Chapter 21
Take Two
A/N: My muse, Maggie, is simple girl. All she likes are plot bunnies and reviews. So be kind to Maggie and feed her review cookies please.
Big thanks to my beta Lbandoly for her hard work. She has spent countless hours editing and providing plot help for my stories. She makes my writing possible.
No copyright infringement intended. All characters are the property of JKR, Scholastic, and any number of other companies with more money than I've ever dreamed of seeing. I didn't make any money off of this, so please don't sue.
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Draco wrapped his arm around his wife as they walked back into the manor. "If you're not ready for this, I can send them all home. I'm sure your mother and father will understand."
Ginny shook her head. "No, I can do this. But could you check to make sure he's gone first. I don't feel like having another go around with him."
"Gladly. You don't mind if I hex him into next week if he is still here do you."
"Not in the slightest."
"Uric." The elf popped into sight almost instantly. "Please bring Ginny a cup of tea and a calming draught please."
"As yous wishes Master." The elf was gone again in a blink.
Ginny took a seat on the bench by the wall and waited for Uric to bring her tea. Only moments after Draco left the hall the elf had returned. "Heres you go Mistress." He passed her the vial of draught first letting her drink it down before passing her the tea cup. "Mays I brings yous anything else?"
"No thank you. That will be all. Though you wouldn't happen to know if the children are alright would you?"
"Ise checked on them justs a moments ago Mistress. Theys all seemed fines to me madam."
"Good. You can go back to your other duties then, thank you."
The elf bowed slightly and popped away leaving Ginny alone in the hall to drink her tea and resigned her self to facing her family minus Ron.
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Draco stopped just outside the sitting room staying out of view as he peered in to find the whole lot sitting quietly listening to Molly and his mother answer questions that seemed to be tossed at them one after another.
"Mum, how long have you known?"
"Just at a month or so. Their middle child is rather gifted magically. Her name appeared in the Hogwarts first year's registry rather unexpectedly for the coming term. Minerva hand delivered Serenity's letter just to verify who the parents really were."
"So Professor McGonagall informed you?"
Arthur looked a bit ashamed about not telling their family before now. "No. Ginny wrote us a letter not long after the visit from the Professor. Our little sudden trip a while back was to visit with Ginny and Draco."
Fred and George exchanged looks. "Well that makes sense for why no one seemed to know why or where you two had decided to go to at the last moment. Forge you owe me 5 galleons now. I told you they didn't go to California for vacation."
"Well it seemed like they needed a bit of a rest Gred." The group laughed at the twin's antics.
Arthur continued once everyone stopped laughing at the comical duo. "We had to see for ourselves before we told anyone else you see. You all know we've had more than one false alarm over the years with letters from strangers saying they had either seen Ginny or those claiming they were her. We've never had reason to hope, but we just couldn't give up on her. Normally I can pay the letters no mind but this one came with proof. There were pictures and the letter was Ginny. I knew it was her. I left the office the moment I read through the letter to tell Molly. We decided to head out first thing the next morning. Molly would have left the moment she heard if I had let her."
Hermione sat next to Harry silent tears streaking down her face. "This is as much our fault as it was Ron's."
Molly looked up. "How do you figure that dear?"
"I remember Ron telling us he had caught her sneaking out to be with a guy. He never did say who, only that he was ashamed to even know her much less be her brother. He told us she was pregnant but not to tell anyone because he said he had talked her into leaving him. He seemed dead set on her ability to raise the child on her own. He asked us not to tell; saying it should be Ginny to tell you. It made sense. I mean we knew it would come out eventually. She couldn't have hid being pregnant forever. But if we had just talked to her or told you or hell anyone in the Order for that matter she would never have felt like she needed to run. Harry and I are as much at fault as Ron is for running her off simply because we didn't offer to help. If we had just opened our bloody gobs then she might have known that Draco would have been welcome. After she went missing, I don't know why we didn't say something then. I guess it just seemed unimportant then."
Harry shook his head. "You know that isn't true Hermione. How many years did it take me to trust Severus and I knew what he was doing for the Order. I wouldn't have been able to accept Gin with him no matter what." Harry stopped for a moment, thinking about the drama that had just played out half an hour before. "Obviously Ron still can't."
"Harry James Potter if you so much as think of siding with Ronald I'll personally find a very painful way to deal with you and your trust issues."
"I'm not saying that at all. I'm neither blind nor deaf. It doesn't take a spells master to see he loves her. A man doesn't just take off into the dead of the night after someone they don't love. It's been seventeen years I'm over whatever issues I may have had with Malfoy. Excuse me Narcissa, Draco. I'm over any disagreement I had with him when we were kids. I'm just saying if Ginny had come to me back then and asked for help I wouldn't have been as open-minded. She knew better than to turn to us for help."
"But just because you and Ron wouldn't have accepted him doesn't mean the rest of us wouldn't have."
Harry took a deep breath. "I'm not saying everyone would have doubted him or her. I'm just saying enough of us would have to have made them both very uncomfortable. Maybe even enough to have actually driven them apart like Ron had thought he did. Remus, Severus, you, Tonks, Molly sure you would have welcomed him with open arms no matter how much bigoted shit had come out his mouth for years. It's just the type of people you are. Hell I'm sure Sirius would have if he'd still been alive if for no other reason than Draco was family. But Ron, myself, hell certainly Mad-Eye probably would have all been in line to toss him out somewhere in the open for the Deatheaters to find him."
Hermione gave her husband a very hurt look. "I'm disappointed in you."
"Merlin, for what? For telling you the truth about how I would have acted seventeen years ago? You can't hold that against me now."
"I certainly can. You know how Sirius was treated and he was innocent. You hated it more than he did and he was the one constantly on the run or hiding at Grimmauld but you would have done the same thing to people who truly needed your help." She moved up from her chair. "I'm going to check on the kids." She moved through the room mumbling under her breath. "Hero my arse."
She didn't even notice Draco standing in the hall as she exited the room till he spoke. "Thank you."
"Huh? What?"
"I said thank you."
Hermione spun around to face him. "Whatever for?"
"For standing up for Gin and myself."
"I meant what I said in there Draco. I would have gladly helped then. Ginny was the closest thing I had to a sister my entire childhood. I just wish I had been Gryffindor enough to ask her what was going on when Ron told us. Maybe then things would have turned out differently."
"You don't have to explain to me. Loyalty I understand. Weasel asked you to keep it quiet and you did. It doesn't matter now. Ginny and I married, are in love, and have a family we built on our own. Everything else, being back here, seeing family and friends that we haven't seen in a lifetime, coming back to a world that is undeniably magical to its very core, it's all icing on the cake as they say."
"A muggle saying. Then the stories must be true."
"That depends. The one where I wrestle ten wild hippogriffs to the ground without so much as my wand is entirely true. The one where I run off with my love to a remote Italian villa and have a family is utter tripe."
"Oh my god when did you get so funny?"
"Somewhere along the time I had a toddler running around the house the first time."
"That will do it every time."
Draco smiled. "So I'm told."
Hermione's face grew serious. "Is Ginny alright?"
"No, but she will be once she realizes everyone doesn't feel the same way Ron does even if they might have in the beginning. Speaking of which, you really shouldn't stay mad at Potter for what he said. Better he be honest about what he did feel than lie to you. I mean you do believe him when he says he has no problem with it now correct?"
"Of course I believe him. If he had a problem with it he would have joined in with Ronald earlier as you well know."
"Of course I do. I've been on the receiving end of just about every wand in Gryffindor tower after all. Still it's not fair to him to be mad about something that wasn't even an issue then much less now."
"Oh I know. I just want to make him stew for a while."
Draco laughed. "You would have made a fine Slytherin you know."
"I'll take that as a compliment."
"You should, that's how it was intended." Hermione turned back off in search of the playroom.
"Hey Granger."
Hermione turned back around. "I'm not a Granger anymore you know."
"Yeah I do, but it just sounds odd in my head to think of you as a Potter."
Hermione laughed and shook her head. "Whatever Malfoy. What did you want?"
"Has Gin's prat of a brother left?"
"Yeah Bill forced him to leave. Bill's been back maybe ten minuets."
"Good. I can go bring Gin back in then."
"Malfoy. You've changed."
"No doubt you can credit for all of it to Gin."
"I don't think it was all her."
"I beg to differ."
Hermione set off for the third time in search of the playroom. She called back to Draco as she walked away. "You're allowed."
Draco nodded and went back the way he came to retrieve his wife. When he found her she was pacing the entrance hall.
"What took you so long?"
"Had a bit of a chat with Granger."
Ginny arched an eyebrow. "Dare I ask about what?"
"I thanked her."
"What for!"
"For defending you and I. She's right put out with that husband of hers."
"Harry? Why is she mad at him?"
"He didn't blindly agree with her that everyone would have accepted us if you had asked the Order to help me when we were young. He admits he has no problem with us now, but at the time he didn't trust me enough to begin to think he could have dealt with me suddenly turning on my father."
"Oh. In other words she's mad for the sake of being mad."
"Yeah. She said she was going to let him stew for a bit. So did you learn that from her or vice versa?"
Ginny laughed. "We both learned it from mum."
Draco shook his head. "Witches."
"Can't live with us and you can't live without us. Whatever will you wizards do?"
"Starve or learn to shut up and listen to the witch apparently."
Hand in hand the two made their way back into the parlor to find that Hermione had rejoined the group who were still talking to Molly and Narcissa about the return of the missing duo.
"Mum you said they have three kids."
"The girls are in the playroom with their cousins. They are absolutely beautiful too. Though I'm amazed none of them have come down wondering when dinner is."
Draco led Ginny into the room just as he heard Hermione answer. "The house elf fed the lot of them already. Apparently one of Draco and Ginny's girls was hungry."
Narcissa smiled. "Uric knows to listen. As they were to enjoy dinner here tonight I'm sure he felt it wise to feed them all when one asked."
Ginny smiled in thank you to Narcissa knowing she would have informed Uric how to tend to the children were anything dramatic to occur.
Draco looked at his wife. "Are you hungry?" She nodded in response. "Well why are we all still in here then? It's pointless to all sit around hungry when there is a perfectly good dinner sitting around under warming spells."
"My son is right. Let's do go eat. I'm sure Draco and Ginny won't mind catching everyone up while we eat."
Ginny smiled. "No not at all."
Narcissa rose and led everyone to the formal dining room that had been magically expanded along with the dining table in order to seat everyone comfortably. Everyone quickly seated themselves around the massive table before filling their plates with all kinds of delicious food. Draco decided that his mother and Molly must have felt sentimental when they planned the menu because all of his personal favorites where serves as well as Ginny's and the children's. In fact there were dishes on the table he hadn't eaten since he was a small child himself. Yes his mother was definitely feeling a bit sentimental.
Bill finally broke the relative silence that had accompanied everyone eating. "So Draco, mum and dad tell us you run a vineyard."
"We do. It was my great-great-grandfather's estate. Mother sent us there when we decided to move away. It hadn't been in operation in several years when we got there. But the overseer had remained. The vines were in prime condition despite the lack of a true master to tend them. We had our first harvest just weeks after the final battle. We've been tending it ever since."
"Muggle wine or wizard."
"Muggle. It's far easier to tend and easier to sell even though it doesn't generate nearly as much profit as its wizard counterpart. Of course it had more to do with staying off the magical radar when we first took it over than what was going to be more profitable and easier to establish."
Bill nodded his head. He had worked for the bank long enough to know the logistics of finance, but sometimes things were more important than money. He could understand the need to break away from what they were familiar with to seek solace in a distant land. Hell he had done it just not as cloak and dagger as Draco and Ginny had. He'd spent years working in Egypt and other foreign lands not just because he loved his job but because it was easier to be by him self than under the Weasley name all the time. Charlie had picked a career that purposefully kept him out of England. It wasn't that he didn't love his job with the dragons but Bill knew Charlie's first love was quidditch. He had turned down a position on a pro team purely because it was too close to home. So his sister and her husband did the same thing in an overly drastic way. Who really cared? He was just glad to know she was safe and not dead as they had all feared.
"It seems to suit you both."
"It does. I honestly think it was probably the best thing for both of us. I'm sure if anyone will understand Harry does. I was born into that war yet no one ever bothered to care if I truly wanted to be part of it. It was expected. When I couldn't live up to the expectations it nearly got me killed. It would have if Ginny hadn't happened along. I have no delusions. Had Gin not found me I would have been dead within hours. The following year was hell. Moving there let both of us escape that darkness and start over. It wasn't just me running. Ginny never got over the Chamber. It seemed to haunt her. It took a while, but I honestly think moving helped her get past it."
"Gin? You never said you felt anything like that."
"No mum I didn't. But after first year nothing was right. Part of me died in that chamber. It was something I never could get back. Every time Harry ended up fighting Voldemort again I would get pulled back into my own fears. By the time I found Draco I was nearly paranoid of my own shadow. Hell I'm not sure how I managed to not kill him when I finally was able to heal him enough to realize who I had saved. I felt safe with him even before I knew I could trust him. I guess it's just easier to let go when you're with someone who's seen as much darkness as you have. The only people I was around that ever seemed to see or understand it where Sirius, before he died, and Severus. I couldn't seek him out too often for fear that you and dad would catch on and start wondering why I was talking to him."
"We knew Albus had you talk to him after first year. Did it not stop?"
"Not until I left. Though the older I got the less I did speak to him. By the summer I found Draco I rarely if ever talked to him. In fact that whole summer I might have spoken to him once. The night he caught me swiping from his stores we had a very short chat. The potions I took that night were ones I had lived off of since first year to keep the dreams away. He didn't really say much of anything except that he expected me to brew enough of anything I had taken to restock the supply and that if he caught me taking something he knew would get me in trouble I would pay the punishment for it. After that I tended to brew whatever Draco or I needed instead of just taking them from the stores directly unless it needed it faster than I could possibly brew it."
"Ginny why didn't you ever tell anyone? We would have been here to help."
"I am so not going into that right now. That is just more bad memories I don't care to dredge up thank you very much."
Bill knew exactly what she was talking about. "Ginny I truly am sorry for that. I should never have suggested that. Truthfully I should be lucky you ever spoke to me after that. My only excuse was that I was young and stupid."
"It's okay. I do understand. I didn't then, but I do now. I've moved on."
Arthur looked at his daughter. Such a brave woman she had grown to be. "Do you still have the dreams Gin-bug?"
"No dad. I've had one in what five years or so. The second day Severus was there we were discussing classmates and what had happened to them. I guess all the memories were too much. I fell asleep reading and slipped into one of them. It was nothing serious. Draco got me to wake up before I went totally manic. Nothing a good calming draught couldn't fix."
Draco could tell her parents wanted to know more. "When we first got there she had them all the time. The closer the final battle got, the worse they seemed to get. For a while she was honestly worried there was a connection between the dreams and what was happening here though I never could find anything that supported that idea. Merlin knows I looked.
After a couple months she had one that was so bad I took her to the hospital in the magical community in Rome because I couldn't get her to wake up. With her carrying Isaac I had no clue how they were affecting her or the baby. Turns out it was right to take her in. Her heart rate was so fast they said she could have a heart attack at any moment if I had let her sleep it out on her own. They went right to work trying to wake her. When they finally got her to wake up she didn't remember anything but being afraid. We spent two weeks with them watching her without so much as one dream. They sent her home with orders to take dreamless sleep potions every night and calming draughts every morning and night since that seemed to starve them off while she was in the hospital.
The dreams came back almost immediately after we got home. She took the potions, but they didn't work. One of the few times I've spoken to mother the entire time we have lived there was the night I asked her to send every potions book at the manor. I was determined to find something that would stop them.
It took a while, but eventually we found a potion that her healer said was safe. It wasn't foolproof. There were still dreams from time to time, but never one that she couldn't wake up from. After the war and Isaac was born she decided to stop taking it. They came back almost twice as horrible as they were. She's taken that same potion every evening since."
Eventually the topic turned away from Ginny and Draco and on to children. Everyone finished dinner and decide to introduce Ginny and Draco to their nieces and nephews.
"Oh my god Mum you must be in heaven. You have an entire quidditch league in here."
Molly beamed. "I certainly do." Molly cut her eyes at her sons. "I certainly do expect at least one or two more to add to it if you lot don't mind."
Ginny laughed at the choir of grumbling men with their pleas of no more.
Harry winked at her. "Gin, you'll be a love and have more for mum won't you?"
"Oh hell no. I've had all the children I'm going to be having. Three is plenty for Draco and I thank you very much."
Everyone laughed her declaration. It was nearing midnight when everyone decided it was time to make their way to their own homes.
"You will be at Sunday dinner won't you dears? It just won't be dinner at the Burrow without you and the kids there you know."
Ginny turned to look at her husband silently asking him to decide. "We'll be there."
As Molly and Ginny got their parting hugs Arthur pulled Draco aside. "Don't let her worry about Ronald. He and I will be having a nice long conversation tomorrow. You can expect an apology out of him come Sunday or he will be answering to the end of mine and Molly's wands I can promise you."
"Thank you sir. I had hoped he wouldn't have reacted the way he did. But sadly Ginny was right to be worried. I can only hope the majority of the wizarding world doesn't respond the same way he did."
"Oh I heartily doubt they will. Most will be too excited to know you two have returned. I have a lovely speech all written out for it. Molly says it's very Romeo and Juliet without the dead children whatever that means."
Draco nodded and smiled. Obviously Molly had read the muggle playwright where Arthur hadn't.
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