Disclaimer: I do not own anything but the story line...sadly. JKR owns everything - including the characters, spells, and the entire world of Harry Potter. I wonder if I could buy it from her for a dollar?
Thanks to my wonderful, wonderful beta - dragonsangel68.
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Ginny and Draco arrived at the Burrow later that evening. Draco was a bundle of nerves, but refused to show any sign of weakness. If he did, he'd never survive. The red-headed menaces were like angry wolves-they could smell fear.
As soon as they were inside, they were ushered into the family room. Molly was busy preparing dinner for her entire brood, without any assistance and seemed perfectly happy to do so on her own.
Percy's wife, Penelope, vacated an overstuffed armchair and took up residence on her husband's lap, in order to make room for Draco and Ginny in the over-crowded living room.
"Oi, Penelope, you're not as light as you used to be! I'm not muscle bound like most of my brothers. I'm the bookworm of the family. I'm frail!" Percy said in a sarcastic tone while winding his arms around his wife's expanding waist.
Penelope swatted his arm playfully and gave him a peck on the lips. "You'll do whatever I ask of you, because you love me and you love our child."
Ginny's heart melted. Penelope had spoken so softly, Ginny was sure that no one besides herself and Percy had heard her. She'd never known her brother to be the mushy type, but Penelope certainly had him wrapped around her little finger.
Ginny started when someone grabbed her hips from behind and she realized she was staring at Penelope and Percy. The owner of the hands happened to be her fiancé.
"Come sit on Daddy's lap." The look on her face made him smirk arrogantly. It made her a little reminiscent of his Hogwart's days. Even when they had started dating, he still prided himself on making Ron turn red with anger and constantly embarrassing the two remaining members of The Trio, when they had started dating. It was only recently that he'd gotten a little less arrogant. Sometimes she missed it, but other times she was quite glad he had left that part of his life behind, for the most part.
He pulled her down into his lap and Ginny realized she'd been staring at Draco the way she'd been staring at Percy and Penelope.
"See something you like, love?" he purred into her ear.
"I see the man I'm going to marry." And here I thought his arrogance was long forgotten. He's getting a bit smug. Thinks he has me, does he? I'll show him. "But enough about Harry. What were you saying, my darling?"
"Aggravating bint! You're not marrying Potter for two reasons. One, he's already happily married. Two, I won't ever let you go."
She melted into a puddle of goo in his lap. Ok, so maybe he does have me.
--
Dinner progressed as it normally did at the Burrow. It was a jovial, noisy, laughter and talk filled occasion. One could socialize for two hours and never speak to the same person twice. Everyone gorged themselves on Molly's cooking while she sat beaming at her family.
As dinner was being finished, Arthur spoke up. "Boys, what do you say we give your Mum and the other ladies the night off, and clean off the table?"
All six Weasley sons, Harry, and Arthur began picking up dishes and clearing the table. Ginny elbowed Draco in the side.
"Ouch! What?" Draco whispered to Ginny.
"You should help, Draco." Draco's face distorted in a look of mock disgust at the thought of sullying his hands. "Seriously, Draco. It's a family thing. Involve yourself. Earn some points with my brothers."
Draco nodded and started picking up dishes with the rest of the men.
The women sat and chatted until the men had successfully cleared the table and cast the cleaning spells. Molly rose from the table and made a move to the family room. The women followed her.
Firewhiskey and Butterbeers were handed out to all who wanted them. Wives and girlfriends sat in husbands' and boyfriends' laps, and the chatter ensued.
Arthur cleared his throat and the chatter immediately stopped. "I think we've got a couple of announcements, Family." Percy smiled a big smile and Penelope sat up a little straighter. "Percy-you're first."
"Well, Penelope and I would just like to let everyone know we're having a boy!"
Pats on the back, giggles and rubbing of Penelope's belly were all anyone could do for the next few minutes.
Arthur suddenly cleared his throat again-and again-and again. It took him quite a loud "WEASLEYS!" to get everyone to calm down enough so the next announcement could be made.
"We have another announcement."
Everyone looked stunned. Hermione had a knowing smile on her face, while everyone looked around at everyone else to see whom the surprise announcement would come from.
When Draco cleared his throat in preparation to speak, six jaws dropped. "I would just like to say that I've asked Ginny to marry me, and she's accepted."
Everyone was deadly silent until one woman squealed and ran at Ginny to engulf her in a bone-crushing hug. The other women followed suit.
Molly navigated the crowd like an old pro. "Ginny, dear! I'm so happy for you! Now, I'm sure that all the ladies would like to speak of the technicalities of the proposal and the ring, so whey don't we all move outside. A few quick warming charms and we will be right as rain. Ladies, get your drinks and we'll move out there. I'm sure the men would like to have their time as well!"
Draco's heart sunk when he heard Molly say the women were leaving. Well, I hope Ginny likes the idea of being engaged to a dead man. The Weasley men, with the exception of Harry and Arthur, were giving Draco unreadable looks and had yet to utter one single word.
The women wrapped shawls around themselves and taking their drinks they mingled outside, where Molly waved her wand to cast a warm glow over themand cast warming charms, to ward off the Spring chill.
Mr. Weasley lit a pipe and looked around the room. "Well, boys- what do you think?"
Draco swallowed audibly. He really was deathly afraid of being beaten into the ground and buried at The Burrow by these men. They all just stared at him as if he was neither interesting nor uninteresting. It was very disconcerting.
All of a sudden, as if they couldn't take it anymore, there was a flurry of movement. Bill was the first to crack, followed by Charlie and Percy. Soon enough Ron was the only one not taking his turn slapping Draco's back, so hard that he was struggling to stay upright.
"What do you think, Harry?" Ron asked sullenly.
"I think it's great, mate. He's actually turned into an alright bloke."
"What! It's Malfoy, Harry! Are you kidding with this `alright bloke' bit? I was just telling Hermione the other day that Malfoy was a phase in Ginny's life."
"Well, apparently she's planning on him being a lifelong phase. Ron, he really does treat your sister like she's fragile. He trekked all the way to Diagon Alley, from Hogsmeade, to help her home with her packages. I went to their flat the other day, to drop off something Hermione sent for Ginny, and he's bought tons of stuff for that place. I thought Ginny had been decorating, but she said Draco had done it. We sat and had coffee. Ron-Ginny says they haven't even had sex-"
"Well, she's probably been fighting him off-"
"No, Ron. She says he's the one who's insisting they wait until they're married. Says he goes to have a wank every time he kisses her-"
"Harry! I don't want to know about Malfoy's-bits!"
"Alright, Ron, but you'll accept this if you want Ginny to be happy. He'll take good care of her. She'll be nothing but happy with him and it would mean a lot to her if her favorite brother accepted her soon-to-be husband."
At that moment, Hermione poked her head through the back door. "Honestly, Ronald. Don't be a git!" Harry nodded, to give more poignancy to his wife's statement.
Ron's arms fell to his sides after this statement. Harry would have sworn there were slight tears in his eyes when he walked over to Draco and stuck out his hand. Draco's features went slack for a millisecond, but he stiffened back up and shook Ron's hand.
"Draco, if you ever hurt her- I'll kill you."
"I never plan to hurt her. If I did, I'd kill myself."
"Alright then. Take care of her, or you'll have to answer to me. She's got a penchant for getting into trouble. Keep an eye on her."
Draco smirked. "I will. She'll be safe with me, Weasel King."
"Alright, Ferret."
Mr. Weasley shouted above all the men's heads, "Let's go join the women!"
A unanimous roar of affirmations rose in the living room and the women were all greeted by their respective significant others.
---
Sometime later when the fracas had calmed down to a gentle hum, Draco had Ginny happily ensconced in his lap, where she was resting her head on his shoulder and he was playing with a strand of her hair. A thought popped up in Draco's head. "Hey Ron. Looks like you're the last one! Bet Luna is going to start getting a bit edgy!"
Ron glared at Draco and Ginny pinched Draco's side. "Ouch! What was the for, Gin?"
"You don't have to start it, you know?"
"I know, but it's fun. Bit reminiscent of Hogwart's. It keeps a bloke young, keeps him on his toes. Can't be having our witty banter slow down just because we're getting older."
Ginny sighed, "Fine then."
-----
Ginny and Draco arrived back at the flat around two in the morning. Ginny wrapped her arms around Draco's neck. "It makes me happy that so many people were staying at The Burrow. It means I can stay here, with you again, without any fuss."
"You can't get enough of me, admit it."
"Oh, yes, Mr. Malfoy. You're just so bloody sexy, I can't stand it!"
"You needn't be so sarcastic about it," he pouted.
"Oh, did I hurt Drakie's feelings?" Ginny stuck her bottom lip out to compliment the tone of her voice.
"You'll pay for that, wench!" Draco picked Ginny up by her sides and tossed her on the bed. He followed her onto the bed, straddling her hips and began tickling her, mercilessly.
"Ok-Draco-I give-you're gorgeous-I don't know how I got so lucky-"
"Alright. That's more like it. Now, do you want to have tea with me before we go to bed? Or do you just want to get into the bath? What are you going to do?"
"I think I'll get in the bath, but I wouldn't say no to some tea."
"Alright, go get in the bath and I'll make some tea, but you can get it yourself. I can't have you getting lazy on me. I also can't have you getting too used to this façade before you. I won't be nearly this cuddly after we get married. You honestly have no idea what you're getting into, woman."
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While Ginny took a long bath, Draco sat in his favorite chair sipping his tea and reading. She left the door open, because he asked her to. He loved the smell of her bath salts, bubbles, and powders.
After Ginny was done with her bath, she wrapped herself up in the warming charm enhanced towel Draco left for her and got ready for bed. Clad in one of the button-ups he insisted she wear to bed, she made her way over to him. He put his book down and smiled at her. Bare chested and wearing only black, silky pajama bottoms, she swore she could just eat him up. She bent over the chair and gave him a kiss on the lips as his hand got caught up in her hair and trailed down her arms, running back and forth until they broke apart.
"I love you," she said almost inaudibly.
"I love you, too."
Draco extinguished the candles as they made their way to bed. They curled up together, Draco spooning Ginny.
"Draco?"
"Yes, love?"
"Promise it'll always be like this?"
"Yes, love."
"Swear?"
"Yes, love."
"Even when I'm fat and ugly after having all your babies?"
"Yes, love. But you could never be ugly-especially after bearing my children. You're only going to get more beautiful after having our babies."
"Promise?"
"Yes, love."
"Swear you'll try to always make me tea, buy my favorite croissants, put warming charms on my towels and want me to wear your button-ups? Oh, and promise you'll always cuddle me while we're in bed?"
"Yes, love."
"Alright then, I think I might actually have to go through with marrying you." She smirked when she heard his scoff of indignation.
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