Through the Years
Even as a child, Draco Malfoy had always been a bit above his peers. At the tender age of 5, he knew that he would never want to marry.
It all began one afternoon when he was eating a chocolate frog, a rare delicacy that he was only allowed to indulge in whenever his father wasn't home, when Pansy asked for a piece.
Draco stared at her long and hard and he blinked his gray eyes at her before drawing his mouth into an unpleasant scowl and declaring "No. Mine."
Pansy then proceeded to cry and howl nosily, as she stomped her foot on the grass. Their mothers, observant creatures that they were, turned at the sound of crying and rolled their eyes, partly amused at the sight.
Narcissa then stood up from her seat and sank to his level. Draco who was still scowling, clutched at his chocolate frog protectively. "Draco darling, you really must know how to share. Making ladies cry is absolutely unbecoming."
She then smiled, sharing a mischievous glance with Pansy's mother and said "After all, you and Pansy might end up married one day, and you would have to share all your chocolate frogs with her."
Upon hearing this, Draco's eyes widened as his gaze flitted between the now sniveling Parkinson in her pink dress and his mother as his face morphed into an expression of mild horror "No! I am not getting married to her!" the little blonde boy exclaimed, throwing a petulant and disgusted look at his young playmate before running back into the house, leaving a crying Pansy Parkinson and an apologetic Narcissa Malfoy.
By 15, as he stood at his father's study and watched as his parents conversed in hushed tones, he felt that his mother's prediction was about to come true. So when his father cleared his throat and announced his engagement to none other than Pansy Parkinson, he maintained his cool mask of indifference, betraying none of the disgust that he felt on the inside. Pansy was like an annoying sister, curse Salazar if he had to marry her. He did not want to have to spend his entire life with her.
At evening while moping around in his room, his mother snuck in with a small, comforting, smile on her face.
"I really don't want to marry her mother." Draco stated said the minute he felt his mother sit beside him. "Frankly, is it really the time to be thinking about this? We have to work on gaining the favor of the Dark Lord!" He then turned his gray eyes pleadingly at her and said "Can't you talk father out of this?"
His mother smiled sadly "Oh Draco darling, you know I would give you the world. But this is something that you have to do, for the good of our family. Besides, you wouldn't want to disappoint your father, would you? "
The 15-year-old simply sighed as he shook his head and turned away from his mother, tucking himself in while his mother made her way to the door. "Good night, mother."
"Good night, Draco." His mother replied sadly as she extinguished the lamp by the door with a flick of her wand and left the room with a soft thud, leaving Draco alone with his thoughts.
At 16, after he had failed to kill Albus Dumbledore, Draco crouched behind the closed mahogany doors as he listened to the Parkinsons declare his engagement with their daughter over with petty apologies and excuses.
"The war is moving Lucius, we have to go into hiding. We do not want to risk garnering the attention of the Dark Lord." Pansy's father said "And having Pansy marry into your family would do just that."
Before his father could get a word in, Pansy's mother spoke next "We know of your plans with your son, and while we applaud your loyalty to the Dark Lord, I don't want my daughter mixed up in this life. I would rather have her hiding in the Hogwarts dungeons." He then heard her sigh loudly before Pansy's father cut in, "Please don't get us wrong Lucius, we honor the dark lord, and when the need arises, then we would offer our wands to him. But, for now, we feel that our daughter is not ready for this."
Draco rolled his eyes at the statement. Oh, if only they knew how much their daughter was itching to join the ranks of the death eaters.
"Perhaps when the new order has been established. Then we can reconsider our plans."
"Perhaps" He heard his father reply after a minute of silence.
The sounds of chairs scraping against the floor suddenly resounded from inside the study, prompting Draco to leave from his spot in front of the mahogany doors and to hide behind a conveniently positioned column as their visitors prepared to take their leave.
Hours later, when Draco was once again alone with his thoughts, he smirked at the recollection of the news of the cancelation of his betrothal to Pansy, but then frowned when he recalled the reason.
Her parents made sense, war was fast approaching, and the Malfoy name was strongly losing ground and value in the Dark Lord's inner circle. It wouldn't make sense for Pansy's parents to marry off their only daughter to a wizard who failed the Dark Lord's orders.
War was already in full swing by the time Draco turned 17. He was Head Boy and was trusted by the Carrows which was both a curse and a blessing.
Contrary to popular belief, Draco did not enjoy the terrified screams of first years in detention, but at the age of 17, the young blonde had already hexed and tortured more people than he had ever care to count.
It was also the year that he had first noticed the littlest Weasley. Ginevra, her name was according to Blaise when he asked about her over dinner. His interest in her was purely neighborly concern though, as the fiery red head seemed to have be on a path to suicide as she spray painted walls, snuck first years out of detention and did all that Gryffindor rubbish.
"I hate to say this but, Gryffindor gets the best birds." He said off handedly as he was just commenting on today's weather. His steel gray eyes trained on the injured red head, watching her as she limped into the great hall for breakfast one morning, sporting a new bandage on her leg.
Blaise followed where his friend's eyes were fixed on and raised an eyebrow at him "I didn't know red heads were ever your type, Draco" He joked as he too watched as the youngest Weasly tried to reassure her housemates that she was fine despite her growing collection of injuries.
At his friend's statement, the blonde snorted derisively "No. It just seems bloody unfair that Gryffindor gets the witches that can actually hex someone properly while we're stuck with bloody bints who's only good with beauty charms" He grumbled with a derisive roll of his eyes, glancing at the end of the table where the small groups of younger Slytherin girls were talking about things that were inconsequential to the blonde head boy.
If ever they do recover a sense of normalcy in this war, he hoped that his parents would find him a witch that would be a challenge to him. Perhaps someone like Ginevra Weasley, or the like?
Thanks to the Boy-Who-Just-Refused -To-Die, by the time Draco turned 18, the Wizarding World was quiet once more.
Around him, people had begun to build their lives once more, rebuilding their homes and families. Even those who have lost a lot looked so happy, so optimistic, and Draco couldn't help but envy them.
Despite escaping incarceration, Lucius Malfoy has remained to be a man that no one actually wanted to work with. So, at the age of 21, Draco Malfoy took over as the head of the Malfoy family.
It was a fairly easy job, simply a matter of managing the family's many investments – both in the muggle and wizarding world – discussing business opportunities, while balancing the family's philanthropic and societal interests.
At 22, Draco Malfoy was quickly becoming bored
The life of a 40-year-old family patriarch was not how he envisioned spending his days, and he was quickly becoming tired of it. So, in an attempt to rid himself of the monotony, he decided that it was about time that he invested in a Quidditch team.
And truly, a few months later, Draco found himself becoming the new owner of the Holyhead Harpies. A wise decision, as a few months later, the all-female team found themselves representing England at the Quidditch World Cup.
Just a few days after he turned 23, the Holyhead Harpies secured the World Championship Cup, much to Draco's delight. A party was thrown at Malfoy Manor in honor of his talented players, which was attended by most of the wizarding world's elite.
And considering that she was his star Chaser, it shouldn't have taken Draco Malfoy to come face to face with a certain Ginvera Weasley
"Ginevra." The blonde man drawled as he approached her, an easy smirk on his face, and a drink in his hand. "You played beautifully out there."
The fiery red head blushed at the compliment "Thanks Malf- Draco." Ginny said, catching herself at the last minute.
The young Malfoy then shrugged, then, as if suddenly noticing that she was standing alone, the blonde looked around "Where's Potter? Finally traded you in for his office desk?" He quipped it was a well known fact – thanks to publications such as Witch Weekly – that Harry Potter was a terribly workaholic auror, and that his girlfriend was none too pleased with the fact.
However, what he wasn't prepared for was the sight of Ginny Weasley growing red in the face as tears threatened to spill from her brown eyes "Excuse me, I need to go." She managed to say as she turned on her heels, her green dress shimmering against the light, as her vibrant red hair billowed behind her.
Upon sensing the minor commotion, Blaise sauntered over to the puzzled Malfoy and patted him on the back "Mate, don't you listen to mothers' gossip? Potter did leave her; they declared their engagement over just this morning."
At this new information, Draco's mercury eyes widened considerably as he stared at the doorway where the youngest Weasley has disappeared through just a few minutes before.
"I'm a bloody idiot." He said tiredly as he wiped his face with his hand "Now I've got to bloody apologize." He said with a groan before making his way to the gardens to apologize to the sobbing girl.
At 25, after a tumulus and doubtful friendship, and a series of major miracles from the universe, Draco and Ginny announced that they were officially dating.
Or perhaps, announced was an overstatement...
"Draco?" Ginny called out from the front door of his flat "Have you seen the paper?"
"Obviously not." The blonde replied from inside the flat "Why?"
"We're on the front cover." She simply said as she held the copy for him to see the black and white photo of the two of them kissing at the front door before disappearing into the flat the evening before.
"Bloody hell. Your brother is going to kill me."
Draco Malfoy, 27, found himself lying in bed, savoring the early morning peace as he waited for the sun to slowly flit through the gaps of their heavy drapes. He turned on his side slowly, carefully removing his arm from underneath the sea of red that covered a majority of his upper body.
He then ambled out of bed and padded over to the dresser where he had hid the velvet ring box that his mother had bequeathed to him a few days before, accompanied by a knowing smile.
Was he really ready to propose to Ginny Weasley?
He had just turned 28 a few months ago, and he realized that it had been over a year now since Narcissa had given him the family ring, and he had yet to propose – unfortunately for Draco, fate was about to change that.
"Draco?" Ginny called out from their bedroom "Have you seen my earrings? The red ones that 'Mione got for me last Christmas?"
From inside the shower, Draco chuckled "No" He called out before proceeding to scrub his platinum blonde locks. Actually he had seem the pair on the fireplace mantle at the informal sitting room, but he wasn't about to let her know - serves her right for leaving her things around the house.
Suddenly, heard a thud from the room and then silence.
Fearing the worst, Draco Malfoy burst out of the shower with only a towel to cover himself as he emerged from the bathroom, wand in one hand, and the other holding his towel up as he scanned the room for immediate danger, but found nothing.
Just his girlfriend sitting on the floor, in front of an open dresser, ring box in hand.
"Bloody hell, Ginvera." Draco swore, his gray eyes wide with panic "You weren't supposed to find that yet."
Ginny ignored his obvious discomfort and asked "How long have you had this?"
The blonde man shrugged and said "A little over a year now?" He then chuckled and walked over to her, securing his towel a bit more before taking the box in his hands as he knelt down on one knee and rolled his eyes "But since you probably won't drop it now, I suppose I might as bloody well get through it."
"Git." Ginny said softly as she held out her hand to him, a small awe struck smile on her face
"Ginevra Molly Weasley, will you just bloody marry me so that our mothers will stop pestering us about it?" He said jokingly before slipping the ring into her finger.
Said red head rolled her eyes at his audacity but smiled "Pompous arse." She said "What makes you so sure that I want that ring on my finger?"
"Well then Ms. Weasley, would you like me to take it off then?" He drawled easily as he stood from the floor.
"Shut up, Ferret." She simply said as she stared at the ancestral ring – the same ring that Narcissa had been wearing on her Malfoy family portrait down the hall – on her finger.
Now at 29, Draco found himself watching the guests - both Weasleys, Malfoys - with a few Potters and a Granger thrown into the mix - waltz under a grand white tent on the grounds of Malfoy Manor.
"You're awfully quiet" His wife commented as she turned her chocolate brown orbs in his direction.
"Just thinking" He replied with a smile as he reached for her hand and turned to her with a bright smile.
Ginny raised an auburn colored eyebrow at him, looking at him quizzically "About what exactly?"
The platinum blonde grinned at her brightly, surprising his new wife slightly at the sudden gesture, before he picked up a chocolate frog that he had one of the houselves fetch for him earlier.
"Nothing in particular" He replied. He then held up the chocolatey treat on his hand and said "Would like to share a chocolate frog?"
Ginny laughed softly before rolling her eyes "You're such a weirdo, Malfoy."
standing underneath a large white tent at the grounds of Malfoy Manor as he waltzed with his new wife.
"What are you thinking of?" She murmured as she looked up to meet his gray eyes with her own brown ones.
"Nothing." He said with a smile, holding her even closer "Just a 5-year-old boy who didn't want to get married if it meant sharing his chocolate frogs." He answered with a grin.
Ginny raised an eyebrow at him, a habit that she had no doubt picked up from the blonde man in front of her, but asked no more as she laid her head on his chest, closing her eyes, as she let Draco lead their dance.