and awkward to approach her, and she had practically given him an opening when she had started getting undressed. He just couldn’t do it though; he was too inexperienced, and too conscious of their situation.

It felt wrong to push her to do anything he knew she did not want to do, but he could almost hear his father’s voice in his mind telling him that he expected the signs of a grandchild before the month was out.

Draco sighed again and collapsed back against the bed to glare up at the ceiling. He didn’t know what to do anymore. Duty demanded that he obey his father, but his scruples would not let him even touch Ginny. He just felt so torn and confused, and part of him felt like screaming at how unfair all of this was. He was only twenty years old, for goodness sakes, and yet here he was married to a woman he barely knew and was being pressured to get her pregnant.

It was such a heavy burden to carry, and even worse was the fact that he knew he didn’t really want this. He couldn’t turn back now though; the gold ring winking evilly up at him from his finger told him that clearly enough. There really was no other way.

Draco let out a miserable groan and covered his face with his hands. “What have I got myself into?” he asked the room at large, almost wishing that somehow he would suddenly wake up and this would all be some horrible dream.

Why did he agree to do this? Why couldn’t he have just been selfishly stubborn and ignored his father’s wishes? Things would have been so different; he wouldn’t be married to Ginny; he wouldn’t be worrying about children at all; and he wouldn’t be sitting alone in this room brooding over the fact that the life he had planned for himself had taken a rather violent turn for the worse.

Suddenly a loud crack sounded in the room. Draco jumped in fright and sat up to see the elf watching him through bulbous, green eyes.

“Is the Master coming for breakfast?” the elf asked in its squeaky voice. “Mistress has already started. It’s only fitting that the Master joins her.”

Draco almost felt like hexing the meddling elf for actually having the nerve to tell him what he should or should not be doing with his wife, but instead he simply nodded his head. “Yes, I’m coming, uh—” he broke off and frowned, looking at the elf questioningly.

“Binky is my name,” the elf disclosed with a toothy smile, seeming to realise why Draco had paused.

“Right…” Draco stood up and glanced around the room for his belongings. His eyes flicked back to the elf. “You can tell my—my wife that I’ll be right down.”

Binky curtsied with flourish and then vanished with another loud crack.

Sighing again, Draco ran a hand through his hair in agitation and then got dressed into some decent clothes—though much more casual than his usual apparel. He quickly brushed his hair, not even bothering to take his usual care in making sure he looked immaculate, and then left the room to go join Ginny in the dining hall.

As soon as he entered, he could feel the sudden wave of pent up frustration emanating from his wife, and paused for a moment to assess the situation.

She was sitting stiffly on her chair at the other end of the long table, her knife and fork scratching rigidly against the china of the plate where the remnants of her eggs on toast still remained. A dark scowl twisted her pretty, pink lips, and her brow was furrowed in obvious irritation.

He didn’t need her to speak to know what she was thinking—it was clear enough that she was blaming him for everything—and so Draco cautiously took his seat at the table and began to eat his breakfast; giving her a discreet, wary glance from time to time.

Any minute now he was sure that she was going to lash out at him. Awkwardness and timidity could only last for so long, and she always had had a fondness for blaming him for everything.

Not wanting to fuel her anger any more than he already had, Draco decided to just keep his head down and eat in silence. What he did not realise was that his silence only made her more irritated. Ginny had never liked silence, and as she was feeling acutely uncomfortable and aggravated right now, she was just about ready to seize on any excuse to rip into her husband for forcing her into this horribly awkward marriage.

Being away from him for those few minutes had allowed her mind to slip into bitter frustration. She didn’t know how to act around him now or even how to handle this new relationship, and so her only response was to get angry. He had demanded she marry him; he had been the one that had given her no choice in the matter at all, and he was the one that had torn her from all her romantic dreams. She was just left with him in this uncomfortable, unromantic marriage, and so it was only natural that she should start to blame him and feel resentful towards him. His silence only sealed that resentment.

It was just as Draco was about to take another mouthful of food that Ginny let her knife and fork drop to her plate with a loud clatter. His eyes automatically lifted from his plate to stare at her; noticing immediately her clenched fists, flushed cheeks and sparkling chestnut eyes. He could just tell by her uneven breathing that she was forcibly trying to restrain herself from screaming at him.

Inwardly repressing a sigh, Draco placed his own knife and fork down much more composedly and stared at her warily. “What’s wrong?” he asked calmly, somehow hoping that by keeping his voice even it might have some kind of mellowing effect on her. He had been prepared for something like this, but that didn’t mean he was going to enjoy it or be lenient on her if she started to get really annoying.

He knew that she was just frustrated, and so could not really find it in his heart to be angry with her in turn, but he was not the kind of man to sit back and let some silly girl rant at him. This was just as frustrating for him too—even more so in some ways—and he was not going to let her play the martyr as she so loved to do.

“I can’t do this!” Ginny declared in a frustrated voice. She threw her napkin down on the table and then stood up. “I just can’t do this!

Alarmed, Draco quickly stood up himself from his seat and placed his body in her path—she having been trying to escape from the dining hall by way of the side door.

“What are you talking about?” He demanded, eyeing her with misgiving. Had she gone mad?

“Move!” Ginny commanded in a voice bordering hysterical. “I’m not staying here a minute longer!”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Draco replied shortly. “You know you can’t leave.”

“Oh can’t I?” she retorted defiantly. “You just watch!”

And with that she made to side-step around him and leave through the door, but Draco reached out and grasped her wrist, pulling her back towards him. Ginny struggled against his hold, hitting him with her free hand, and making a few angry threats and promises, but Draco held fast. To lose her now would spell disaster for both of them.

“Will you just be still!?” He shouted, finally losing his patience. “Honestly woman, you’d think I was some violent brute with the way you’re acting!”

Ginny scowled up at him but mellowed down enough to stop hitting him; muttering under her breath, “Well the way you man-handle me all the time, you’d might as well be.”

Giving her an angry glare of his own, Draco relaxed his hold on her and folded his arms defensively. “I don’t man-handle you, and what do you think you’re doing anyway? Do you know what people would think if they found out you had left the day after our honeymoon? I’d be the laughing-stock of society!”

Ginny’s eyes flashed dangerously and she even stamped her foot in frustration. “I don’t care what people think! I’m not staying! I feel like I can’t even breathe in this house, and I swear I’m going to go crazy if I have to spend another hour of awkward silence with you!”

Draco sighed tiredly; losing some of his frustration as he realised what this was all about. “I know it’s awkward—”

“—Yes it is,” Ginny cut in. “We don’t even know each other, and yet we’re expected to live with each other? I just can’t do this! I can’t live like this, and I refuse to!”

“You don’t think that I hate this as well?” Draco retorted, feeling his irritation come rushing back.

Didn’t she understand that this was just as hard for him? He hated this as well, but at least he was trying. What was she expecting? A miracle? That they would somehow be able to move past everything and act like a happy couple the very next day? He was sure that even couples who did love each other faced some awkwardness, so why should they, who barely knew each other, be any different?

“You?” Ginny spat out scornfully. “You’re the one who wanted to get married in the first place!”

“I never wanted to get married!” Draco shouted back, really losing his temper now. “I was forced into it just like you! Do you think that at twenty years of age I actually wanted to marry someone I barely know or like? Do you?”

“I—Well, I don’t know, but still—”

“No!” He shouted, drowning out her feeble stammering. “I’ve had enough! You sit there yelling at me because you feel like I’ve forced you into this marriage, thinking that it’s my fault that things are so awkward, but you don’t try at all to understand my situation! There are things far more complicated going on that you don’t even care to try and understand; you’re just too worked up about yourself and blaming me for everything!”

Ginny fell silent and stared hard at the ground, but Draco didn’t care whether she felt guilty or not. He was sick and tired of her throwing everything back at him like it was all his fault, and while he did know that he had played some part in this, in the end he was just as much a victim as she was.

He was not going to put up with this anymore, and he was not going to listen to her stupid ravings when she didn’t even understand what was really happening. She constantly accused him of being self-centred, but right now she was being more selfish and stupid than he had even thought possible of her. He just was so tired of it all.

Sucking in a deep breath, Draco ran a hand through his hair and turned his eyes back towards her downcast face with an exasperated expression on his own. “Merlin, Ginevra, you just don’t get it, do you?” he said much more quietly, but still in obvious irritation. “This isn’t all about you, and if you’re expecting things to be easy then I think you need to wake up and see the real world.”

“I didn’t expect things to be easy,” she mumbled defensively, “I just can’t stand this awkwardness.”

“Yeah well that’s just the way things are,” he replied dryly. “You said it yourself; we don’t even know each other, and so it’s going to be pretty damn awkward until we do.”

She stared at him for a moment, as if trying to dredge up some new argument that would somehow make her in the right, but then she just sighed and collapsed down on one of the couches by the door; placing her head in her hands in tired resignation.

“I’m sorry I’m being so difficult” she mumbled in a defeated voice. “I’m just so—I’m just so frustrated and upset...” she sniffed pathetically and buried her face even more into her hands. “I never expected my life to turn out this way… I always thought being married would be the happiest time of my life, but it’s not at all…”

Draco stared down at her hunched over form, noticing the way she was trembling slightly. He had no doubts that she was probably crying and felt just a little bit sorry for her in that moment. He himself had never really expected to fall in love, but he could tell that she had set her heart on it.

No doubt she had pictured her marriage to be something out of a fairytale, where everything was perfect and harmonious, and her husband loved her with all his heart, just as she loved him with all of hers. It was only natural that she should be upset once realising her romantic dream would never come true, for their marriage was about as far from a fairytale as you could get, and it was certainly not perfect and harmonious.

They argued far too frequently, didn’t appreciate or even understand each other, and the mere suggestion of love was laughable. Their marriage was nothing like Ginny’s idealistic vision at all, and though he was no romantic himself, seeing her so heartbroken did make his own normally cold heart respond in some empathy.

Ginny let out a small, pitiful sniff, and did a brave job in trying to act as if she was not crying. Draco frowned, and not even really believing what he was doing—as anyone would tell you that Draco Malfoy was not the kind of guy to give sympathy talks—he sat down next to her on the seat and then stared down at his own hands; feeling just a little bit awkward, but not really being able to stop himself from trying to comfort her somewhat.

“I don’t think either of us expected things to turn out this way,” he said quietly, shifting a little bit so that he could look at her better, even though she was still hiding her face with her hands.

She showed no sign that she had heard him talking, but Draco figured that he might as well carry on now that he had started.

“This is our life now, Ginny. We’re married, whether we like it or not, and eventually we’re going to have to come to terms with that. It’s awkward, I know, but it won’t always be this way.”

Ginny dropped her hands and lifted her tear-sprinkled face to meet his with a hopeful expression in her chestnut eyes. “Do you think so?”

He nodded and without even realising what he was doing, reached out and wiped a fresh tear from her cheek with his thumb; allowing his hand to smooth back the stray locks of red hair from her pale face as he pulled his hand away.

Ginny stared up at him through eyes torn with emotion. “How can you think that?” she asked weakly. “How can you think that we’ll ever pull through this? It’s just too hard, Draco.”

“This is only our first day as husband and wife. Even if we did know each other a bit more, it was always going to be difficult because of our circumstances. Besides, it’s not so bad now, right?”

Her lips lifted into a reluctant smile, her eyes warming just a fraction. “I guess it’s not so bad now...”

“Right, so no more talk of leaving. We can do this,” he said firmly, “We just have to give things a chance to settle down.”

She nodded and wiped the last few remaining tears from her face. “You’re right… I promise I won’t try leave again.” 

Draco breathed out a sigh of relief and relaxed more against the chair. “Good, because I really didn’t want to become the laughing-stock of society. Can you imagine the rumours that would fly around if people knew you had left straight after the honeymoon night?”

Ginny couldn’t help but laugh, her smiling eyes catching his for a moment. “Perhaps it would be a good thing. At least then those blonde bimbos wouldn’t adore you so much.”

Unable to help himself, Draco smirked back at her in a teasing way. “Jealous?”

“You wish,” Ginny retorted with an inelegant snort.

He only smiled to himself for a moment, and then stood up from the couch; reaching down his hand to haul her up from the seat as well. “Come on. If we’re going to be stuck with each other for three days, we might as well find out what there is to do around here.”

Ginny laughed slightly and allowed him to pull her to her feet. “I hope you’re not expecting me to parade around in my petticoat all day. I’ll have you know, Mr Malfoy, that I have much more decency than that.”

Draco shook his head, though a smile tugged at his lips. “As much as it would make a statement, no Ginny, I was not expecting you to do that. In fact, I was just about to suggest that you get dressed while I go tell Binky that we’re leaving the house for a while.”

Her face contorted into a scowl. “There isn’t any way we can get rid of that sneak, is there? I swear that elf creeps about everywhere.”

“Probably,” Draco muttered with a sigh, “but if we get rid of her then I think we’ll only be landed with something worse. I wouldn’t put it past my mother to come here herself; she’s determined to make us act like husband and wife.”

Ginny frowned at that. “Why? Surely she must know that we don’t care anything for each other?”

Draco went a bit pink at that, knowing full well that his mother seemed to have taken some strange idea into her head that he actually did like the redheaded bint now known as his wife. The horrible thing was that he himself had suggested something along those lines back when he had first made his choice, but that was back before he realised just how frustrating Ginny could be. It was best not to dwell on those times…

Shrugging his shoulders, and paying careful attention to not let his thoughts show on his face, Draco opened the door and held it out for her. “I don’t know, but my mother is a stickler for duty. She wouldn’t care if we hated each other; she would still expect us to act like a married couple.”

“I see...”

“Anyway,” Draco said quickly, hoping to skirt the danger zone, “I’ll go tell Binky that we’re leaving the house for a while.”

Ginny nodded her head. “Okay.”

She watched him head off down to the kitchens and then left the dining hall herself to go back to their room. Her mind was still troubled, but after talking, or rather shouting, with Draco she felt like an immense weight had been lifted off her shoulders. It had felt good to get all her frustrations out, but not only that, she was particularly touched by the fact that he had actually gone out of his way to give her some comfort.

Perhaps she had painted him more black than he actually was? She had always thought him cold and unfeeling, but he had been almost tender with her before. His quiet voice, his gentle touch—there had just been something soothing about him, and, strangely enough, she had felt comforted.

Frowning, Ginny pushed open the door to her room and moved over to her dressing table. She picked up her wand from her bag and muttered a charm to set her belongings into motion so that they would organise themselves neatly in the drawers and wardrobe. Dresses swished past her face, but Ginny did not pay much attention; too absorbed in her own thoughts to really think about what was going on around her.

How strange it was to think that they had managed to overcome some of their awkwardness by shouting at each other. Of course, neither of them had been really trying to hurt each other. They were just frustrated, and so were more venting than anything else.

Still, they had managed to talk through things and move on from the tense silence that had previously characterised their marriage, and in doing so, Ginny had learnt to not only understand her husband more, but also to appreciate that he really did care about her in his own way, despite the fact that things had been so awkward to begin with.

He had been right in saying that she needed to understand that things were not going to be perfect straight away. She had just been so frustrated and uncomfortable that she had not known quite how to react to anything, and so had allowed everything to get to her. Now that things had smoothed over a bit, she felt a lot more comfortable and also more charitable towards Draco too. Somehow it almost made Ginny feel hopeful that maybe this marriage would not be so bad after all. Maybe things could be okay?

Ginny finally turned her attention to her apparel and spent quite a few minutes deciding on what to wear. She ended up wearing a floor-length white gown with very thin, vertical, pale pink stripes. It had short, small, puffed sleeves, and a square neckline that cut modestly enough at the breast. It was not her most stunning dress, but its simplicity made her own natural beauty stand out more.

She silently twisted her hair up into a simple knot, and then placed a charming straw hat on her head to complete her apparel.

“That’ll do, I suppose,” she said with a frown, now staring at her reflection in the mirror. Her eyes glanced down at her hand where the gold, wedding band rested; watching as the sun caught it in tiny bursts of golden lights.

She clenched her hands into fists and stared back up at her reflection in the mirror. “I can make this work,” she said firmly to herself, her expression of determined resolve.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door. “Ginny, are you dressed?” Draco called out.

Pulling herself together, Ginny stepped away from the mirror and smoothed down her dress. “Yes, I’m dressed.”

Draco opened the door and entered, giving her a quick appreciative glance that made Ginny pause a bit in her musings. Surely it could not be right, but she could have sworn he had just looked at her with open admiration…

Oblivious to his lapse in hiding his feelings, Draco leaned back comfortably against the wall and folded his arms across his chest. “Binky tells me that there’s a small wizarding town not far from here. It’s not much, but I’m sure we can still find something to do there.”

Ginny nodded, still trying to work out if she had been imagining things or not. “Alright.”

Draco pushed himself away from the wall and stood by the door. “Shall we go then?”

Nodding again, Ginny followed him out of the room, back down the stairs, and then into the small entrance hall where they had first arrived. Binky was waiting for them, and offered them both a toothy smile and a small curtsy.

Draco ignored the elf, not feeling particularly charitable towards the little creature because of its nagging, spying habits, but Ginny felt obliged to give the elf a small smile. She had not spent years as Hermione’s friend to then forget how to respect house elves, even when they were as annoying as Binky.

A tug on Ginny’s hand made her attention turn back to her husband, and dutifully she followed him out of the house and into the bright sunshine. He released her hand again and gave her an apologetic glance.

“Sorry, I figured it would just be easier if we showed some public display of affection in front of the elf. I’m pretty sure Binky is going to report back to my mother now that we’re out of the house.”

Ginny shrugged nonchalantly, just glad to be out of the stifling house. “It’s okay, I understand.”

He nodded and continued walking with her down the cobble path leading from the house. Ginny couldn’t stop the smile that came to her face as she looked around the picturesque gardens. It was just like one would imagine when coming to an old-fashioned cottage, and she knew by the remnants of flowers hugging each side of the path that this place would be truly beautiful during the spring and summer months. Even now it had a striking quality to it, with the old, smiling trees overhanging the path like an ancient archway of rusty leaves, and the ground littered with bursts of red and yellow.

Out towards the blue horizon, Ginny could see a sea of purple, though some parts had faded thanks to the decaying fingers of autumn.

She looked up at Draco questioningly. “Are those lavender fields?”

He nodded, turning his own gaze to where she had been looking. “My mother loves lavenders, and so she demanded that a whole field of them be planted by this cottage.”

“Does she come here often?” Ginny asked curiously, looking up at him as she walked by his side.

“Not so much now. She spends most of her time looking after father, but there was a time when this place was like her home…”

“Oh?” Ginny said curiously.

Draco stopped suddenly and stared at the fields with an almost sad expression on his face. “I can remember coming here often as a child… It was always just mother and I. I never used to understand why it was that father never came...”

She stared at him transfixed, never having heard him be so open before. She didn’t want to say anything in case he would suddenly come to himself, and so simply listened curiously.

“My parents have not always loved each other. They had an arranged marriage, you see, and for a long time my mother couldn’t conceive, and when she did she just had miscarriages. I think my father hated her at one point… He can be very unpleasant when he is displeased with someone, and so this place became a sort of refuge for her during those times. Things did calm down once she got pregnant with me, and they did grow to love each other, but when the war started again things just—”

He broke off suddenly and gave a self-conscious little laugh. “Listen to me reminiscing about the past. I’m sorry, I guess I just forgot myself.”

Ginny instinctively grabbed his hand, stopping him from rushing away as he seemed likely to do. “You don’t need to apologise. I don’t mind listening. Please, go on.”

He shook his head and gently disengaged his hand from hers. “It doesn’t matter. Some things are best left in the past…”

Ginny’s brow furrowed in puzzlement, but Draco was already walking away before she could question him further.

“C’mon,” he called back to her. “The village isn’t too far up ahead now.”

Frowning still, Ginny picked up her skirts and ran to catch up with him. The conversation did not get brought up again for the rest of their walk, but for a long time Ginny wondered about what he had said. He had given her much food for thought, and not all of it was about Lucius and Narcissa’s past, though it was something that he had said about his parents that had made her start to wonder about other things.

‘My parents have not always loved each other,’ he had said. She had known that from the gossip, of course, but the way he had said it had made her pause. There was sadness in the inflection of his voice, as if he felt troubled in knowing that there had once been a time when his parents had not cared for each other. She couldn’t help but wonder if her children would be like that if she and Draco ever were to ever have any. Would they too wonder over their parent’s relationship?

Her eyes flicked back towards Draco’s stoic face, and hesitantly she reached out and touched his arm to make him stop. He did stop, and looked down at with a silent questioning gaze. 

“Can I ask you something?” she asked quietly.

He nodded his head. “Sure.”

“If we were ever to have children, would you want them to know how it was that we had gotten married?”

Draco frowned for a moment, as if mulling over his answer, and then met her steady gaze once more. “No.”

“Why not?” she asked curiously, though she herself had settled on the same answer.

He sighed slightly. “Because I’ve been there, and it’s not nice to know that your parents never wanted to marry each other. I guess it just ruins it somehow.”

She nodded silently and then looked back up at him with her curious, chestnut eyes. “But your parents do love each other now, right?”

“Yes,” he said simply. “They love each other now.”

Ginny twisted her lips in thought, wondering if it was just a coincidence. Deciding that it was best not to reflect on such things, as the thought of her falling in love with Draco Malfoy was highly ridiculous, she simply plastered a smile on her face and looked back up at him. “I’m glad. I like your mum, even with all her meddling ways, and I’d hate to think that she always had an unhappy marriage.”

He chuckled to himself slightly, giving her a look of some amusement. “That’s good to know.”

“Are you mocking me?” she demanded, feeling highly affronted.

“Maybe,” he replied teasingly, his eyes lighting up with the same amused expression.

Ginny hit him lightly on the arm, only earning another chuckle from him.

“Git.”

“That’s not very nice talking to your husband like that,” he replied in feigned offence.

“Pooh!” Ginny exclaimed bluntly. “I can talk to you however I like.”

“I hope that goes both ways.”

“Of course not,” Ginny responded with a cheeky smile in her eyes. “Don’t you know the perks of being a wife is that the husband can never say anything back to her?”

He laughed at that and then started walking again, still shaking his head slightly as he suppressed chuckles.

Not wanting to be left behind, Ginny quickly caught up to him again, keeping a faster pace so that she could keep up with his longer legs. They continued walking until they reached the village, exchanging some friendly banter here and there, and all in all keeping each other in good spirits—a far cry from the tense silence that had characterised their marriage earlier that morning.

Once they reached the village, Ginny dragged Draco to look around the little shops, though neither of them saw anything to catch their eye. Some people looked at them curiously, others hailed Draco upon recognising him and eagerly introduced themselves to his wife, and then the odd couple finally retired to a small café to sip coffee over a small wooden table.

“You know,” Ginny mused out loud after some moments of companionable silence. “It’s funny to think that only this morning I was so frustrated because of this marriage, but I have to admit, I’ve quite enjoyed myself today.”

A smirk formed on Draco’s face. “That’s good to know. I was worrying there would be no satisfying you.”

Ginny poked out her tongue in response, however childish the act might be, and then fell into a fit of giggles at Draco’s shocked expression. “You should see your face,” she managed to gasp out between giggling. “You look so offended.”

Draco’s expression relaxed, a reluctant smile tugging at his lips. “I wasn’t expecting you to do that. Honestly, woman, don’t you have any manners at all?”

“Nope,” Ginny replied with a grin. “What’cha gonna do about it?”

He rolled his eyes, though the smile still lingered on his mouth. “You’re crazy.”

“And you’re too stiff,” she accused. “You need to loosen up, Draco.”

“I am not going to poke my tongue out at people.”

“Well you don’t have to do that—though it would be hilarious—but surely you must get bored of always acting so prim and proper?”

He folded his arms defensively. “I’m not prim and proper.”

“Not when you’re drunk at least,” she agreed with an inelegant snort. “But sober?” She shook her head and aimed her impish grin on him. “Admit it, you don’t know how to have fun.”

“I do too!”

“Do not!” Ginny sing-songed.

“Do too!”

“DO NOT!”

Some people glared at them, only causing Ginny to giggle again. Draco went a little pink in the face, feeling slightly embarrassed by the scene they were creating, which, of course, only made Ginny laugh even more.

“I told you you don’t know how to have fun. You can’t even handle people staring at you oddly.”

“Fine,” Draco snapped. “I’ll prove that I can have fun.”

Smiling gleefully, Ginny allowed her eyes to roam the room for something that he could do. Her eyes spotted an old man with a walking stick.

“Okay,” she said with a grin, now turning her face back to him. “Go steal that man’s walking stick.”

“What? But that’s so childish!”

“So?”

He glared at her, but she only smiled mockingly at him. Feeling his pride stung, Draco stood up from his seat and made his way over to the old man. Ginny’s eyes lit up with laughter, and stifling her giggles, she watched as Draco quickly yanked the walking stick away from the old man and started to make a run for it.

“OI!” The old man shouted, standing up on his rickety legs and pulling out his wand. “You come back here you young whippersnapper and give me that stick!”

He threw a curse at Draco, who barely dodged it, and then started swearing so fluently that even Ron would have been proud.

Draco ran past Ginny, who quickly leapt up from her seat to follow him, and both burst out of the café and ran down the road until they came into the sheltered area of trees, where they both collapsed to the ground—Draco out of breath from the adrenaline, and Ginny out of breath from laughing so hard.

She turned her face to him from lying on the ground, faint tears running down her cheeks, as she gasped out between giggles: “You’re going to be in trouble now.”

Draco sat up from the ground and glared down at her. “You’re the one who told me to do it!”

“Yeah, but I never thought you actually would. Still, it was fun, right?”

He glared at her for a moment but then he started to chuckle softly. “I guess it was a little, but now what am I going to do with this stick?”

“Chuck it?” she said with a shrug, sitting up herself from the ground.

“We can’t do that. We’d better return it to him.”

Her eyes started dancing merrily, an impish smile forming on her lips. “I never thought you could be so thoughtful,” she teased.

Draco rolled his eyes and stood up before offering his hand down to help her up too. She accepted his help and was easily pulled to her feet.

“Even I have some decency,” he said shortly, “Now come on, we’d better return this before that old man has a heart attack.”

She giggled again. “You’re right. He did look pretty angry, didn’t he?”

“Yes, he did, and now you see where your crazy games lead us.”

She just shrugged and looped her arm with his, casting a sunny smile up at him. “But you still had fun, and that’s what counts.”

“Maybe, but I admit that I’m beginning to wonder if I should have chosen Daphne after all. At least she would never make me steal old men’s walking sticks.”

“Daphne!” Ginny exclaimed with another of her inelegant snorts. “Please tell me that you were not actually considering that ridiculous woman?”

He chuckled at that and looked down at her surprised face. “No, Ginny, I would not consider Daphne for anything except to wring her vain neck. She’s more fickle than all the woman of society put together.”

“You’re probably right,” Ginny agreed, “So who did you consider besides me?”

He shrugged. “To be honest I didn’t want to marry any of you, but my mother can be quite pushy.”

“About that,” Ginny said with a frown. “Why did your parents want you to get married so early? I remember hearing some stuff that night, but to be honest I’ve forgotten most of the details.”

“It’s a long story,” he said with a sigh, “And one we do not have time for right now.”

“Promise you’ll tell me though?” she persisted.

He looked down at her again and met her eyes steadily with his own. Slowly he nodded. “I promise.”

She smiled at that. “Good!”

Draco stopped suddenly, coming face-to-face with his wrinkly victim, and gave a warning glare at Ginny who showed signs of falling into giggles again.

“Here’s your walking stick, sir,” Draco said respectfully, offering the stick out to the man as a manner of appeasement.

The man silently took the stick from Draco’s hands and then without warning clouted him around the head with it. “Idiot!” the man spat scathingly and then hobbled off on his stick, leaving Draco to rub his now throbbing head, and Ginny to laugh heartily at the pathetic picture her husband made.

A/N: So, not sure how I’m really feeling about this chapter, but I figured I’d just upload it to get it out of the way. Hope you enjoyed it.