OTL, I apologise if Draco seems a little OOC. I guess it's not one of my best works but do enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
The sound of drawers being rummaged through and objects being thrown around the area awoke the only Malfoy heir from his peaceful slumber. He sat up groggily in bed, flicking away a loose platinum blond hair from his face as he continuously blinked in an attempt to clear his vision. When things were no longer looking blurry to him, his features contorted into a frown as he realised why he had awoken in the first place. A loud crash from outside had the male bolting outside of his bed in a flurry as he hurriedly straightened out his clothes and his hair before he flung the door open, storming over to where he had heard the loud crashing sound.
Draco arrived at a room in the west wing of the manor where he heard yet another loud bang. Without haste, he swung open the door and stormed inside, various colourful curses hanging from the edge of his tongue. What greeted him however, halted him in his incoming tirade as his eyes dilated substantially and his jaw hung agape.
"What the fuck did you do to my house Ginevra?" He cursed out, spotting the mop of red hair that was near an open drawer. Surrounding the redhead were numerous objects that had been haphazardly scattered around the room, making it difficult to travel across the room without stepping on something that had the potential of breaking a foot.
The red haired witch twirled around to meet the face of her angered husband. A sheepish grin made its way onto her face when she realised the reason for his sudden ire. Draco hated it when the manor was left in a mess. He was a neat freak, one that took every opportunity he could to lecture her on keeping the house clean when she unconsciously did something to mess the house up.
"I was trying to find some Christmas decorations but apparently you have none," she responded honestly, a hint of disappointment in her voice. "Do you even celebrate Christmas?"
Draco's face remain stolid, making it harder for her to figure out his thought process. "We do, but unlike you Weasleys, we don't do the festive stuff. Malfoys were never ones to celebrate, especially holidays that muggles celebrated also," he explained, keeping a trained eye on her.
Ginny scoffed. She should have expected that. Being the pure blood extremists and annoyingly stuck up family the Malfoys were, she knew that they wouldn't do anything that would tarnish their superior reputation. In this case, celebrating a holiday like the Weasleys and muggles did was an absolute no-no. So of course the Malfoys would never stoop down that low, she spat inwardly.
However, ever since she was begrudgingly accepted into the family, Ginny found that she had the potential to change the Malfoy family history. If the Malfoys could accept a blood traitor, as well as someone from an impoverished background like her, then the Malfoys could definitely celebrate Christmas the way it was supposed to be celebrated. This brought a devious smirk onto her face, causing the young Malfoy to narrow his eyes at his unpredictable wife. He knew that smirk, it always meant that she had something up her sleeve. And if Ginny Malfoy had something up her sleeve, it always led to some sort of trouble that he was always left with solving.
"Well your life before me sucked," she concluded bluntly before adding, "but being the kind gem I am, I'm willing to help solve that." She flashed him a prideful grin, giving him a small wink for effect.
Draco threw her a skeptical look. "And what exactly do you mean by 'help solve' Ginevra?"
She hummed a tune to herself. "I'm not telling Drakey-Wakey. You'll have to see for yourself," she sang playfully before grabbing him by the wrist and side-Apparating with him. How she was able to get to him through all the mess she caused on the floor without him noticing, he may never know. After all, this was Ginny he was talking about.
The moment they arrived, Draco was quick to pull away from his wife's iron grip, massaging the now reddened area on his wrist. The redhead was certainly strong when she wanted to be he now realised as he threw the woman an irritated scowl. "Where are we?" He spat out, not taking the chance to survey his surroundings.
She flashed him that same mischievous smile before answering. "Why don't you take a look first Draco?" She remarked, nodding to the area.
He narrowed his eyes at her before diverting his attention to the vicinity he had yet to take a look at. He noticed shelves of assorted Christmas decorations, namely tinsel and multicoloured Christmas baubles surrounding the both of them, as well as the fact that none of the decorations seemed to display any sort of magic trait. With that realisation, he snapped his head toward Ginny and glared heatedly at her. "You brought me to a muggle department store Ginevra?" He snarled angrily, pointing toward the shelves around them.
She ignored his obvious ire as she fiddled with the ends of some red tinsel on a shelf nearby. "We used to celebrate with decorations from the wizarding world until Dad integrated muggle decorations into the Burrow so we've been celebrating with muggle stuff ever since," she explained calmly, avoiding eye contact with her furious husband.
Draco huffed. "I don't see why we need to do the same thing Ginny. You're a Malfoy now, not a Weasley."
Ginny glared at him in offence. "And what's that supposed to mean Draco? I thought that we were over this." She motioned to the space between the two of them, referring to the bad blood that used to be shared between their respective families.
He seemed to realise his mistake as his eyes softened in regret, feeling angry at himself at reverting back to his prejudiced childhood ways. Draco sighed, his eyes softening as he watched his angered wife. "I'm sorry Ginny. I don't know what came over me," he apologised sincerely, hoping she would grant him her forgiveness. She took a quick glance at him, inspecting his genuinely regretful expression before looking away, causing Draco to think that he had truly blown it.
"I really am sorry Ginny. I know I offended you and I know I don't deserve your forgiveness but I'm hoping you'd overlook that. To tell you the truth, I've been doing horribly at trying to stop myself from sounding like the immature kid I used to be back at Hogwarts whenever I get angry. The words just flow out of my mouth and I–"
"I forgive you."
"–can't seem to stop myself. Wait, what?" Those three words had stopped him from continuing his apologetic rambles as he stared at his wife in shock. She had forgiven him? It just happened so quickly that he couldn't fully comprehend that it had happened. Usually she would take a long while before finally forgiving him, especially because she was the sort of person who held irrational grudges. So to see her forgiving him so quickly meant that something had gone wrong in that noggin of hers.
The youngest Weasley smirked at him before her lips finally curved into one of her usual bright smiles. "I forgive you Draco. There's no need to get overworked about it," she chirped amusedly, almost tempted to giggle at his truly bewildered expression.
She understood fully the reason behind his surprise and she couldn't blame him. Ginny was not quick to forgive unless someone showed true sincerity behind their apology. However, it was Christmas season and every time it was Christmas season, she turned into a bundle of joy that could never be brought down until the season was over. Seeing as though this was their first Christmas together, she figured that Draco was oblivious to this fact.
"But–" he spluttered, still surprised.
She rolled her eyes before grabbing him by the arm. "I said I forgive you already, so drop it and let's go shopping. Unless you still feel like you haven't made it up to me, in which case you can do so now by agreeing to go shopping with me," she remarked slyly, putting him right where she wanted him. Either way, they were still going to go shopping for Christmas decorations. There was no escape for the young Malfoy.
Finally seeing this, he heaved a surrendered sigh as he stared directly into the cheerful eyes of his beloved. "Fine Ginny. Let's go shopping for these decorations of yours," he said resignedly, letting the witch drag him to wherever she saw fit.
Her smile only got wider as she dragged him to the end of the aisle where she found an assorted array of Christmas stockings. "Since it's Christmas, it gives me an excuse to decorate the manor with red," she quipped, picking out a pair of Christmas stockings.
Draco rolled his eyes. "You do know that green is also a Christmas colour," he retorted, crossing him arms in the process.
She grinned at him. "And that's exactly why we have to get into the Christmas mood Draco. Since I'm a Gryffindor and you're a Slytherin, as well as the fact that our house colours create the traditional Christmas colours, it's only natural right? Besides, do it for the house pride then if you're still so reluctant to get all Christmassy," Ginny suggested, picking out a green stocking for Draco.
He took it with hesitation, inspecting the emerald green stocking that was laced with very white fluffy on its edges. "Fine then. For each red item you get, I'll get something green to counteract it," Draco finally settled upon, sporting a smirk on his face.
She responded with a smirk of her own, hugging a red stocking to her chest. "It's settled then. Let the best house win!" She declared before dashing along the aisle to grab some red tinsel.
Draco was hot on her heel, grabbing some green tinsel of his own whilst following wherever his hyperactive wife went. He found that he could actually enjoy something as trivial as Christmas decoration shopping, especially when he had Ginny by his side and the fact that it had turned into a competition.
"You just had to buy that many green decorations didn't you Draco?" She commented, eyeing the overflowing trolley with a sigh.
He rolled his eyes. "It wasn't my fault that you had to buy that much red. Really Ginny? You just had to buy a whole trolley full of red decorations didn't you?" He retaliated just as exasperatedly.
Ginny had the decency to blush as she continued pushing the trolley outside of the shopping mall. "Oh shut up you. At least we have enough decorations to fill the whole manor."
Draco didn't know whether to be happy about that or annoyed as he followed after her, pushing a trolley of his own. "Well you can do the honours of decorating then since you're so enthusiastic about it," he remarked sarcastically, opting to change the topic slightly instead.
The redhead came to an abrupt halt, causing Draco to almost crash the trolley into her back if it hadn't been for his fast reflexes. He glared piercing holes into her back, his face contorting into an irritated scowl. "What the hell Ginny? Why'd you just stop walking?" He snapped, waiting for her to finally respond.
She mechanically snapped her head toward him, her expression unreadable. "I'm not decorating by myself," she stated monotonously before an evil smirk made its way onto her face. "You're helping me decorate, Mr I-Hate-Christmas. Unless of course, you'd like the house to be turned into Gryffindor tower with all the red that I'll be using but you'd be fine with that, wouldn't you?"
The blond narrowed his eyes at her. "You're just getting slyer and slyer aren't you? I swear you would've fit just right in into Slytherin if it weren't for that stupid hat."
She shook her head. "Nope, it's because I'm married to a Slytherin which is why I'm like this. You've been a bad influence on me Draco," she purred roguishly, eyes with a devious glint.
He smirked arrogantly at her. "It's not my fault you can't resist me," he replied in a seductive tone.
They stared at each other for a moment, eyes filled with an undefined amount of love and passion before Ginny broke the moment with a loud giggle. "Yes, because no one can resist little Drakey Wakey," she teased in a babyish manner, triggering irritation from the blond.
He rolled his eyes at her behaviour. "Yeah yeah yeah, can we get home already? I'd rather not have all these muggles staring at us," he responded pointedly, motioning to the several pairs of eyes that were looking in their direction quite incredulously, supposedly eyeing their brim filled trolleys.
Ginny shook her head as she recognised his typical impatient behaviour around the non magic folk before finally agreeing, pushing the trolley to an area where they could not be seen by prying eyes. Draco followed shortly afterward, keeping a close eye on those who were still watching them. He was almost tempted to glare at them in a deadly manner but he knew Ginny would have his head for doing so, so he settled for cursing them in his head.
Once they were sure they were completely hidden from view, Ginny took out a small mirror from one of her jean pockets before holding it out in front of them. She kept a firm handle on the trolley and Draco copied before they placed their hands on the object, immediately being sucked in and almost as quickly being sucked out. Fortunately for them, the trolleys had not spilt any of their contents but the couple ended up landing on the floor next to the Portkey, Ginny sitting on Draco's lap.
As she made her way to get up, she held out a hand for Draco to hold. "I'll never get used to travelling by Portkey," she muttered, pulling up her husband also. They made their way to pushing the trolleys into the manor, one of the house elves holding the gate open for them to enter.
It had been barely half a minute since they entered and Ginny was already pulling objects out of the trolley, making way to find a place to put them. Draco almost face palmed at his wife's eagerness, still not understanding her love of Christmas. It was a great holiday and all, but it still didn't hold as much significance for him as it did for her.
"Well what are you waiting for Draco? Are you going to help me out or what? We could always have a red wonderland this year!" He heard her call from the living room.
"I heard you loud and clear Ginny!" Draco responded, reluctantly picking out the first few decorations he could see from the trolley before dashing off to reach his wife, making sure she didn't do anything too drastic to his house. He trusted her and all, but sometimes you never know. Ginny was just that unpredictable.
Ginny's joyous laugh resounded throughout the manor as the wizard took one look at the living room before the hinges on his jaw broke, his mouth hanging widely agape. It truly was a red wonderland, and if he hadn't been a Slytherin who had been brought up his whole life despising those from Gryffindor, he actually would have never minded. But being the prideful Slytherin he was, he was not letting his house get turned into the Gryffindor common room. Not on Draco Malfoy's watch.
Red tinsel was draped evenly across the edge of the fireplace and Draco immediately took action by twisting the red tinsel with green tinsel of his own, making a Christmas coloured pattern on the mantle. He noticed that she had hung two red stockings off the mantle, prompting him to move them apart so that he could place green ones to counteract the red. This happened quite a few more times around the living room, Draco making adjustments to every single place within the room that held a little too much red for his liking.
Ginny found it quite difficult to suppress a laugh as she watched her husband's whimsical actions. She knew how detail oriented he could be so she had a very strong feeling that decorating the house would take a lot longer than she would have expected. "You done yet Draco? I'm moving on to the dining room!" She called out cheerfully, halting him in his steps as he narrowed his eyes at her.
"No you're not! You're not putting any more of that red stuff around the manor!" He exclaimed, rushing after her as soon as she ran out of the room.
Ginny never expected decorating with Draco could be so much fun. He was so open with displaying his apparent display for all things Christmas and as such, assumed that he wouldn't exactly be the best person to decorate with. However, it seemed that if she just prompted him a little, giving him a little competitive push in the right direction, he actually made quite the festive companion.
"Maybe a red table runner would do," she mused to herself, eyeing the mahogany brown dining table in the centre of the room.
Draco came up to her from behind, leaning over her shoulder to whisper into her ear. "Only if the centrepieces are green," he bargained, moving back when he saw her chuckle.
She turned to him with a grin. "Of course. Anything for you," she replied in a rather mocking tone.
He rolled his eyes but was still slightly smiling nonetheless. "Yeah yeah yeah, so are we going to decorate now or what? The manor isn't going to decorate itself."
Ginny's grin grew even wider if that was seen possible. It appeared that Draco was more into this decorating thing than she thought. Well, if he kept that attitude up, she may just be able to convince him to decorate for other celebrations too. With that thought in mind, she abruptly skipped off into the direction of the dining table, a red table runner in hand.
Draco was almost caught off guard, but he had expected it, reflexively moving his hand forward to grab her by the wrist. The witch halted, turning in surprise as she gazed at his smirking face.
"You're not getting away that easily Ginny. I say that it's my turn to go first," he remarked impishly.
She smirked right back at him as soon as the words left his mouth. "Then go ahead Draco. It's your turn isn't it?"
His smirk grew wider as he immediately let go. "Show me what you've got!" Ginny called out vivaciously, watching as he took out some green candles and a small Christmas tree.
She smiled to herself. She had finally gotten some Christmas spirit into him.
The pair stood at the entrance of the manor, gazing at their newly decorated house. It had taken quite a few hours, as well as lots of arguing on Draco's part due to the uneven ratio between the spread of red and green around the house, but they had finally finished decorating the house. With Draco's constant nitpicking, they were able to even out the red and green decorations found all around the manor, creating the ideal Christmas themed home.
"We're finished!" Ginny exclaimed in joy, a weary yet bright smile plastered on her face. Draco snuck a glance his wife before looking back at the rest of the interior, a mellow smile gracing his features.
He nodded in agreement; the manor had never looked so lively before. What once was a dull and dreary home was now full of festivity, a change he was grateful for. Ginny was able to liven up his life, as well as his house now. It was more than he could ever imagine.
"Yes and now the manor looks like the definition of Christmas. Is this what you envisioned?" He asked her tiredly.
Ginny nodded. "Yep, it feels just like the Burrow," she commented cheerfully.
He meekly nodded, ready to walk off into the direction of the bedroom out of exhaustion when he realised something. Draco's head snapped toward his wife's direction, an unreadable expression on his face.
"Ginny," he began, gaining the attention of his wife. When he saw her cock her head to the side in response, he decided to continue.
"Did you clean up your mess from earlier?" He finally asked in all seriousness.
Ginny gulped as she let a sheepish grin spread across her face. She scratched the back of her neck nervously as she began backing away.
"Well you see–" Before she finished her sentence, she abruptly Apparated, leaving him biting her dust.
"Ginny!"
A faint giggle could be heard in the distance after the sound of one distinct pop.