Disclaimer: I own nothing. J.K. Rowling owns it all. The song at the beginning belongs to Shakira.
Title: The Rules
Summary: While shopping for her wedding ring, Draco and Ginny lay down some ground rules for their impending marriage. Fluffy, believe me. Humor/Romance.
Rating: PG (for a bit 'o cursing and Ginny's rage and mentioning Draco's...unmentionables.)
Author: Punk up the Volume
A/N: A bit of a fluffy fic. Got the idea from a Shakira song. Hope I've done good job of it. Please remember to review, it makes my day.
Use your eyes only to look at me
Use your mouth only to kiss my lips
We are branches of the same old tree
You can laugh only if you laugh with me
You can cry only if you cry for me
Don't forget you're condemned to me
Oh can't you see
You always were
You always will be
"The Rules", Shakira
"Are we done yet?" Draco Malfoy whined as they stood outside the frosted glass of yet another jewelry shop. They had stoppd by every single one in muggle London and had now ventured once again into Diagon Alley. "It's perfectly frigid out here. My right teste is about to drop off and the left on my just join it."
"Stop being disgusting." Ginny frowned as she bit her lip. Why had she even bothered bringing Draco to find her engagement ring? After all, earlier that morning he had told her that he couldn't care less if she wore an onion ring on her finger. I should have just left him at home, Ginny shook her head as she watched him jump up and down next to her to regain the feeling in his left foot. She had to admit, it was a bit cold in the January chill, but she wasn't complaining, was she. He was a man of twenty one looking as if he were a five year old begging to drop by the candy shop on the way home.
"They all look the bloody same!" he exclaimed, grabbing her hand to try to warm up his own. He hated the cold and he hated shopping. "Look a diamond! Oh, what are the odds! Another diamond! C'mon Ginny! Let's go to the Three Broomsticks. I'm sure they're showing the Wasps and Dragons game."
"No." Ginny replied, pulling him into the store.
"Hello!" A middle aged employee popped out at them from behind. "What do we have here? A young couple on their first marriage?"
Draco gulped. He did not like this woman. She was looking at the lump his wallet made in his right jean pocket and licking her lips. Draco frowned and moved behind Ginny who was smiling graciously. "Yes, we're looking for an engagement ring."
"Perfect!" The woman exclaimed, grabbing Ginny's arm as she lead her towards the jewelry counter. Ginny grabbed a reluctant Draco's arm and pulled him with her. Oh, how he wished to sitting in The Three Broomsticks getting piss drunk and watching the Wasps and Dragons game. That would be heaven compared to deciding upon a ring. But Ginny had a way of talking him into things.
"A redhead, excellent," the woman muttered, ducking behind the counter and grabbing a tray full of delicate and beautiful rings. They all shone from the neon lights on the ceiling, enchanting Ginny. Draco, however, was left unnafected. To his pure and utter delight, he had found that the candy shop across the paved road was showing the game on two floating televisions. Draco leaned his head as far back as he could without looking disinterested into the perpetual search. If he craned his neck just right...yes! There it was! he could see it! The score in the corner said that the Wasps were up by fifty points. Draco cursed his luck; he had had his money on the Dragons.
"This one is quite exquisite." The woman said in a soft voice, handing the silver ring to Ginny. Ginny slipped it on her finger and looked at it from every possible angle. "Also," the saleswoman went on. "It's enchanted with an infidelity charm so that if your man ever cheats, ring starts to shriek."
Ginny shook her head and handed the ring back to the woman who was ready with the next. "This one," She handed Ginny another silver ring with a green stone. "Will offset your hair beautifully. It has a Protecting Charm set on it so that it will never chip or wear."
Ginny smiled. It was beautiful. "Draco, what do you think?"
"Huh?" Draco's head snapped back around to where the two woman were glaring at him. "Oh, it's a beauty. Great, I love green. Let's get this one."
Ginny bit her lip and looked at the ring again. It wasn't quite for her.
The woman seemed to be a bit frustrated now. Obviously all of her other customers had been a lot less picky. This one, she could tell, would be a challenge.
"Well, then," she said, through gritted teeth. "How about this one. It really is lovely. Instead of offsetting your hair, it would match perfectly." The saleswoman held it out to Ginny, who gasped. It was beautiful. the blood red stone looked simply divine on her slightly tan fingers.
"Draco," she breathed, still astounded by the ring. "Draco, what do you think!"
"It's good!" Draco shouted, throwing his hands in the air. "It's good!" Draco stopped from his hopping up and down to look at the two woman who were, once again, glaring. "Yes! Yes!" he prompted, kissing Ginny's hand. "It's good. The ring is good."
Ginny, still fuming, turned back towards the woman. "We'll take it."
"I can't believe the way you acted!" Ginny exclaimed in a low voice as she sipped her Butterbeer at a table in the middle of The Three Broomsticks. The game was over and the Dragons had won by fifty points, so Ginny now had Draco's full attention.
"Me?" he questioned, draining the last of his own drink. "You dragged me out in the freezing cold for four hours and you can't believe the way I acted!"
"You acted like a child." Ginny hissed angrily.
"I know you are, but what am I?" Draco countered smugly.
"I'm not going to play this game with you, Draco."
"Then don't start anything." he muttered as another Butterbeer appeared on the table and he eagerly snapped it up.
"I didn't."
"Did too!
"Aargh!" she exclaimed, grabbing her coat and the ring box placed gently in the center of the table. She pulled the coat over her shoulders as she walked briskly to the door and placed the ring inside her pocket. If Draco was going to insist on being a child over something so trivial, then she was just going to leave.
"Hey!" Draco shouted a bit louder than necessary. Hurriedly, he rose from the table, threw two galleons on it to cover the drinks and pulled his own coat over himself. Pushing the door open, he ran to catch up with his fiancee, who was almost jogging as she rubbed her cold hands together. "Hey, Ginny! Where are you going!"
"Home." she called over her shoulder. She did not mean the flat the two shared a few blocks away; she meant the Burrow, where she could sob to her mum how juvenile the man she was supposed to be marrying was acting.
"Well, don't leave like this." Draco called, pulling on her arm to face him.
"Draco, if we're going to survive marriage, let alone this wedding, we're going to have to lay down some rules."
"What kind of rules?" Draco questioned, furrowing her brow.
Ginny shuffled from foot to foot, trying to keep warm. "Like no complaining about shopping. It's necessary. So stop being such a baby about it."
"Fine." Draco answered huffily. "Then don't go home and cry to your Mum everytime you're mad at me. That's my rule."
Ginny could see her own breath as snarled, "I don't cry to my mum, you wanker. But you know what, fine. Here's another rule. No more Quidditch. Period. I won't have it in my home!"
"Wait!" Draco could barely make a full sentence. Had she gone completely nutters. "But you're brothers on the Wasps! And Potter is on the Badgers! You're going to give up watching them to get back at me?"
Ginny glare was all the answer he needed.
"Fine." he snarled. "Here's a rule for you. No more Potter!"
"What?" Ginny exclaimed, following Draco as he started to trudge down the street self righteously. "Draco! Stop!"
Draco didn't stop, he merely called over his shoulder, "That's my rule, dear. No more Mr. Potter. I don't like him, I think he's a disruptive influence. I'd rather not have him in my home."
"You can't do that!" Ginny shrieked, running to catch up with him.
"Of course I can." Draco answered with a grin. "It's my rule. Don't forget, you are almost married to me. More like condemned to me for life. That's a long time not seeing your best buddy Harry, isn't it?"
"Don't forget you're condemned to me and my rules as well!" Ginny replied. "And I say no more Butterbeer. Don't want you to have a drinking problem, now do we, dear! Also, no looking at women. At all. Not a friendly glance. Not a promicuous look. Nothing. Nada."
"You can't control my eyes." Draco sneered witheringly.
"Oh," Ginny placed her hands on her hips and pointed out a passing by women. "So you would rather look at her than me."
"That's a no-brainer." Draco snorted. He was in full swing insults right now and there was nothing stopping him. "Better to look at her than you."
The cold made the slap across his face hurt more than usual. By the time he had recovered from the shock, Ginny was running down the street, tears streaming down her face. Oh boy, Draco thought. He had really down it now. Why didn't he know how to keep his mouth shut. It was going to be a lonely night in the hallway of their flat, that was for sure.
"Ginny!" he called, hoping for her to turn around, but it was too late. She had already apparated.
Draco knocked on the door to his own flat. He straightened his coat and checked the flowers in his hands. There were twelve pink roses, Ginny's favorite. It had taken him an hour to find a bouquet exactly right; no wilted petals, no brown leaves. His attention to detail would surely make Ginny realize just how much he really loved her.
Footsteps came slowly to the door. Extremely slowly. Draco checked his watch. It was eleven o'clock at night; Ginny was probably already asleep. Draco had spent at least four hours at The Three Broomsticks, feeling sorry for himself before he thought of the roses.
Finally, the footsteps reached the door and a hand unlocked the chain. Looking very tired and wearisome, she sighed when she saw Draco. "Your pillows already in the hall for you," she said quickly, pointing to a pillow propped up against the wall a few feet away before she started to close the door again. Draco was too fast for her. He stuck his foot inside the frame and slid inside the apartment, careful not to crush the flowers. Before Ginny could open her mouth to protest, Draco pulled the bouquet out from behind his back and shoved it into her hands.
Ginny looked at it dubiously.
"They're your favorite." Draco said proudly. "Pink roses. I remembered."
Ginny sighed once again. "My favorite flowers are daisies of the yellow persuasion." Ginny answered. She laid the bouquet on the table nxt to the door and folded her arms tightly over he chest. "Well," she said after a moment. "What have you got to say for yourself?"
"I tried?" Draco shrugged.
Ginny glared at him, daring him to try again.
"Okay." Draco said, getting down on bended knee. He could see that Ginny was trying hard not to laugh and took her hand in his own. He had seen this move in plenty of old muggle movies and it always worked then. He could try and be suave Draco, if only long enough for her to forgive him.
"Ginny," he started. "I love you. You know that I love you. If you didn't know that by now, you must have a brain the size of an apricot."
Ginny grunted disapprovingly.
"What I mean," Draco recovered. "Is that I don't want to look at other woman. I only want to look at you. I want to go shopping with you, I even want to go with you when you run to you Mum to complain about me. I'd give up anything for you."
"Even Quidditch?" Ginny questioned, raising her eyebrow.
Draco nodded.
"Even Butterbeer?"
Behind a grimace, Draco nodded.
"What about Harry?" Ginny asked, enjoying this.
Draco groaned. "I wouldn't care if Potter got down here beside me on his own friggen knee and proposed his undying love to you. I wouldn't even care if he tried to snog you right here in my own flat. I'd still want you for my own."
Ginny smiled, leaned down, and kissed the top of his head. Draco grinned; mission accomplished. "In that case," Ginny started as she walked back toward the bedroom they shared. "Then you can have your Quidditch and Butterbeer."
Draco praised the Lord as he rose from his knees.
"There's another pillow on the couch." Ginny pointed towards it and gave Draco a wicked smile. "Better get your rest. Tommorrow we're going to go look for my dress."
Draco groaned.