He couldn't make the grin leave his face even if someone tried to slap it away. Everything is perfect. It almost made him remember that this isn't their reality. It's Ginny's reality. In it things aren't going to have sore spots and imperfections.
All have happy marriages and beautiful healthy children. Everyone even gets along. Harry and Ron have pulled him into many conversations tonight not even second-guessing what they were doing. It's what she wants.
"They think we don't know," Hermione said shaking her head slightly.
"We don't all know. The men are oblivious," Gin replied.
"They usually are," Luna quipped.
The men heard their wives laughter but didn't think twice about it. They usually spend all their time together spilling secrets and girl talk. Draco watched them with furrowed eyebrows. What could be so funny? He wondered.
What they were oblivious to is the Malfoy daughter and Potter son. While they pretend to loathe one another in private they can't keep their hands to themselves. At first the mothers wanted to rip Benjamin Potter to shreds but realized Adrian Malfoy was just as guilty.
"Excuse me," Draco muttered and escaping from the men somehow managed to pull his wife away as well. Not knowing where he was taking her exactly they ended up in his study.
"What are yo-"
Draco silenced her the only way he knew how. His lips finally pressed against hers again. They weren't the cold lips he's given pecks to when he leaves her. No, these are warm and very responsive lips. They were moving just as greedily against his as his moved against hers.
Not thinking or maybe he didn't care he pulled her away from the closed door and lifted her onto his desk. Her legs instinctively wrapped around his waist and their hands moved quickly to rid the other of their clothing.
She had his shirt off and his pants undone while he was still fighting with the zipper of her dress. It made her laugh lightly to see the look of frustration on his face. Reaching behind her she helped him along rewarding with a grin.
"I couldn't take it anymore," he confessed his lips kissing her bare shoulders. "You were chewing on your lip. You know how much that bloody tortures me."
"You're too easy."
"You're too sexy," he corrected.
Letting the dress puddle to the floor he took her in with wide hungry eyes. She allowed it without seeming self-conscious in the least. He must do it often enough. Groaning deep in his throat he finally lifted his eyes to hers.
"Gods Gin I need to make love to you. Right now." His voice was hoarse and trembled with urgently.
"We don't have long." He shook his head feverously.
"Gin," he whispered and took her face into his hands. "You don't understand." She leaned forward and pressed a lingering kiss to his forehead.
"Later luv, I promise. Then we'll have all the time in the world."
He hadn't helped her get dressed. Somehow she slipped out of the room leaving a fuming pouting Draco half naked. Was she in her right mind?! Here he had looking at her with pure desperation never wanting more in his life than her at the moment and she had turned him down. He was positive that if their roles were reversed he would have gladly ravished her on his desk, floor, couch, and against the door. Damn the guest whomever they may be!
Later came much much later. Everyone had finally filed out of their home leaving his daughter giddy, his son depressed, and his wife exhausted. One glance at each of them, and he knew it would only take a few minutes before their heads hit the pillow before they were out.
Groaning to himself he ignored his wife's weak smile directed towards him and stalked to his study. It's a room he must spend a lot of time in. Everything in it seems comfortable and eerily familiar. Yet, he'd rather be in his bedroom right now with Ginny.
"She lied," he hissed dropping onto the loveseat and shutting his eyes.
I'll only be in here a few minutes, he thought. After that she'll come and find me out. Hopefully by then she'll have reached her second wind. Why must she make promises if she's not going to keep them?! I hate when people do that and…
He tried to blink the image away from his eyes. Even squeezing them shut tightly he could see it still there behind his eyelids. The sight is already burned on mind. Nothing and no one can make it go away.
Everything was still going on around him. He could hear distant yells and screams. It all seemed to be getting further and further away from him. He couldn't open his eyes to see if it was.
"Ginny? Ginny please?" Swallowing down a lump in his throat he fell to his knees and choked out, "Gin."
The image behind his closed eyes stayed the same as the one hidden from his view. Lying there motionless on the ground tore him in half. His whole body shook as he tried to hold back the flooding emotions. He's not going to allow others see to what extent the power she held over him.
She wasn't even aware of it. He kept it all a secret. One he thought he would take to his death. Not hers! All the bickering and bantering was just an act. It suppressed the urge to yank her against him and silence her mouth with his own.
He never got the chance to do some many things he had wanted to. There were no races to his bed to have her there and keep her there. No leisurely kisses wasting the day away. Now he can't count the freckles across the bridge of her nose with her noticing this time. How can he reach for her hand just because it's there and feel the warmth when they both lace their fingers together simultaneously?
"Gin?" he rasped with his shoulders shaking,
This isn't fair. Life is never fair but this is inhumane. They're both kids and their lives have been taken away from them. He never wanted to be a hero. Damn the prophecy! And damn whoever wrote her in on saving the world! Now because of it she's lost her life and the essence he's been forever drawn to.
"Draco, we have to go," a voice said urgently grasping a hand on his shoulder. "Now."
He recognized the voice immediately. It belongs to her little "sister". Another person that shouldn't be here. Just like the woman before him she refused to stay back for the sake of safety. She's stubborn to a fault.
"She's-she's gone," he told her.
"I know. She knew it was going to happen too. Come on Draco. We need to get back to camp. She left something there for you."
"I'll be right back," he whispered before dropping a kiss on her icy forehead and following his sister.
They tried to pry her body away from him but he had carried her all the way back to camp. No one is going to touch her. That is not until her family comes and gets here. Until then she's in his care. She's always been that way though.
"Here," Casey whispered handing him an envelope. "She gave it to me this morning and told me to give it to after…well she knew."
"Then why did you let her go?! Casey she's your best friend! How could you allow her to go and get herself killed?!"
"What? You don't think I tried to stop her?! Dammit Draco I all but tied her down."
"Then why is she…gone?"
"Because she said she needed to be there. She wouldn't tell me then but we both know now why."
"Waste of her life," he muttered under his breath.
As heroic and selfless as it had been he still hated her for it. No one asked for her to step in the way. He never asked to watch a blade slice right through her chest!
Ripping it open he slowly moved his eyes left to right drinking in and processing the words she noted just for him. They immediately made those suppressed feelings sting at his eyes. If he cried though then that would stain the paper ruining the only thing left of her.
"She loved me," he spoke up softly.
"Of course she did! Everyone knew that Draco. You were always just to thick for your own good."
"Well thanks for pointing out my blind spot," he spat. Casey groaned.
"Ginny was your blind spot."
"Is there anything else? I don't want her to be by herself." Casey opened her mouth but then shut it and shook her head.
"No."
He jerked awake seeing red in front of his eyes and nearly screamed trying to pull away. Quickly the woman in front of him took a step back and held her hands up in surrender. Trying to calm his breathing he jammed a hand into his tousled hair and placed the other over his racing heart.
It hadn't been just a dream. No, it had been a memory. One that haunts him on a regular basis. Whether asleep or wide-awake he can see and feel it. The images and the pain all still fresh as they had when it happened.
"Merlin," he gasped raising his eyes to her. "Do you make a habit of scarring the life out of me?"
"Just because you're upset at me doesn't mean you can be bitter Draco Malfoy."
"Well if you gave me what I wanted then I wouldn't be Virginia Weasley," he shot back.
Instantly he wanted to take it back. Her narrowed eyes widened and glistened. The mouth he loves to stare at while she speaks fell open slightly and her hands fisted at her sides. He's hurt her, and he's in deep trouble.
"Virginia Weasley? Is that who I am again Draco?"
"No," he said quickly. "No of course not Gin." He reached out for her hand, but she pulled away quicker than him. "I'm sorry."
"I don't understand it," she said shaking her head. "Why sometimes I get the Draco who I went to school with. If he doesn't get his way then it's everyone's fault but his own." With furrowed eyebrows and her bottom lip held fast between her teeth she sighed.
"You knew that I couldn't just drop everything Draco. I had to stay there and be the hostess. It was my party, and I could have used some help."
"I'm sorry," he repeated feeling himself shrinking even further in the couch.
"With your daughter and Ben only Merlin knows where and-"
"What?!" he cried.
"And Madison breaking up with Breck someone had to watch our children," she continued ignoring his outburst.
"I'm sorry Gin. I wasn't thinking. Well I guess I was but not with what I should have been."
"Draco," she cried trying to sound mad, but the pink tint in her cheeks proving otherwise.
"Gin, love," he said gathering the courage and stood. The last thing he wants is her to be really upset at him. "Please forgive me. I promise to be good."
"Oh stop," she whispered. "You know I can't stay peeved when you give me the puppy dog face."
"It's one of the reasons you love me," he said a smile back on both their faces.
"Mm, among others." His smile metamorphosed into a grin as the blush traveled across her bare skin. Thank Merlin my wife has a naughty mind, he thought.
"Right now I don't want to even think about my daughter and Potter so what happened with Breck?"
Wrapping her arms around his neck she played with the fine hair at the nape. He's a tall man but as are most Weasleys she's a tall woman as well. Most men would be intimated by that but not him. She's not as tall as him. Plus there's the fact that she has incredibly long legs. What man in his right mind wouldn't want them wrapped around him?
"Madison broke up with him. Some other girl's been trying to cause trouble for them for a while, and it seems like it finally happened. She thinks he cheated on her." He wrapped his arms around her waist and frowned.
"Malfoy men don't cheat." Well other than his father, but bastards don't count.
"I know that love, but I think there was more to it. I think she was spooked."
"Spooked? Of what?"
"I think…well I think Breck proposed to her." Draco's jaw dropped. His son is only nineteen!
"What?! Why do you think that?"
"Well first off there's money missing from his vault, and he's been really jumpy lately. Some of my friends said they saw him at a few jewelry stores, and she was wearing a really impressive rock when she came in. She didn't have it when she left either."
"Oh bloody hell," he muttered. "Should I talk to him?" She nodded.
"Please Draco?"
"Okay," he whispered and dropped a lingering kiss on her forehead. "Meet me in our room. You promised me," he trailed off.
"We'll see."
"Hey dad," a weak deep voice muttered from the dark room.
He's nervous beyond belief. This is never something he's been on either ends before. Here is a person that is a part of him and needs his 'fatherly' advice. Where was the handbook he should have been given before he stepped through the door.
"Did mum tell you?" The quiet but sudden voice startled him from his thoughts.
"How did you know?" Breck tried his best attempt at a smirk. It failed miserably. Adrian has always been better at it anyway.
"Mum knows everything." He sighed deeply and dropped his face into his hands. "She gave me back the ring dad. I love her and want to spend my life with her, and she gave it back to me."
Draco swallowed the lump in his throat and took a timid seat on the edge of the bed next to his sulking son. Tentatively he reached out to touch him but pulled back. He probably didn't want to be touched anyway.
"You're still young Breckin. There'll be other-"
"Dad don't" he interrupted. "I don't want to hear there'll be other girls. Right now all I want to hear is someone to tell me that this is going to get better." He lifted his head from his hands and his brown eyes met his father's grey. "I just want to have what you and mum have."
"Give her time son. One thing I've learned about getting your heart's desire is patience. You can't even begin to fathom how long I had to wait to finally have your mother."
"I love her. I really do." Draco nodded at his son's whispered mumblings.
"Patience Breck…patience."
"Bloody tease," he whispered under his breath.
There lying on their bed is his slumbering redhead. She's curled up in one of his shirts even sleeping on his side. She looks peaceful, and he knew she was knackered. Being the hostess had taken it out of her, but it also makes her shine. She was in her place with a grin surrounded by family in their comfortable surrounding. Home.
"Night Gin," he whispered after crawling on the bed. Lying right behind her she snuggled back against him before he even got a chance to pull her into his arms. Burying his face into her hair and wrapping his body around hers he allowed sleep to hit him.
"Love you," he mumbled in her hair.
"You too," she muttered back deliriously before the Malfoy's before succumbed to the needed rest.
***It would have been sooner but we won't go there. Don't know where I can go next but I guess I could kill them all of. Oh it could be fun! R/R.***