Seven years after the Weasleys found out their Princess was in love with the Slytherin Prince and this was still happening, Draco grumbled inwardly. He'd come a long way since seventh year, the year the family discovered the 'illicit' relationship; he owned his own enterprise, was the silent owner of a number of ventures, supported countless charities, and he wasn't hostile to his in-laws anymore. Instead he backed down from most of their taunts when he should just let fly sometimes.
And after the day that he just had, he didn't think he wanted to leash his natural responses at this time. Merlin, would he never be good enough for them?
It had been six years since he'd been married and Mrs. Weasley was still dropping ignoramus hints along the lines of "Wouldn't you be better off with a rich heiress dear, one who could manage the social scene better than Ginny."
If there was a large communication chasm between him and his wife he's have asked Ginny if she was uncomfortable, but he knew her inside out and backwards as well; his Princess was no homemaker but a hardworking, engaging individual who could manage the 'social scene' (charity events) better than anyone else he knew. He also had insider information on the fact that she enjoyed it.
So on this day, at this particular dinner with his wife's family, when Ginny wasn't feeling too friendly herself and was glaring at her mother from across the room where she was speaking with Hermione Granger Weasley and Potter, he looked his mother-in-law in the eye with his patented Malfoy stare and she froze. He'd never used it outside of his business offices so it was the first time she was seeing it. He was finally losing control.
"Mrs. Weasley," he drawled just like his long dead and long hated father, "I will tell you for the last time – Ginny and I are quite happy together and will not be parting soon in this lifetime. I suggest you belt it if you want to see either of us again in the near future."
His tone was chilling but he'd had enough and only felt a twinge of remorse when she paled and practically ran over to her husband. Draco, aware that he'd insulted the woman in her own home took a deep, fortifying breath to face the expression on his wife's face… She was smiling at him! It wasn't a bright smile like he was used to seeing but under the circumstances, it was the best smile he was going to get. He felt his heart melt all over again and the snobbish, Malfoyishness he'd left behind at Hogwarts melted away as well. It was no match for her presence. None at all.
He caught her round the waist as she came near, and breathed deeply when she buried her face into his neck and gave a long, weary and sad sigh.
"Thank you for putting her in her place," she muttered softly, bleakly. "I was wondering how long you'd let it go on for. I don't think I can handle much tonight, love."
"I don't think we should have come tonight," he muttered into her hair, soothing her strands with his hand. "I don't think we're both up for this."
"I'm sorry," she hiccupped suddenly. He felt a few tears soak into his shirt and grew angrily alarmed. He should have listened to his instincts and insisted they go home tonight. But no, as always he'd given in to her claim that her mother would be disappointed. Yeah right.
"Hey, don't cry," he soothed. "You've got nothing to be sorry about."
Another hiccup. He held her tighter, shifting when Ronald Weasley's three girls wizzed past with two of their cousins, so that no kids would be touching her accidently. Tonight, he didn't want to look at the children, even though he loved them like any uncle would. It just hurt too much. But for her, he knew the pain would be ten times worse.
It broke his heart that she was feeling this way but there was nothing he could say to make it better. Nothing except, "I love you."
"I know. But I know you're hurting too. We should go home."
He was about to ecstatically agree but some little tyke pulled on his pants and he looked down at Charlie Weasley's five-year-old.
"Unca Dako, Gamma says it's time for dinner so you should stop s'mchin and get inside the kitchen for dinner."
Ginny stiffened while his heart clenched as they listened to the pretty little girl butcher her sentence, and wondered when he'd have one of his own. But he forced a smile for her all the same. "We're coming, Alice. Tell grandma to give us just a moment, please."
"Okay." Then she transferred her gaze to Ginny and enquired worriedly, "Is Aunty Gin awrite? Is she crying?"
"Aunty Ginny is fine, darling. She's just not feeling well," he said gently.
"I hope you feel better Aunty Gin," Alice patted Ginny's leg worriedly before skipping off. She left painful silence in her wake.
"You're good with kids," Ginny said finally, heart-brokenly. "Well we can't go home now."
He wished they were home and he could hold her, make love to her and make her forget – even if it was just for a little while. But he nodded to her statement. "Are you up to this?"
"As long as they keep their disapprovals to themselves tonight I'll be fine," she smiled encouragingly up at him, her eyes too bright. Kissing her forehead and her eyes lovingly, he listened to the loud conversation in the now silent kitchen through the open doorway.
"Is she crying, Alice?" Charlie asked his daughter.
"I tink so but Unca Dake says she's not. That she's just not feeling right. You know, like when I don't want to go to school and I feel sad and you hug me. It's like that."
As the conversation slowly resumed, Draco stepped away from her, wiped her eyes and told her, "Let's go in there before they decide I'm beating you or something." She giggled half-heartedly, causing him to press another kiss to her cheek this time. "It'll be alright, you'll see.
"I love you."
He smirked, knowing his eyes flashed lecherously as he let them rove over her body.
"Draco! Ginny!" Ronald the fool shouted from the kitchen. "I'm starving!"
"We're coming bottomless stomach!" Ginny shouted back, in quite a normal tone.
When they entered the kitchen, no one but Charlie and his mother looked at him suspiciously. He ignored it, striding over to pull out a chair for his wife, make sure she was seated comfortably before gracefully sliding into his own beside her. The Weasley men (except Ronald who was well trained by his own wife) glared at his exquisite manners, especially as their wives sighed approvingly. Yes! He still had the charm, the infinite glory of women falling all over him, even though they knew they'd never have him. He was the God, the King, the Rajah, the –
"OW!" he glared at Ginny, rubbing his side where she'd elbowed him.
"Stop looking so smug. I, and everyone else know how… suave you can be… but don't make these bears want to gang up and kill you."
He only kissed her; her twinkling eyes told him she enjoyed his display and the smile at her lips told him she was also smug – supremely satisfied that she he was hers and every other woman could only envy her.
Dinner was a usual affair – they talked and laughed and did not let on that anything was wrong with them. Both their composures were regal enough to be applauded, especially Ginny. Throughout the dinner, she helped Miranda, Ron's youngest daughter and Alice with their food, bounced baby James, Bill's son, in her lap and engaged with the lot of youngsters (9 of them all under the age of 5) in her usual loving manner.
Draco couldn't bring himself to do it. He watched her proudly and admired her strength, but didn't actively engage in handling the kids. He dreaded tonight when they would all demand their story – it was a ritual since he'd become a part of the family that every night they had dinner over, he would read them a terrifying story before they would go to bed. Alice, with whom the tradition had started, always said she couldn't sleep if he didn't do story time.
When dinner ended, the men were shooed out of the kitchen by the women and Draco followed his brothers-in-law and father-in-law out on the lawn to play poker while the females gossiped about God knows what. He wasn't as attentive as usual, but he played a good hand all the same, fleecing the men out of their money.
"Look at you," Bill grumbled good naturedly when Draco pulled the pile of money over after a half hour into the game. "Already filthy rich and fleecing us poor men out of out hard earned money."
"Poor my arse," he laughed. "You all own as much stocks in the businesses as I do."
Charlie shrugged. "Opportunities men, opportunities."
"So you had any luck in getting Natasha to spend time with Alice?" Arthur asked his second son.
Charlie's face bore a forbidding expression. "I don't know what I ever saw in the woman. I still can't believe I had the bad judgment to marry her."
It was an old statement – Charlie was frustrated that he'd married model Natasha Williams and as soon as the ink dried on the paper, the woman was hoping to other beds. She had no time for her husband or daughter, preferring to run free all over Europe. Charlie hated her guts and Alice didn't even know what she looked like.
"So? What's the answer?" Draco enquired.
"No. I told her that I wanted the three of us to go away for the summer – even went so far as to blackmail her but she refuses. God, I wish she was dead! The only good thing that came out of that farce was Alice."
"Children are nice," Arthur agreed, while pointedly looking at Draco. "They're blessings that adults should cherish."
He stiffened. Normally, he'd be used to the pointed reminders, but tonight he didn't want to hear it. "We'll have our kids in our own time," he grumbled, keeping his eyes fixed on his cards. He didn't see the cards. All he saw was Ginny's face in the Healer's office today.
"Hurry up –"
"You're not getting any younger –"
"You know," said the twins.
"We have –"
"Two each,"
"And we've been married – "
"In less time than you."
He stared harder at his cards, then at them, telling them with his eyes to shut up.
Bill took up the train of conversation, bouncing 1 year old Will on his lap while the boy cooed adorably. "I've only been married 3 years and the twins, 4. You've been married six years mate, and you've got not a baby to show for it. You don't know what you're missing out."
Oh, he knew.
"Yeah," Ronald had to put his two scents in. "I've been married what, four years? And I've got those three – plus Hermione's pregnant again."
It was said so casually that Draco's head snapping around was an anomaly, but he couldn't control his reaction. Then he became conscious that no one else seemed surprised, just amused by his loss of composure.
His tone frosty, he spared his brother-in-law with optical daggers. "How long have you known?" he asked quietly.
"A couple of weeks. What's the matter mate? You love children, I thought you'd be happy."
"You couldn't tell me before today? I'm assuming everyone already knows?"
At the men's nods, his manner grew even more chilling and all amusement receded from the lawn.
"What's the matter Malfoy, why are you so…" Potter asked.
Draco didn't even spare the man a glance, focusing on Ronald Weasley. "Why didn't you tell us sooner? We wouldn't have come tonight. Ginny doesn't know. Do you know what you've done? Did it somehow slip your mind to tell your sister? Merlin Weasley, I could strangle you and your wife!"
"What's wrong? You like kids…" Charlie pointed out.
"Of course I do. And I'm happy for you Weasley but you should have said something sooner! Yesterday, for Merlin's sake!"
"You're acting strange, Malfoy," Ron finally raised his voice. "Stop talking in riddles."
"Why didn't you tell us sooner? Why does everyone else know and not Ginny? Why did you have to break it tonight?"
"I don't know, I forgot." The new father-to-be defended. "I assumed Hermione would tell her. I think she's telling her now."
That set him springing off his chair, ready to stop that horror from happening. "Oh God, no!"
Arthur's firm hand on his arm stopped him from leaving the table and going back into the house. "What's wrong son?"
Feeling vindictive – because he knew it would hurt them too – he dropped the bomb. "Ginny had a miscarriage this morning. We didn't even know she was pregnant until it was over. We just got back from the healer's office."
In shock, Arthur's hand slipped from his shoulder and the men at the table all went white. Before Draco could go and get his wife out of the kitchen, she came exploding through the door where she stopped as if she didn't know what to do. There were tears in her eyes and her face was crumbling as she desperately looked at him. "I want to go home."
Immediately, he sprang to her side, nearly upsetting the table in his haste, and took her into his arms.
As soon as he touched her she started sobbing and he could only rock her gently, pressing her face into his neck. Tight lipped, he glared at the brunette who was coming outside. "I don't do anything," Granger implored him, well aware that he destroyed anyone and anything that hurt Ginny. "She just started crying and –"
"Shut up," he snapped, using a tone that brought to mind the days he taunted her as a mudblood. When Hermione and Molly tried to comfort his wife, he barked in an even worse voice. "Don't touch her!"
"I want to go home, Draco!" Ginny was sobbing brokenly into his arms. "Please I want to go home."
"Thanks to your thoughtlessness, you'd be lucky if you see us any time soon. Don't be sending us any owls now," he sneered at the brunette. Then, with a crack, he apparated them home.