Title: Fifteen Years Cookie - Malfoy Flowers
Name: rainpuddle13 (rainpuddle13 at gmail dot com)
Rating: Not Naughty
Characters/Ships: Draco/Ginny, Rauri
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various
publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc.
No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Notes: It would be helpful if you've read Fifteen Years, but it's not necessary. I
found this sitting on my hard drive unfinished so I thought I'd rectify that little problem. There is a nod to DH
epilogue here only because it amused me at the moment, otherwise I still disavow its existence. Thanks to nokomis305
for the quick beta.
Happiest of birthdays to cupid12033. This is for you since no one loves the Malfoy sprogs more than you!
Summary: September showers bring Malfoy flowers.
Fifteen Years Cookie - Malfoy Flowers
Draco was helping Rauri get her land legs by holding her up by her hands as she attempted to toddle around the study. She was slowly but surely getting the hang of walking. He'd spent much of the morning trying to keep the baby occupied while Ginny got some rest.
They'd been out late the previous evening, having attended a function held at the Ministry for one of the many charities they supported. She'd been exhausted when they'd retired for the evening shortly after two in the morning, but had difficulty sleeping. Her tossing and turning had turned into a mild fever and a spot of retching. So Draco was spending the morning with his second favorite witch in the world.
"Rauri," Ginny said cheerfully as she entered the brightly lit room. He could instinctively tell that his wife wasn't feeling as well as she wanted everyone to believe. "How's Mummy's baby girl?"
At the sound of her mother's voice, Rauri broke away from him to toddle over to her mother on her chubby baby legs, arms outstretched, and babbling away. Ginny gathered her daughter up in her arms and showered her in kisses until she was giggling madly.
"You're walking so well now!" she praised in a sing-songy voice. "My little poppet is getting so big! You need to stop growing. Mummy doesn't want to lose her baby girl. No, no, no, she doesn't."
"Well, I see how unloved I am," Draco said, sniffling loudly for effect.
"Yes, terribly neglected aren't you?" Ginny asked with an incredulous tone, taking a seat on the sofa in front of the fireplace and settling the baby on her lap. "Your wife and daughter positively can't stand you."
"It's a good thing the truth has finally come out so I won't be the laughing stock of society any longer," he teased before kissing the top of Rauri's head and taking a seat next to Ginny. "I take it you're feeling a bit better this morning, love?"
"I feel like I could sleep for the rest of the day."
Draco wrested Rauri from his wife's arms and set her loose on the floor. "Should I Floo for a Healer?"
She smiled and shook her head. "No, I've already taken care of that. She'll be here a little later this afternoon."
"Do I need to remind her that Malfoys should not have to wait?" He would most definitely be having words with his wife's Healer. Ginny was ill and she should be first priority. They were Malfoys, damnit!
"No, she wanted to come immediately, but I wanted a chance to get myself sorted a little bit first."
Draco huffed; disappointed that he would not have to come to Ginny's aid. "Are you sure?"
"I think I'll live."
"Good, I was worried about you last night."
She snuggled against him, pulling her royal blue silk robe tightly around her. "You're the best husband a witch could ask for, you know that don't you?"
"You flatter me so." Draco took the opportunity of Ginny moving closer to him to kiss her tenderly. Even after all their years together, he was still in awe of his wife and her love for him.
"Why are you taking Mummy's slipper, sweet pea?" Ginny asked, giggling as she sacrificed one of her shoes to her daughter who pulled it off and tried to hand it to her father. "What did you have for breakfast? I'm absolutely ravenous."
"Toast and jam," he said, rescuing the slipper and giving a little white bunny to the baby to play with.
"I think I need something more substantial than that, a full English maybe."
He looked her over, taking in her still wan features. "Are you sure your stomach is up to all of that?"
"I believe so. Besides, I'm eating for two now and both of us are hungry." A little smile tugged mischievously at the corners of her lips.
"Two?" he asked, confusion causing his brows to furrow.
"Yes, if I'm not mistaken, I'm pregnant."
"Really?" Draco squeaked, barely able to contain his joy.
They had decided shortly after Rauri was born that they wouldn't mind just one more child. Ginny had always felt that four was the perfect number of children and Draco was enjoying his second tour of duty as a father so much that he didn't want it to end. They had discussed the possibility of adding to the brood with the boys and the rest of the family, and everyone was surprisingly supportive of the idea.
So when Rauri was six months old, they decided to see what happened while neither actively trying to get pregnant nor doing much to prevent it. Months went by and nothing. It was starting to concern him since they'd never had trouble in the past, but then they had never actually tried for a baby before. Draco was beginning to think it wasn't going to happen for them.
Ginny smiled. "Yes, all the proper signs are there."
"I was beginning to think-"
She cut him off with a kiss. "Shhh. Me too, but now we don't have to think on it anymore."
"Did you hear that, Rauri?" Draco asked his ginger-haired mini-Ginny, picking her up when she wandered too close and settling her in his lap. "You're going to be a big sister."
The baby for her part looked nonplussed at his declaration, and wiggled to be set free. "I don't think she's impressed," Ginny said, brushing the curls out of the baby's face. Her stomach growled loudly.
"I'll explain the importance to her after we see to your breakfast."
Draco had no idea how someone as svelte as Ginny could put away as much food as did in one sitting, but she laid waste to a full English breakfast and asked for more potatoes. The house-elves sensing the change in their mistress had been extra generous and attentive to her needs since the moment she'd awoken, and it pleased him very much. She would be well taken care of between them all.
The afternoon had dragged by while they waited for the Healer to make her mid-afternoon appointment, and now they'd been shut away in the master chambers for nearly an hour. He had Rauri confined to her playpen while he paced in his study wondering just how long an appointment with a Healer of this nature took.
"You're so adorable when you worry," Ginny said from the doorway where she was leaning against the frame watching him pace.
"Well?" He couldn't keep the concern he felt off his face. There was nothing he hated more than not knowing, it was second only to being kept waiting.
Ginny smiled warmly, and relief flooded over him. "We shouldn't make plans to for mid-May."
"A late spring baby?"
"Yes." She grinned then, her obvious happiness lighting up her whole being, and he thought she'd never looked so beautiful.
"So then, we'll have two spring babies and two summer babies. We have pretty impeccable timing if I say so myself." Draco couldn't think of anything better than a warm weather birthday, he himself having the good fortune to have been born in early June.
"Either that or we shag too much from August to November."
He gathered her in his arms, planting a kiss on her forehead. "We can never shag too much, love."
"So you say," she giggled.
"I can prove it to you," he growled softly, his hands slipping down to cup her arse.
"You are a wicked, wicked man," she purred just before he captured her lips in a demanding kiss.
Draco had every intention of showing his very lovely and pregnant wife just how wicked he could be. He was looking forward to the coming months as her body changed to accommodate their growing child. Ginny had always been a very lovely, but there was something about her being pregnant that just made her radiant. It made him weak at the knees to think he caused this change in her; this was his fault, and he couldn't have been happier about it either.
Despite the soft moan that escaped her lips as his hands softly kneaded the roundness of her hips, she pushed him away. "The baby is watching."
True to Ginny's words, Rauri was standing in her playpen peering over the top railing at them, watching their actions with interest.
"Bugger, and I had plans," he said, feigning disappointment.
"Maybe later." She untangled herself from the circle of his arms to go see to the needs of their daughter. "You will have to help Mummy pick a name for the new baby, sweet pea," Ginny cooed to the baby, picking Rauri up and putting her on her hip.
The family settled into a quiet evening together after dinner, with Draco staying downstairs to finish up a bit of work while Ginny put Rauri down for the night. He gave up after an hour because he was finding it increasingly difficult to concentrate on anything other than celebrating their happy news, so he capped the bottle of ink and put away his quill and sought out his wife.
"We'll have to plan a trip to Hogsmeade soon so we can tell the boys," Ginny said quietly as he entered their dimly lit room. She was lying in the middle of the bed with their pink clad daughter.
"I know. I will make the arrangements first thing in the morning." He sighed and readied for bed, bothering to put on his sleep trousers since it appeared they were going to have a guest for the evening. "What do we owe the pleasure?" he asked, gingerly crawling into bed as to not to disturb the sleeping toddler.
"She doesn't like the sound of the rain on her window."
He hadn't even noticed it had begun to rain, but he could hear it now that it had been brought to his attention. "A silencing charm?"
"She wasn't having any of it."
"Oh."
Draco lay on his back, staring up at the ceiling listening to crackling fire and the even breathing of his wife while thinking of all the things he could be doing if there wasn't a tiny red-headed moppet in the middle of bed. Rauri would occasionally put a cold little foot on his bare side just to remind him she was there.
"You know I get to name this baby don't you?" Draco asked after a while, sure in the knowledge that Ginny was still awake.
She kissed the top of the baby's head and continued rubbing her back. "I was hoping you'd forgotten about that."
Draco snorted softly. "You thought wrong."
"Apparently."
"What do you think of the name Perseus?"
"No," she said immediately and firmly.
"You didn't even give it any thought before dismissing it."
"I didn't have to; it's too close to Percy's name."
"Yes, you're right," Draco conceded, his brows furrowing in concentration. The last thing he wanted to do was inflate his brother-in-law's already quite large ego. "How about Tegmen?"
"No."
"Castor?"
"No."
"Delphinius?"
"You're just naming constellations and stars until you hit one I might like, besides we have loads of time to think of the perfect name and we don't even know what it is yet."
He turned to face Ginny, hoping that direct physical contact might help his cause, but his advances to the other side of the large bed were immediately blocked by a nappy covered bottom pressed firmly into his chest. When he tried to move Rauri into a more desirable position, the baby whimpered, causing his wife to send him a warning look.
"It's a Black family tradition," Draco whispered after he was sure he hadn't woken the baby up. "I want our last baby to have a good, strong name rooted in the old traditions!"
"I'm all for that." Her hand sought out his underneath the warm blankets, twining their fingers together. He closed his eyes and savored the feelings of comfort and loved that washed over him from such a simple gesture.
"Then why are you being so difficult?" he asked, sounding more petulant than he had intended.
Ginny stiffed. "I want our baby to have a name that will not cause them to be ridiculed mercilessly at school."
"Scorpius. There, a good, strong name and fits with long standing family tradition."
"You've got to be joking right? Scorpius?"
"My mother was fond of that name. If I'd had a brother, that would've been his name, but things didn't work out that way. She wanted me to use it for my son."
He'd tried over the years to imagine what Liam or Gareth would have been like had they'd been given the name Scorpius, but he found it difficult to associate either of them with the name. His sons were so uniquely tied - mentally, physically, spiritually - to their given names that he couldn't imagine them with any other name.
"Why didn't you say something before?" she asked, squeezing his hand reassuringly.
"Because it wasn't the right time." He scooted a little closer to his wife without physical protest from their daughter. Ginny's bare leg brushed against his flannel covered one. "I knew you wanted to name our first baby boy for your brother, and rightfully so. Then when Gareth came along, and you were so enamored with the name, that I didn't have the heart to suggest Scorpius."
"Well," Ginny said ever so softly, "we can use it now if we have another little boy."
"You mean that?" Draco asked, elated. He'd finally gotten his way at long last, granted he'd had to resort to emotionally blackmailing his wife to do it, but finally at least one of their children was going to be named according to tradition. And it wasn't if he'd actually lied to her, his mother had been fond of the name.
"Of course," she said with a small smile and tugging at his hand. She leaned over Rauri to give him a tender kiss to seal the agreement which he was more than happy to return, that was until he got elbowed just below his breast bone by his precious little bunny princess who decided she was too crowded and needed to make some space for herself. She huffed, turning over to sprawl out on her back to assure maximum space allocation.
Draco watched his daughter with fascination in the crackling firelight, taking one of her tiny hands in his and rubbing it gently with his thumb. "How does someone so small take up so much room?"
"It's a special gift small children have, I suppose, but I don't recall Liam and Gareth requiring quite so much space," she answered.
"No," he half-snorted, realizing he was precariously close to the edge of the bed. "They were too busy clinging to you for dear life, Liam especially."
"He was a bit of a snuggle monster, wasn't he?"
"That would be an understatement. I could barely get next to you for the first few years he was alive!"
"Oh, you managed just fine," she teased. "We ended up with Gareth didn't we?"
"Yes, yes, we did by some miracle."
Ginny rescued a snow white bunny from disappearing beneath their big mound of pillows and placed it by Rauri's side. "Merlin help us if she woke up and couldn't find Callopie."
"I have grown rather fond of the ability to hear."
"You know," Ginny said slowly, gazing lovingly at little girl taking up so much room in their bed, "the baby very well may be a little girl. Did your mother have any suggestions for that?"
"No," Draco drawled, pondering the possibility of having another pretty little princess to spoil rotten. Truth be told, he liked having little girls more than little boys. "There's never been a female Malfoy, well, until Roro that is…"
"We definitely have to consider the possibility."
"That we do. Talitha?"
"No."
"Nashira?"
Ginny sighed heavily. "I was thinking of something more mythical."
"Like what? Guinevere?" he asked in feigned innocence, knowing just how much she detested that name. It was too close to her own name that she hated with a passion.
"No," she said tightly, "but something along those lines."
"Morgain…"
"I'm not naming my baby for an evil witch!" she said adamantly.
"She's not evil, just misunderstood." Draco felt the need to defend the witch since he knew a thing or two about being mistaken for being evil.
"I don't care."
"Okay then, Morgain's out."
"Thank you."
"Avalon?" he suggested jokingly, knowing that if he didn't tread carefully he would end up on the sofa.
Ginny pushed herself up on her elbow to look over at him. "What did you say?"
"Avalon?" he asked in confusion.
"I sort of like that."
"Really?"
"Well, not Avalon," Ginny said dismissively, "but I do like the name Ava."
"Ava Malfoy?" Draco tried out the name to see how it rolled off his tongue. It sounded nice. He could get used to it. "I think I like it."
"Ava Malfoy," she repeated. "Ava. Liam, Gareth, Rauri and Ava. I think it fits. I like it a lot."
"Did we just decide on a name for our daughter if we have one?" he asked, thinking that things went a little too easily.
Ginny giggled. "I believe we just did!"
"That was much easier than I thought it would be."
"Me too, I was sure blood would be drawn before we'd come to a decision."
"I don't think it would have come to that," he said, yawning.
"I love you, Draco," she whispered huskily, "and I don't think I've ever been happier than I am right now."
"I know, and I love you too, Gin. Get some sleep since I've been thwarted by your daughter. You need your rest anyway; after all, you're carrying my child now." He settled down on the soft mattress and adjusted the covers until they were just right, and then laid his hand over his wife's smaller one resting on Rauri's back.
Draco last conscious thought before sleep finally claimed him was that his life couldn't get any better and he truly didn't deserve his wife.
Bonus Deleted Scene:
"If we have a little boy we're calling him Jack," Ginny said long after he'd thought she'd fallen asleep.
"Jack?" he asked, befuddled. "I thought we'd decided on Scorpius?"
"We did, but I'm calling him Jack anyway."
Commentary: I really wanted to work this in, but I could never get it to fit right since the story is from Draco's POV so we don't get to see what is going through Ginny's head when they are discussing names. For the record, she didn't cave without a backup plan - lots of praying; following every witch tale she could find to assure a girl; and if all that failed, ignore the name entirely and call the baby something else more pleasing to her!
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