Once Upon a Time in London, a Christmas Story
"Daddy, how did you and Mum meet?"
Draco crooked his eyes at his nine year old son. It was the same every year.
"At school, Hogwarts. I tell you that every time you ask."
Grant fingered the bow on the Christmas present he had been begging to open early for weeks. It was bright red and shinny.
"I know, but I mean how you and mum became you and mum."
Chelsea, their twelve year old, looked up at him from the homework she was doing over the Christmas hols. Draco knew neither of his kids would let it go this year.
"Well, you see. I was in London one winter and…"
~
London was always cold around Christmas. And damp. And dreary. Draco pushed his hands as deep into the pockets of his over coat as they would go and shivered. He had been living in Muggle London for four years now. Mother had told him it would be best if he left for a while for things to calm down, the Americas, maybe. Draco landed in the "air port" in New York, heard the crassness of their American accents and promptly got on another plane to return home. So now it was another Christmas Eve and he was walking the streets. He saw people were leaving smashed and giggling from Christmas parties. Other times he could see families drinking eggnog by fires though their windows. After about twenty minutes of walking Draco decided he needed a pub and several drinks. He turned around abruptly and started to make his way to a little pub he had seen a block off at the beginning of his walk.
The place had no name, or at least no sign that Draco could see to identify itself. The typical neon lights in the window advertising different beers was the only way Draco had known it was a pub in the distance. His flat was just two blocks the opposite way. He began to wonder why he had never spotted the pub before that. The door creaked open and hit a bell suspended from he ceiling on his way in. No one turned and looked. The place wasn't empty by any standards but wasn't exactly what Draco would have referred to as busy either. He made his was to the bar and looked at the labels of the liquors in front of him. Not too familiar yet with Muggle drinks Draco usually picked his evening's intoxication device by which bottle appealed to him the most. Tonight he liked the amber colored liquid in the bottle with the maroon label and gold lettering. When the bartender approached, Draco pointed at the bottle.
"I want the whole thing."
The man's eyebrows rose just a little. Draco didn't know if it was from surprise or doubt in his sanity. He got that a lot from Muggles.
"Scotch man, eh?"
"Wanting to be a smashed man. Doesn't matter how."
The bartender shrugged and handled Draco the bottle and a small glass. Draco made out his name scrawled out in red marker on a Hello, My Name Is sticker.
"Johnny, can I have one of those?"
The bartender looked confused and blankly stared at Draco.
"One of those things on your jumper."
Johnny looked down and smirked.
"Yeah, sure. Waiting for someone and they don't know who you are?"
"Something like that."
Draco poured his first drink and by the time he was on his third Johnny had returned with a sticker and a pen. Pens always struck Draco as strange and wasteful. After all the ink was out they were done for, thrown a way and wasted. At least a quill would disintegrate after time.
"My name's not Johnny, by the way. It's Karl. My boss has an odd sense of humor."
"How did he come up with Johnny?"
"Well," Johnny/Karl got himself a glass and poured a drink from a bottle he kept under the bar, out of sight. Draco guessed it was his own personal stash.
"There's this bird that comes in here with her friends and she told me once I look like a Johnny. She called me a down right normal looking bloke. Pretty little thing, pretty little friends. Has the oddest way about her though. Her friends always have to sort through her money to pay for her drinks and she says the oddest things. Called me a Muggle once, she did. I thought that was slang for drugs or something and she just shook her head and laughed. My boss as a bit of a crush on her so now her money is no good here and he calls me Johnny whenever she's around to make her laugh. Don't mind much, she is a pretty little thing like I've said."
Draco thought the entire thing was a mite bit odd but kept his opinion to himself. He was curious to know who the witch was that came into here. He had yet to see another person who knew about real magic in the past four years except when his mum came to visit him. He thought that was odd given that so much of the Wizarding world was located inside of London but he guessed not near enough to his section of it for anyone to venture off.
"So why the name tag tonight?"
"She said her and her friends would be passing through here after her Christmas party at work before she had to go home to her family. He's away on business, seeing to another pub he owns in Scotland, so he wanted me to identify myself. My girlfriend thought this would be funny."
"Your girlfriend doesn't mind you changing your name to adjust to another girl's whims?"
Johnny/Karl shrugged.
"It's all in good fun mate."
Another man called for attention at the other side of the bar and Johnny/Karl walked towards him. Draco was left to contemplate what he was going to write on his sticker while he started on drink number five. Still no closer to a name, but closer to starting drink seven, the bell at the door clanged again. Four girls bundled up in coats, scarves, and hats walked in rubbing their arms from the cold. One waved at the bar.
"Oi, Johnny, where's this place's Christmas cheer? No tree, no music?"
Johnny/Karl smiled and waved back.
"Your booth is empty if you girls want to sit in the back. I'll bring your drinks out."
One of the girls (dressed obnoxiously in pink) grabbed the arm of the one who spoke and whispered something in her ear. She then tilted her head in Draco's direction and giggled. The other girl turned and looked to him and Draco saw strands of red hair coming out the black hat and falling around her heart shaped face. He knew he knew the girl but he couldn't place her from where. The pink girl led them all to the bar and pushed the red head in the seat not two chairs away from him. She shifted uncomfortably as the bartender pushed drinks in front of all of them. Draco looked back to his sticker and began his seventh drink and made a mental note to ignore the girl and her friends for the remainder of his time at the pub. He had already gotten himself accustomed to the idea of spending Christmas time alone and he wasn't about to talk to some random girl at a pub because her face was half familiar and he was sorely missing a familiar face.
Draco began to write on his sticker in very small print and began to slow down his drinking once his vision started to blur on the edges. Also, the room had begun to move. Not spin, but dance around just a bit. He wasn't fond of Christmas this year but he was against the thought of emptying the contents of his stomach as a present for himself. His writing eventually became a doodle and he became so immersed in the points at the end of the wings that he didn't notice when the girl moved closer to him until her hand moved the hair that had fallen in front of his eyes.
"I like your Snitch."
Draco knew he knew her. Dark honey colored eyes, freckles like cinnamon sprinkled on her nose and cheeks, and a rather red mouth with a big smile. Hogwarts had been five years ago and he knew that's where he knew her from, but her name escaped him. Or maybe the liquor just prevented it.
"Thanks. You from here?"
"Nah, I'm from a little bit outside of Ottery St. Catchpole. You?"
"Wiltshire, near Stone Bridge."
"Oi, you having another drink with us? Johnny's about to make the next round." The obnoxiously pink girl called
The girl looked at Draco's bottle.
"Scotch man?"
Draco shrugged.
"So I've been told."
"Scratch that martini. I'll have a J&B strait up."
Johnny/Karl put a fresh glass in front of the girl and was about to fill it when Draco waved him off. He lifted his own bottle and filled her glass.
"At least this way I can pretend I didn't drink as much of it as I did if you share some of the responsibility with me."
The girl clinked her glass to his and smiled.
"What's your name? I can't very well call you 'Snitch'. It sounds kind of rude."
"Ruder than Johnny?"
"Much."
Draco contemplated giving her a fake name. No one really like him in his world due to the events that happened in his sixth year. Not that he blamed them. This girl was being friendly and he didn't want to see her face turn to a look of disgust, or worse, fear. He chose his middle name.
"Louis. You?"
"Ginevra," she stuck out her hand and Draco shook it.
"What are we drinking to, Louis?"
Draco picked up his drink and looked at it wearily. More drinking would be a bad idea at this point but Ginevra was smiling at him and she really did have the cutest smile.
"Having a Happy Christmas, of course."
They toasted and each drained their glasses. Ginevra picked up the bottle and refilled them, spilling a little slightly as she withdrew the bottle from his glass.
"How many, um, what ever you had, did you have before this?"
"'Bout five. Martinis. Gin. Beefeater. Good English gin."
"Then you're sloshed."
"Not yet, but I'm getting there."
Right then Obnoxious Girl in Pink appeared. Draco wanted to hex her on the spot because Ginevra just a moment before almost slipped off her chair and had put her hand on his thigh to catch herself. High on his thigh.
"It's almost midnight Gin. Ready to head back? You have that early trip home tomorrow you need to be bright and not hung over for."
Gin (Draco was so happy for a shortening of her name, it was getting harder to say it in his head while he became more intoxicated) sucked her lower lip in her mouth and then dragged it out slowly from her teeth making it even redder.
"I'll stay. I know this bloke from grammar school. Long time back."
Obnoxious Girl in Pink rolled her eyes.
"Sure you do Gin. Sure you do. See you at the office on Wednesday."
Just as easy as that the other three left. Gin sipped on her next glass and Draco picked up his as well. Johnny/Karl looked at them strangely and returned to cleaning glasses. With the prospect of being shagged become increasingly possible Draco's mood began to pick up.
"So, what do you do to ease boredom Louis?"
"I read."
"What do you read?"
"Books. What do you do Gin?"
"I'm rarely bored but one of my flat mates has a tendency to go out and get tattooed or pierced when bored. I was going to go and get one tonight in preparation for my boredom tomorrow."
Draco's stomach began to get a little uneasy. He didn't like where this conversation was going.
"So, since it's going to be my first time I was wondering if you would come with me and let me hold your hand while I whined about the pain of it all."
Draco wasn't sure he like the idea of being in some seedy tattoo parlor on Christmas Day (it was after midnight, 'tis the season and all) but Gin let her hand slide more on the inner side of his thigh and did that biting lip thing again so he didn't see how he was allowed to say no.
"What are you going to get?"
She picked up his Hello My Name Is sticker.
"This looks like a good idea to me. Now the question is where."
~
The parlor was very warm. Gin lay on the table in the back on her stomach with her pants rolled down enough so that Draco could clearly see the beginning curve of her arse. It was rather nice. So was the tattoo of his Snitch that now graced her lower back.
The inker was talking to Gin and handing her a paper and a small tube of something that he had previously rubbed a bit on the tattoo. She was nodding and smiling and seemed quite pleased with herself to say the least. After the first five minutes of it her grip hadn't been so tight on his hand and Draco had gotten to admire the curve of her back and legs more than he had through the pain of her nails biting into his palms.
"Mate, you next?"
Draco looked at the man as if he had just lost pieces of his brain.
"Yes, he is. Same thing, um, back of his shoulder."
"Wait, no, I am not-"
Gin laughed.
"Come on, Louis. I just want an excuse to see you without a shirt on in a way that I don't appear to be a slag."
She handed him the second bottle of scotch that they had purchased before leaving the pub.
"Drink up. It's fun."
This is how Draco ended up with his first tattoo.
~
And this is how Draco ended up in bed with Gin, half a bottle of scotch later.
His shoulder hurt. The street was spinning and dancing and doing dips. He asked Gin if everything was moving for her too. She said that it never stopped, tonight was the first time in a while that things seemed to slow down. He was sure she had some deep meaning behind that statement but he was too smashed to pick it out. Right when he was about to ask her to explain it her mouth landed on his and he landed against the wall.
"Sorry, I tripped," she said, but Draco didn't hear her through the blood pounding in his ears. He continued to kiss her.
About ten minutes later they were tripping into the door of his flat. First came off his shirt and pants, which Draco didn't really feel to bad about because he always felt more comfortable naked than clothed anyway. With nothing to do and no job to maintain Draco had time for a lot of sit ups.
"I like your stomach. It's hard." Gin giggled as her hands slid down said stomach. Her fingers rested on the waistband of his boxers.
"Is that all that's hard?"
Draco blushed at her audacity. True, he had been staring at her most of the night trying to think what she would look like naked, but to have her say that she was wondering about him sexually as well was kind of unnerving. He was used to being the one taking the lead position in his sexual excursions, not his partner. Who ever she was maybe spending time with Muggles had made her as sexually assertive as the women in London.
Oh, this going to be fun, Draco thought and smirked (mostly to cover up his blush).
"Look and find out."
Gin shook her head and tilted her head up to kiss him again. Her lips were warm in contrast to the cold room and just the slight contact made Draco want to pull her entire body up to his. Right as she nipped at his lower lip her hand slid down and grabbed his erection through his boxers.
"I'd rather feel."
Gin deepened the kiss and began to move her hand up and down on his erection. Draco moved his hips towards her hands with every down stroke. She brought her other hand up to his stomach and the coldness of her fingers shocked him into the reality of their situation.
"You still have clothes on."
"Yeah…" Gin's hand began to twist around the head of his cock. Draco groaned.
"I'm nearly starkers here."
"And…" Gin moved her other hand in side of his boxers to grab his hip to still him. Her other hand began to pump faster.
"You going to ante up?"
"I didn't know we were betting."
I've been betting I would get you in bed all night, Draco thought. He didn't voice it because he thought doing that would probably cause her to leave and that thing she was doing with her hand was really quite nice.
"Would you like a proper tour of my flat?"
"Ah, subject change and an excuse to get me into your bedroom in one sentence. Very nice, I'm impressed with your skill."
All Draco could think of was how impressed he was with her skill at the moment.
"Where would you like to start?"
"Your bedroom. It is…"
"Down that hall, only door on the right."
Gin removed her hands (which Draco sorely missed) and began to walk down the hall. Every three steps she paused to remove a piece of clothing. By the time she reached the door she was down to a pale green bra, matching knickers and her boots.
"Can you come and take these off for me?" Gin swung her right foot out in front of her.
Draco tried to decide the best way to walk over to her. Running would seem too eager, but he didn't want to slowly stroll over there and appear uninterested. Then he had an epiphany. Gin was just as drunk as he was. She probably wouldn't care. He ran.
He also fell when he tried to stop. Gin laughed.
"Am I supposed to believe that was planned?"
"Choreographed is more like it." Draco rubbed his knee which had hit the wall behind her.
"A hemm." Gin waved her boot clad foot in his face.
"While you're down there you could do me a favor."
The boots were black and lined with fur at the top, reaching her mid calf. Her slender and curvy legs met up to a perfect V that was lined with pale green lace. There was really not much to her knickers, just a little fabric. Draco admired them greatly as an achievement of female taste. Small, nearly non existent, lace knickers was the epitome of great fashion sense in Draco's opinion.
"Yeah, I think I can."
Draco grasped her swinging foot and placed it firmly on the floor. He began to caress her legs starting with her ankles up to her knees. Then he started to press feather light kisses to her thighs. Ginny slouched down against the wall and moved her legs slightly apart. Draco moved his head as much as he could to kiss, bite and lick the skin on her inner thighs while moving upward. Above him he heard Gin's breathing become rapid and small sounds made an appearance every now and again. Glad to at least finally have the upper hand where the teasing was concerned Draco decided to take it up a notch.
Finally reaching his destination Draco began to remove her knickers with his teeth. All went well until he reached the boots. Try as he might they kept getting stuck on the fur.
"Need a little help down there?"
Becoming exasperated with the Knickers That Would Not Budge Draco decided to give up. Instead of answering her he started to kiss his way back up her legs. By the way her breathing was becoming heavy again he knew the smirk he had heard in her voice earlier was gone. When he reached his tongue into her folds and found her love button Gin arched her back off the wall and pressed her hips more towards his face to allow him a better vantage. Using his tongue to the best of his abilities (and as many of the Hogwarts girls could attest, his abilities were very nice indeed) Draco did his best to see if he could make Gin lose the ability to stand. When he moved his tongue down and quickly flicked it strait up he had to grab her hips to keep her from falling.
"To the bed?"
Gin looked down to him, her eyes glassy.
"Um, oh yeah. Bed."
Draco finally got the Knickers That Would Not Budge to come off (ripping worked wonders he discovered) and lifted Gin up and wrapped her legs around his waist. They both fell rather unceremoniously on the raised mattress. Because of their position the sudden impact of the bed would have caused at that moment the accumulation of the night's events if it had not been for Draco's boxers. Both moaned from the friction and also very much in frustration as well.
"The Boxers That Would Not Come Off."
Gin's face was right under his.
"What did you say?"
"Just take them off and fuck me before I get pissed off and leave to handle this myself."
"And how will you do that?"
Gin wiggled her eyebrows at him.
"Wanna watch?"
Draco lifted himself off the bed to watch, utterly fascinated as her hand slid down her chest and across her flat stomach to the place where his mouth had been just moments before. With her legs still wrapped around his waist he got a clear view of what she was doing and how she was moving her fingers.
"That is not fair."
"Fair, anteing, just how many games are we playing here, Louis?"
Gin's fingers disappeared inside her and she gasped. Draco tore his gaze away from watching her fingers to the expression on her face. Her mouth was slightly open and her eyes were closed in what he could only identify as pleasure. Her hips rolled under his and a low moan escaped her lips.
"That's exactly where I want you to be right now. Inside me."
Draco pulled back enough from Gin to take his boxers off. Too caught up in watching what Gin was doing it took him a while to accomplish his task since he couldn't get his boxers off his left foot without breaking eye contact with her squirming body. It was simply the most erotic thing Draco had ever seen in his life. Giving up on the boxers he crawled back until he was back in his position on top of her, his mouth only an inch above hers. Bringing his hand to her wrist Draco slowly pulled her hand away. Gin's mew of displeasure was replaced with a sigh as he slid inside of her.
Taking her face in his hands Draco smoothed the stray strands of red hair away from her eyes. They were closed.
"Look at me."
Gin opened her eyes. At the exact moment her gaze connected with his he rolled his hips. She grabbed him and kissed him.
"Move."
He did. Slowly pulling out and coming back in to her Draco watched every expression that passed on her face. Every sound she made tempted him to go faster but he knew he was so close already from her performance earlier that he didn't want to finish too quickly. Merlin knew this woman was amazing and he had no clue how she ended up sitting next to him in that unnamed dive of a pub but here she was now, under him, saying his name.
Saying his name.
"Draco, faster, please…"
She felt so good with her legs wrapped around him and her skin against his that he refused to stop, no matter what name she said. Kissing her neck up to her mouth he did as she requested and felt her nails digging into his back. Her fingers scratched down his shoulders to his lower back and he knew she either had drawn blood or had come close.
He wanted her to do it again.
She did when she moved her hands to his hips.
"Oh, Merlin, you feel so…"
"Your skin is so…"
"Draco, I…"
If stars had existed behind his eyes in some other land Draco knew he would have seen them as he came inside of her.
Laying there in each other's arms and both covered in sweat Draco kissed her. He didn't want his lips to leave her mouth for a moment because he knew when they did he would ask her how she knew his name. He had had the women that wanted to sleep with him after the war, the ones who just wanted to add a notch to their bedpost as him being the bad boy. He really didn't want her to be one of them. He wanted Gin to be different.
It was her that pulled away first.
"Draco, listen, I know I should have said something-"
"Then why didn't you?"
"Well you didn't recognize me, apparently, still don't, I should add, and I didn't want you to slight me when meeting me because of who I am."
Draco couldn't think for a moment why he would slight this beautiful girl under him for a moment. What man would? What he found the most ironic was what she said had been his fear for the past five years every time he met someone.
"Who are you?"
"Ginny. Weasley. Ron's-"
"Little sister."
"You're really good at cutting me off."
Draco buried his face in his hand. She was the youngest Weasley.
Her father was expected to be Minister in the next ten years.
She was Potter's former girl.
"You don't look the same," his words were muffled through his fingers.
Ginny took his hand off of his face and kissed his nose.
"It's been five years Draco. I was fifteen the last time you were at Hogwarts."
"Oh, yeah. So, if you knew who I was why did you even speak to me? I left because everyone hates me."
"Not everyone. I happen to like you quite a lot."
"'A lot'?"
Ginny playfully batted him on the arm. Then she kissed it.
"I don't just randomly take guys home. I've seen you around the past six months since I've been here. Me and my friends lunch at the pastry shop across from your flat. You would always come in for tea at the same time right after we did. I did a little digging, I was curious. Then I asked some questions."
"And then you decided to shag me?"
"No, I decided I wanted to meet you, as you are now. I was going to talk to you Wednesday when I got back from spending the Christmas hols with my parents but you were at the pub tonight so I figured it was fate, or something equally as cheesy. Marissa pointed you out when we entered the pub and I knew if I didn't approach you first she would make a brilliant ass out of me in front of everyone. It was really all about saving face."
"So, you shagged me because you honestly wanted me?"
"Yes, why else did you think I was shagging you; because I wanted Donald Trump?"
"Who?"
Ginny waved her hand dismissively.
"Never mind. Point is I wanted you and I wanted you to want me without it being everything that was in your past and mine."
"So, now what?"
"Come with me."
Draco looked over to Ginny. The sun was hitting her hair just enough to show the gold shinning through the red. He would have jumped over a bridge at that moment if that was where she was asking him to come to.
"Where?"
"The Burrow. For Christmas."
A bridge, yes. The Burrow, no.
"Your family will maim me, kill me, and then put my body on the front lawn to warn passers by about shagging the Weasley daughter."
"No, they won't. Dad works for the Ministry like I do and we know your facts. Fuck what everyone else thinks, I want you there. Besides, Mum has been bugging me about bringing home a nice bloke for the hols, I can bring you and that can be the end of it."
"I'm not a nice bloke Ginny."
Ginny looked up at him. Her honey eyes bore into his with an intensity that made him think that at that moment she was looking into his very soul. Either that or the scotch hadn't worn off yet.
"But I think you are. That's all that matters."
As Draco dressed for Christmas Day at the Weasley's he knew one thing looking over at Ginny. Something in his life had shifted; he just wasn't sure what it was yet.
~
Chelsea looked down at her work.
"Daddy, that changes every year. When are you going to tell us the truth?"
"Tell you the truth about what, dear?" Ginny said as she walked into the living room.
Grant popped his head up from the sofa pillows.
"We ask Daddy every year about how you and he got together and every year he gives us some silly story about something or other. This year it was you and him being captured by dragons in London and living in Egypt for a year and falling in love that way. How did it happen, Mum?"
Ginny looked disapprovingly at Draco who merely shrugged.
"I was working in Muggle London for the Ministry of Magic gathering research on Muggles and their work habits when I ran into your father at a pub on Christmas Eve. We talked for a while and it just went from there. End of story, not much else to tell you. Sorry if it's not some great romance. We just fit."
Chelsea smiled.
"Mum, I think that's plenty romantic enough. Not everything has to be roses and dragon chases."
"No, it doesn't," Draco said. He looked at Ginny and smiled.
"But a nice Snitch chase is always a nice element to add, don't you think?"