Author's Note: I do not own Harry Potter-anything you recognize is not mine. Enjoy and review! Pretty please!

Draco Malfoy

I was shaking in my boots. She wasn't. Why would she be? Gryffindor through and through she was braver than I could ever hope to be. Christmas was not supposed to be a time of fear and anxiety. I was supposed to be laughing and celebrating, and having a good time, not preparing for my imminent death. She glanced up at my face as we walked down the lane and noticed my fear. The red haired beauty grinned at me and took my hand in hers. "Relax, Draco. I would say that they are going to love you but that would insinuate that they will love you now. Which no offence, there's no way in hell that's happening. I do promise that if you survive this night they will grow to love you." My eyes narrowed and looked down at her.

"Gee, thanks Gin, I feel so much more relaxed and excited to meet your family now!" I said, my voice oozing with sarcasm. She bit her lip, guiltily and stopped walking up the hill. She took my hands in hers and began explaining what was about to happen.

"Okay, in my head that sounded a lot more reassuring than it did out loud. How about this? Harry will give you a chance once everyone stops yelling at me and then Hermione will follow suit. Ron will never like you so don't even try with him. My parents will give you the benefit of doubt because Dad trusts my judgment and Mum won't want Fred and George," Ginny trailed off suddenly and I saw the hurt and fear in her eyes. "Well she won't want George to get your blood on her carpet." I put my arm around her and tried to give her what little comfort I could. Loosing Fred had been horrible for her and I knew how much she missed him. She would slip up sometimes, say Fred and George like nothing had ever happened because 'Fred and George' sounded so much better than just George. She steeled herself and continued speaking. "Bill will most certainly be the first one to actually like you and Charlie won't be too far behind. Percy is going to be your wild card. A couple years ago he would have been thrilled had I brought a pure blood boy like you home but after everything that went down during the war I'm still not so sure where he stands on everything. Angelina will most likely be there with George and she may say some anti Slytherin because of Quidditch but Angelina supports the Kenmare Kestrels like you so bring that up a bit and you'll be golden in her book. Charlie's obsessed with dragons so if you bring up that volunteer job you did in Romania with the baby dragons that will give you some brownie points with him. Harry will be too busy spending time with Teddy so he may not even notice until after the major fuss has died down."

"And Teddy is my cousin, right?" I asked.

"Yeah, Tonks' son." She said. "So Teddy's mom was your cousin and Teddy's grandma who will be here too is your aunt. She will for sure be on our side because she is so sick of all the fighting and loss. And she likes your mom a bit. They've gotten together for coffee a couple times since the war." I nodded. I remembered my mother coming home in tears after one of these visits saying she hadn't realized how much she missed her baby sister. I had a gift from my mom for Aunt Andromeda in my bag. "Like I said, with Ron, don't even try but dear lord whatever you do, do NOT say anything bad about the Chudley Cannons or Dumbledore himself couldn't stop your death." She took a deep breath and looked at me. "It's not going to be easy, Draco. But if we want this to work in the long run we need to tell my family." I nodded and leaned down, planting a soft kiss on those beautiful lips of hers.

"Ginny don't worry. I've been through worse. It's just that in the last war I fought in I wasn't fighting to get people to like me. If they don't like me they're going to talk you back into your senses and you are going to realize you're way too good for me and leave me and my heart will be broken and I will have to go back to Romania and let the dragon's eat me to distract myself from the pain and then I will just be sitting in the afterlife waiting for you." She grinned.

"Don't be ridiculous," She cupped my cheek in her hand. And kissed my cheek before she continued our trek. "If you wanted to kill yourself you could at least do something useful with your death and see if a boggart can actually do anything but scare people. I mean we defeat them so quickly that we don't know what they really can actually do. After their prey is petrified can they attack? Do they eat them? Do they make them into a boggart themselves? I mean we don't even know what boggarts look like, we don't know much of anything about them. If you're going to kill yourself do something like that, not get eaten by a boring dragon." I pulled her back, grinning when I saw the smirk on her face.

"Again, thanks Gin, I really appreciate your support in all of this." I said planting my lips on hers. This kiss was not one of the sweet innocent pecks we had been exchanging all day. This was one of our more normal kisses. The kind that made my entire body shake with happiness and could make her knees begin giving out before I would sweep her up into my arms feeling her tingling legs around my hips. She pulled away, panting.

"We can't." She breathed and I nodded, taking a step back. "We have to prepare ourselves to show minimum public displays of affection today, with my family everywhere and tonight when I go home with you for dinner to meet your parents. We have to be careful before everyone gets used to us." I nodded. This was our plan and we were sticking to it. I took her hand chastely and we slowed our pace as the top of the Burrow, as Ginny called it, came into view.

"Remind me," I said, my stomach tied in knots so complex magic couldn't untie them. "What did you tell them?"

"I said that I had been seeing a guy and I was really into him and I was bringing him home to meet everyone and that if they messed this up for me I would curse them into oblivion." A grin snuck its way onto my lips.

"Well as someone who has been on the receiving end of some of your curses I must say that with a threat like that hanging over their heads I'm probably actually pretty safe here." I joked.

"Yes, I will protect you against my big bad family." She rolled her eyes.

"It's not that I'm scared of any of them individually but there are so many of them. They could all gang up on me!" I protested.

"Really, you're not scared of any of them?" she pried with a grin.

"Okay, Granger is a little scary but you said she might give me a chance!" Ginny laughed and my heart soared. I could get through this Christmas with her by my side. No problem. I could get through hell so long as my own personal Heaven was waiting for me on the other side. We walked up the pathway and Ginny knocked on the door. I could smell something delicious and as I looked around I realized that I like the Burrow. Sure it wasn't a Manor but there was something extremely homey and comfortable about it. At the Manor I always felt cold and alone but here, I could hear the shouts and footsteps of people inside, I could smell Christmas dinner cooking and I could practically feel the warmth emanating out of the oddly shaped tower of a house. The door flung open and Mrs. Weasley enveloped Ginny in a hug speaking rapidly about how long it had been since she'd been home. (It had been a week and seeing as she lived in the heart of Wizarding London it didn't seem so odd that Ginny wouldn't come by the house every day.

"Mum, this is my boyfriend Draco Malfoy." She gestured to me, strength and stubbornness blazing in her eyes. Mrs. Weasley's eyes opened wide as she took me in. I swallowed nervously and stood still, allowing her to look me over.

"Happy Christmas, Mrs. Weasley." She glanced back at Ginny and bit her lip.

"Are you insane? You couldn't have brought him around to meet just me and your father you had to do it when the whole clan is here? You just enjoy making life difficult for yourself don't you Ginevra. Good Lord, you poor boy." She wrapped me in a hug that smelled of flour and cinnamon.

"I don't believe we've ever properly met but of course I know who you are." She said kindly. "Today is going to be interesting but if they ever start on you, you just come and find me and I will keep you out of their reach. My best advice is to just be your lovely self and I'm sure they'll all come around. Steel yourself young man, we are about to see how brave a Slytherin can be." She took my hand and led me in keeping a firm grip on me. She had just hugged me. I could count the number of times my own mother had hugged me since I had gone to school on one hand. I glance back at Ginny who nodded enthusiastically. I was right. Mrs. Weasley had accepted me.

"I completely forgot." I blurted out, opening my bag and pulling out a bouquet of flowers. "I picked these for you. Thank you so much for having me for Christmas Dinner." I said, earning a ready smile from the woman.

"Well Ginny I must say he's got better manners than anyone else in this building. I say you've don't well. You said you picked these yourself?" she looked at the flowers appreciatively.

"It's just this thing I've done since I was a kid. My mom keeps beautiful gardens and I like mixing and matching the colors and shapes."

"This is more than a hobby Mr. Malfoy, this is a talent! These are beautiful!" she exclaimed.

"Er Mum?" Ginny jumped in. "He prefers Draco, the family names a bit sensitive." I smiled awkwardly at Mrs. Weasley hoping that she wouldn't use that information against me. I didn't like giving people a weapon and the knowledge that I resented my family was certainly that.

"Oh, of course darling, forgive me. I'm just going to go put these in water. Ginny the family are all in the living room if you want them to meet Draco." She rushed off but turned around and winked. "Except for your father, he's out back in the shed pretending he doesn't have a muggle car and that he's not tinkering away at it to make it fly." Ginny grinned and pulled me back in the direction we had come from.

"Come on, we'll get dad on our side before we throw you into the Lion's Den." I was too nervous to respond so I simply followed her. I didn't care where we were going. I would follow her anywhere.