I own nothing but the plot. First story ever written for fanfic. Please read & review.
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As he strolled down the sidewalk, the amount of change to his old haunting ground was almost overwhelming. There were many wizards and witches out in the afternoon sun, smiling and nodding, clustered in little groups chattering and laughing. Stores had brightly striped awnings and baskets of flowers charmed to never wilt in front, giving all of Diagon Alley an even more carnival like atmosphere than ever before. In all of his years, Draco Malfoy had never been witness to so much happiness, so much peace and calm in everyday life. It had been ten years since he last set foot in any part of wizarding London, and since he had never been one to embrace change, this was close to being too much for him.
He noticed that people treated him differently now. Wizards no longer stepped aside either out of fear or respect, as he made his way through the neighborhood. Others made eye contact with him, as if they believed they were his peers. This was another change he didn't like, and while he would like to think that it was because people didn't recognize him and not due to any other reason, he didn't want to think about it. If he were honest with himself, the time away from London had been very good for him. Of course he was, in his opinion, still devastatingly handsome. Taller and broader, he had outgrown his lanky teenage years and turned into a man who moved with an almost feline prowess. It was because they didn't recognize him, he thought, trying to convince himself that it was true.
There were two things that Draco used as his coping mechanisms when he felt out of sorts – the company of beautiful single women, and flying. It was the middle of a brightly lit Saturday afternoon, and looking around the crowds of the witches flitting about the neighborhood, he realized that the former was in scarce supply. All around him were families and couples, and fleetingly, it bothered Draco that he was alone. But only fleetingly, another thing he tried to convince himself.
Right, he thought, flying then. His longtime friend Blaise Zabini had mentioned that a former professional quidditch player had bought a partnership into the Quality Quidditch store. This retired athlete had brought with him a the idea to cast an expansion spell in the store's back room and to turn it into a state of the art space to test-fly brooms. He didn't have a broom here in London, so Draco figured that he could burn off some discomfort on testing out the newly released Firebolt 5000 before he kept his other appointments.
As Draco made his way back through the store towards the broom display, he began to get excited about trying something new, an indoor test flight of one of the fastest brooms ever created. He approached the counter and took note of the stocky man, surprisingly close to his age, in a navy polo shirt with the Puddlemere United crest across the breast pocket. There's no accounting for taste, thought Draco, and asked for an hour in the flying room to try the new Firebolt.
"Sorry, the test flight room is all booked for this afternoon. Private party."
Draco bristled at the idea of being turned away and replied "I'll double what they've paid. Don't you know who I am?"
"I do," sneered the store employee, "and Malfoy, times have changed. You'll find that your name doesn't have the clout it once did. Your money isn't good here."
Suddenly Draco recognized the cheeky clerk – it was that prat of a former Gryffindor quidditch captain – Oliver Wood. "Listen Wood," Draco snarled, "I can make this worth your while… your boss doesn't need to know…"
Wood snorted "Oh Malfoy, first of all, I AM one of the bosses here. Second of all…"
Wood's diatribe was interrupted by what appeared to be a small herd of redheaded urchins screeching and galloping back to the counter. "Mr. Wood! Mr. Wood! We're here for our lessons! We're so excited! Mr. Wood! Mr. Wood! When can we get started!" Four children swarmed around Wood and forced Draco back out of the way, but the two men maintained eye contact, still glaring at each other.
Wood finished his comment as Draco turned to see the silhouette of an adult figure trailing behind the pack of noisy children "… second of all, why would I take your money and risk pissing off the most beautiful witch in London?"
As the figure came further into the dimness of the store, the adult companion's identity remained hidden by the backlight of the sun. As the witch made her way closer, Draco first eyed a pair of shapely legs that were hidden all too soon under an attractive denim skirt. A snug green (Slytherin green Draco hoped…) t-shirt hugged the woman's curves, and as he raised his eyes to finish off his appraisal, he groaned in disappointment when he noticed the mane of red hair and the lopsided grin on her face. Suddenly the red headed herd of children made sense to Draco – those Weasleys were never ones to practice abstinence.
Ginny laughed at the other wizard's compliment, and leaned across the counter to peck him on the cheek. "Oliver my friend, you're a flatterer. Are you ready to train the masses?" Only after her warm greeting for her friend did she turn to see the person Oliver was glaring at – and was shocked into a stunned silence.
"Weasley," Draco snapped, "I see you're carrying on your family tradition of having more children than proper, all at once it would seem. Did you have an entire litter?"
Only after his snide comment did Draco notice a fifth child; a demure young girl came from behind Weasley and proclaimed "Uncle Draco, is that you?"
The beautiful cocoa skinned girl grinned up at Draco, and her deep blue eyes pierced his conscience. He knelt down to the child's height and with great concern asked "Lila, what are you doing here? Does your father know who you're with?"
"Uncle Draco, you're silly. I don't see Daddy on Saturdays. Today Mommy let me come out with Auntie Gin, to celebrate my birthday with all of the twins!" The adorable but precocious result of his friend Blaise's unfortunate drunken one night stand with Luna Lovegood stood hand in hand with the Weasley witch, until the band of bouncing children came back "Auntie Gin, Auntie Gin – come on, come on, bring Lila – Mr. Wood says it's time to start!"
Realizing that this was no longer a place where he could buy either relief or comfort, Draco said to his goddaughter "Lila, I'll talk to your father later about this. Please behave yourself in the meantime." Then he rose, nodded curtly at the still silent and stunned witch, strode out of the store and left the chaos and caterwauling behind.
"Ginny, are you ok?" Oliver questioned with worry in his voice "It's like he cast a stupefy spell on you!"
Finally roused from her shock, Ginny visibly shook off the surprise and turned to her dear friend. "Oliver, you know what we're here for – this brood all turn six this month, and I have convinced their parents to let their Auntie Gin be the one to buy their first brooms. Let's get this started before they realize we're out numbered!"
Hours later, an afternoon had passed full of laughter and delight on everyone's part, and the children were all matched with perfect starter brooms. "Oliver, I can't thank you enough. This is going to be their best birthday to date, and today was a big part of that. Can you wrap and send the four brooms for the twins to the Burrow for tomorrow's party, and send Lila's broom to Luna's flat?"
"Absolutely Ginny, today was my pleasure. I consider it a bonus of my job to get to spend time with old friends and their families. And of course, knowing that I'm helping lay the groundwork for the next generation of great Gryffindor quidditch captains is just the icing on the cake." Oliver said with a wink. "Now where are you all off to?"
"We're going to finish our outing with some ice cream at Fortescues and then I'll floo the twins each to George and to Charlie, and drop Lila home on my way to my flat. Then I'm looking forward to some nice time to recover from a day full of flying – both on brooms and on a sugar high!" Ginny leaned in for a friendly and warm hug of thanks for her longtime friend, and rounded up her charges. As she walked away, Oliver thought to himself that it was a shame that such a beautiful woman would be spending a Saturday night alone.
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Several very long hours later, Draco emerged from his meetings at Gringots. He briefly paused on the sidewalk outside of the bank, shaking off the general discomfort from spending so much time with goblins, collecting himself and planning his next stop. He knew where he should go, but what he should do and what he wanted to do were two different things. As he resigned himself to the fate of responsibility, he was abruptly bumped off of the curb into the street.
"Oi, you two, get back here and apologize bumping into that nice wizard!" Ginny yelled at her two nephews who had raced ahead of her. She turned without realizing the identity of the wizard in question and said "I'm so sorry sir, today is an early birthday celebration for my nephews, and they're a little over excited." It was only as she completed the sentence did Ginny realize she was addressing a very annoyed Draco Malfoy.
Her nephews, John and Fred, came back and interrupted her with their chagrined apologies, "We're sorry sir."
Draco prepared to rip into the children and their aunt for their behavior when the three female children caught up with the group. Lila was holding hands with the two other young witches, but dropped their hands and ran up to him. "Uncle Draco, why do you look so angry? You know what you need? Ice cream! No one can be mad when there's ice cream! Come with us! Please oh please oh please!"
Draco looked up and caught Ginny's gaze, and the two adults stared into each other's eyes while he addressed Lila. "Oh no sweetheart, I wouldn't dream of imposing on your private party. You should celebrate with these people today, and I'll see you soon."
Ginny refused to blink first and maintaining eye contact teased him, "Oh Malfoy, make your goddaughter happy. Come on, I'll even pay. After all, what's one more in the litter?"
The little band of misfits made their way into the ice cream shop, and Ginny told the young witch behind the counter, "We'll have five of your famous birthday sundaes, a hot fudge pecan ball, and whatever this gentlemen fancies." She then turned to Draco and said, "I am going to go settle this lot into tables, and I'll be right back."
As she walked away from him to the seating area, it was now Draco's turn to be speechless. Why was Weasley being kind to him? And when did she become so beautiful? Even from behind, as she walked away, she was completely captivating.
"Sir, what would you like, sir? Sir?" Startled by the impatient young clerk, he muttered, "I'll have whatever she ordered" as he kept his eyes on Ginny. She was very good with the children, he had to hand it to her, as he watched her settle the two sets of twins into a booth, and then overheard her promise Lila that she could sit with the grownups.
She returned to him just as he was reaching for his wallet to pay out of habit. She smacked his hand away almost playfully and said "Malfoy! I told you this was my treat. Put your money away and help me carry these trays." She delivered the birthday sundaes to the table of children as he slid into the booth next to Lila. Soon Ginny returned and sat across from them. Lila was completely absorbed in her sundae, and both adults could see that she would not be much of a part of their conversation until she had licked her bowl clean. Ginny sighed just slightly and said to him, "So you've been gone, what, ten years? Where have you been? And what brings you back now, business or pleasure?"
Draco marveled inwardly at how nosy this witch was, but answered her regardless. "After the war my father decided I should spend some time in each of our continental headquarters. Two years each in Paris, Rome, Madrid, Vienna and Amsterdam. He felt it would be best for me to get a proper grasp of the reach of Malfoy Industries, as well as to separate me from the, well, questionable reputation of our family. I am back on business." There is no pleasure left here for me, he thought to himself, no pleasure in what I am here for.
Ginny nodded at him with interest as she carefully savored her sugary treat. Draco had paused in the middle of his answer as he was distracted by the woman across from him licking the fudge off of her spoon. Or maybe there could be pleasure here, he thought. Ginny caught the wizard watching her, and shifted uncomfortably under the brief glimmer of desire she could see in his eyes. "Please excuse me for a moment while I check on the other table," she said as she quickly slid away from his attention.
"Uncle Draco, are you coming to my birthday brunch tomorrow? It is at Posey's house."
"Yes my child, I will be there. Tell me, what can I bring you as a present?"
"Oh! Uncle Draco! You haven't bought my present yet! Shame on you!"
Draco smiled at the little beauty wagging her finger at him in mock discipline, and asked again "Tell me something that you want but that no one else will buy you, my dear. Something that only your godfather should buy you. I won't tell your daddy, and I'll say it was my idea alone."
Lila's eyes grew large, but she had an answer for him immediately "I want some of the Puffy Pets books, and any of the Puffy Pets you can find!" She squealed a little bit, and then leaned in and whispered "They sell them at the bookstore by The Leaky Cauldron."
Draco chuckled at her, realizing that these must be special items if she was willing to direct him exactly where to shop. "Done my child, tomorrow you will have some books and Puffy Pets."
"Oh thank you Uncle Draco!" Lila exclaimed and threw her arms around him.
Suddenly a white dove appeared in the shop, the well-known symbol of St. Mungo's, carrying a note for Draco. Anticipating what the message would say, Draco rose to meet the bird. After he read the message, which confirmed his fears, he nodded briefly to himself before turning to the young witch in his booth. "Lila, I am afraid I have to go. Thank you for inviting me to join you. I will see you tomorrow at your birthday brunch." He turned to Ginny and nodded a second time, and his silvery eyes held hers for a moment. "Thank you as well." With that Draco strode quickly from the store, appariting directly to the hospital once he reached the sidewalk.