A/N:

Written for Draco's Birthday Party at capitu (LiveJournal). I know, I'm terribly late and I'm sorry for not being able to continue sooner what I started back then. Anyway, here's more to the story. This fic is dedicated to my dear friend BiSciFiGuy, who celebrated his birthday about the same time when I started writing this story.

Prompt: Draco thinks something might have happened at his birthday party last night, but he can't remember a thing. All he's got to go on is a pineapple in his bed, a ferret in the bathroom and a mysterious lightning bolt tattoo on his lower back…

My fill at Draco's Birthday party post:

Draco looked around and noticed a parchment on the kitchen table. He picked it up and tried to recognise the unfamiliar handwriting.

"We had a blast last night in Barcelona. Let's do it again soon – if you dare. Hope you and Phil are alright. I had to lock him up in your bathroom to make sure he didn't shred you to pieces while you slept. Next time we'll try that in a cable car, okay? Get Phil a parachute. Friday okay for you?"

Draco stared at the parchment. Who had written this? Even more importantly, what the hell had he been doing in Barcelona and with whom?

x

And now, let's go on with the story…

Chapter 1:

Draco groaned. Judging by the enormous hangover he was suffering from this morning, last night must have been spectacularly fun - or at least he hoped so. If he only could remember something about it. He was in no condition to find out what happened right now, so maybe it would be best if he acted as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. They'd been celebrating his birthday and that's all.

Draco was just contemplating how to approach his now very ferreted bathroom to have a much needed bath, when he heard a firm knock on his front door. Cautiously he opened the door to find his immaculately dressed father waiting outside with a disapproving look on his face.

"Good afternoon, Draco. I assume you had fun at your birthday party last night?"

"Morning, Father. Yes, I had fun. What brings you here today? Has something happened?" Draco asked, alarmed at his father's cold demeanor.

"Yes, you could say that. Care to explain this?" Lucius handed him The Daily Prophet.

"Today's paper? I haven't read it yet."

"I thought so. Now, if you'd be so kind and read it. I'm waiting for explanation." Lucius glared at his son and moved to the sofa and sat down. His fingers thrummed the armrest impatiently.

Draco opened the newspaper, but the front page didn't reveal anything he should know about. He was about to leaf through the paper, but didn't get further than to page 2 where he found it.

"MALFOY HEIR GETTING MARRIED!" The headline screamed. Right under the headline was a photo of Draco with his arm wrapped around… Ron Weasley! What the hell?! As if that wasn't enough, Draco's lips formed the words 'I love you' as he looked at Weasley. Draco was horrified. That was impossible!

Horrified, Draco glanced at his father, who waved his hand toward the newspaper. "Read the whole article, Draco. Then we will discuss."

A dreadful feeling settled in his stomach, but Draco read the whole article. Fortunately it wasn't long, but it was definitely long enough to upset him. Now he understood perfectly why his father was visibly angry.

"The heir of the once respected and famous Malfoy family, Draco Malfoy, was seen last night at his 25th birthday party at the new popular wizarding club The Black Sphinx. Malfoy had reserved the whole upper floor of the club for his party. The guest list was remarkable with several celebrities attending the party. One thing that made the Malfoy party very interesting and stand out from other similar parties was that along with Malfoy's closest friends, some surprise guests joined the party later that night. The surprise guests were none other than three of the Weasley brothers; Ronald, Fred and George.

The Weasleys are a well known pure-blood wizarding family, who helped Harry Potter defeat He Who Could Not Be Named, but they have always been known to hold grudges with the Malfoy family. Needless to say that even your beloved journalist Rita Skeeter was surprised to see the three Weasley brothers attending the party, and the birthday boy Draco Malfoy embracing them rather amorously. Malfoy also announced his plans of marrying a Gryffindor and moving out of the country. Unfortunately Malfoy never elaborated about which one of the Weasleys he meant to marry, but as we say at the Prophet, one picture is worth a thousands words. The Daily Prophet is the first one to congratulate Draco Malfoy and Ronald Weasley, and will be the first to report more information on their upcoming bonding ceremony."

Stunned, Draco stood in the middle of his sitting room, staring at the paper. His already throbbing head from the hangover turned much worse making him nauseous, and he lurched toward the loo just in time to throw up everything he had in his stomach. This was the worst kind of nightmare and he had no idea how to get out of this mess he had obviously created by himself.

He desperately hoped that the Prophet article was only their usual gossiping and false information. But the photo seemed real. Had he really announced that he was going to marry a Weasley? That couldn't be true, it simply couldn't! Even if he had been horribly drunk, he'd never even think of marrying any of the redheads, even if they recently had slowly began forming a tentative truce. Sometimes the Weasley twins were even fun and good company. But Ron? Never. He had to find out what happened last night and clear up this horrible mess. First, though, he had to face his annoyed father. That might be even scarier than facing all the Weasleys at the same time.

Draco cleaned himself up a bit and braced himself before coming out from the loo and going back to the sitting room to meet his father. Lucius was pacing in front of the window, his back and shoulders rigid. That was never a good sign, and Draco had to force his head high, hands steady and a blank expression on his face to confront his father.

Lucius turned to face Draco and his eyes were piercing as he scrutinized his son.

"Now, Draco, if you are quite finished with stalling, I want to hear what's going on."

Draco swallowed and took a seat in the armchair across from the sofa where Lucius had been sitting earlier, gesturing for his father to take a seat, too.

"Father, you know Skeeter and the lies she always writes. I honestly don't know where she got the idea that I'm going to marry anyone, not to mention a Gryffindor. That's an outrageous lie. We only had a birthday party last night. Skeeter must have been spying on us and of course she drew a wrong conclusion about something she saw there."

"What about the photo? I think that showed rather clearly what happened. Weasley? Really, Draco. I thought you had better taste in friends," Lucius sneered.

"I wouldn't call my relationship with the Weasley's a friendship. I don't even know what they were doing at my party last night. I certainly didn't invite them," Draco argued.

"Are you saying that you were too drunk to remember what you did last night? I thought that I raised you better than that! Never get yourself in a situation where you can't control yourself or what happens around you, especially if there's press around!"

"There wasn't supposed to be any press around, Father. Yes, I probably drank too much last night, but I was supposed to be surrounded by my friends. We were not trying to cause any scandals, if that's what you mean," Draco groaned and buried his face in his hands.

"Well, you have caused a scandal now, and Mr Greengrass is furious. He contacted me this morning, refusing to continue our negotiations for the marriage contract between you and his daughter, until this scandal is sorted out." Lucius' voice was cold and disappointed. "You made a serious mistake, Draco, and you better sort this out quickly, or your future will be ruined."

"Why don't you and Mr Greengrass take my word that I haven't promised anyone to marry them?"

"Because you clearly weren't in any condition last night to be a reliable witness at what happened at your party. I suggest you either get a written statement from Weasley that you haven't proposed to him, or have at least two different witnesses who can testify that you haven't proposed to him. If there's so much as one drunkenly spoken proposal, that's a commitment in the wizarding world and you know it. That kind of mistake could cost you your future as one of the most respected people in our society. Fix it, Draco. Greengrass gave you 24 hours to sort it out."

"But Father, I…" Draco huffed, but was interrupted by Lucius and his intimidating scowl.

"No buts. Fix it, Draco."

After his father had left, Draco sat in the armchair sagging and groaning in despair. What the fuck had happened last night? There was absolutely no chance he was going to ask any of the Weasleys to write him any statements. There had to be another way, and he was going to find it.

TBC