(A/N) Here you go, guys! Thanks for all of the people who reviewed and also for all of those who read and didn't review. Seriously–people reading my stuff is the best.
I don't own Harry Potter.
P.S. I didn't edit this (too lazy and I only have 10 more minutes of the internet tonight), so have fun with my typos.
Chapter 11: Family, Dear Family
Ginny finally pried open her eyes to look at her alarm clock, which had long given up trying to wake her. It was after 1 p.m.
"Oh no," she groaned, before rolling out of bed and startling a small patronus of a dragon that looked to have settled down for a nap waiting for her by the side of the bed.
Startled, she muffled a scream and jumped back onto her bed.
The patronus looked a little sheepish, but smiled.
"Ginny, I just wanted to let you know I had a great time last night. Also, if my mother contacts you today by any means, please just ignore it," the patronus said quickly, before flying out the window.
"Wait!" Ginny yelled after it, but then decided it was useless.
Draco's mother might contact me? she thought. That would be ... horrifying.
Not as bad, however, as what she was sure was waiting for her downstairs. She had snuck into her room the night before and had hoped to get up early so she could sneak out to visit Hermione or something before she had to confront her family. Maybe if she gave it a day they would forget about it. Today, though, she was fairly sure her family would remember ... her dad might have seen her kiss Draco.
Draco. She couldn't believe that even though he had still been a prat ... saying something about his kisses being famous ... and she still had wanted to keep kissing him. He was so fun and charming with a touch of an edge ... so not Harry. He actually listened to her all of the time and cared about her, and he could always make her laugh – if sometimes only at how vain he could be.
She tried to compare what it was like to kiss Draco to kissing Harry, but she found she couldn't even remember what kissing Harry had really been like anymore. She was surprised that this didn't even make her sad.
Ginny glanced at the clock again and was taken back to reality. She had to get away from her family now.
She was about to aparate out of the house, when there was a knock on her door.
"Uh...Ginny?" came Bill's voice through the door.
What on earth is BILL doing here? Ginny thought desperately.
"Uh, yeah?" she replied, as nonchalantly as possible.
Bill cleared his throat, obviously feeling uncomfortable. "Could you come downstairs into the kitchen for a minute please when you're ready?" he said.
"Sure," Ginny said, getting even more uneasy.
She slowly pulled on some clothes and forced herself to go down the stairs and into the kitchen. There she found her whole family – Bill, Fleur, Charlie, Percy, Fred, George, Ron, and her parents were crammed into the now-claustrophobic room.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"Well, Ginny, perhaps I should start," Percy said in his lecturing tone. "Dad told us that he saw you snogging Malfoy last night, and..."
"You SAW and you TOLD EVERYONE?" Ginny said, feeling angry and embarrassed at the same time.
"That's not the point, Ginny," Ron broke in. "The point is you are dating Malfoy after telling me you wouldn't. He was a Death Eater, Ginny, and I don't trust or like him."
Her dad finally spoke up. "His whole family has been a dark shadow over our lives and the whole wizarding world for far too long, as far as I'm concerned. I never thought I would have to worry about who you were dating, Ginny ... you always seemed to be the sensible one."
"Not to mention the fact that he's even paler than you," Fred said.
"If you had kids, they'd be albinos," George followed.
"Gangly, prattish albinos," Fred said.
This seemed to stoke Ron's fire.
"Don't talk like that!" he said, glowering at the twins. "That's disgusting. The very thought that a sister of mine could have children with Malfoy ..."
"I zink he is very handsome, Ginny," Fleur said, with a smile, apparently oblivious to or ignoring the fact that everyone in the room turned their looks of anger and hatred on her. "I definitely see why you are dating him – and he is rich. What a wedding that would be!"
Ron pretended not to hear her, and continued on his rant.
"If only you could have stuck with Harry ... now that would have been a good match," Ron said.
Ginny, facing the onslaught, had just gathered up enough energy and anger to yell at Ron, when her mother, looking concerned cast a silencing spell on everyone. Her mum, Hermione, and now Draco were the only people Ginny had told the truth to about her break up with Harry.
"I don't know if I approve of the Malfoy boy," her mother said in a calm voice, "but I can clarify some things. Firstly, Fred and George, the last time I saw him he was quite more tan than you. Ron, a kiss hardly means they're going to have children, and Arthur ... why you told the whole family I don't understand. I thought this was going to be a productive meeting and give Ginny an opportunity to hear your opinions and concerns, but with the exception of Fleur, no one has even given the boy a chance when he's not even here to defend himself."
She removed the silencing charm.
Then yelling ensued.
Fred and George started yelling jokes about Draco's father's "flowing" hair, Ron started pacing and yelling something like "I never thought a sister of mine ... ", Bill and Fleur started arguing about Fleur thinking another man was attractive, Ginny's parents tried shouting over everyone to maintain order and Charlie laid his head down on the table and closed his eyes.
Ginny sighed and sat down next to Charlie.
Charlie sat up and looked at her.
"You know," he said, "maybe if you gave the family a chance to meet him, they would think differently."
"Do you think that'd really be a good idea?" Ginny said, looking around at the mass chaos.
"Well, I'm sure they'd behave if he actually came to dinner or something," he said.
Suddenly, Ginny realized it was silent.
"Actually," her dad said, "that sounds like a brilliant idea. Why not invite your boyfriend over, Ginny, and then we can decide whether or not we think he's suitable."
"No," Ginny blurted out quickly before she could stop herself.
"Why not?" Ron said. "Because you know that he's a total prat and we'll all hate him?"
"No," Ginny said, more quietly this time. "It's because Draco and I have only been on two dates ... that's not exactly dating, and ..."
"You SNOGGED him like DAD DESCRIBED with only being on two dates with him?" Ron said.
Ginny glared at her father, who refused to meet her eyes.
"Calm down Ron!" Ginny then said, rounding on Ron. "Where is Hermione when you need her!?"
"Well, Ginny ... you might as well get it over with," Charlie said calmly. "If you actually think M ... Draco is a good person, you'll probably date him for a while."
"So, it's decided," Arthur said with a smile. "We'll have dinner sometime soon."
Ginny groaned as her whole family nodded in agreement, except for Ron, who was sulking.
Sometime soon, she thought. Oh great. How was she even going to bring this up with Draco?
---
Draco sat in his living room reading over and over the note his mother had sent him by owl that morning.
"Draco,
I need to speak to you immediately. I have heard some interesting things about your dating life. Come visit me today."
Merlin, he thought. What did his mother know? There is no way she could have heard about him dating Ginny, could he? Just in case, though, he had sent his patronus to warn Ginny as soon as he had read the note.
Narcissa couldn't know about Ginny, though ... unless Ginny's father had told her something.
He cringed.
He had woken up extremely late that day and hadn't gotten the note until about noon, meaning his mother was losing patience by now ... two hours later.
But, he still wasn't going to go, he decided. He could just pretend to be busy, or something, and his mum would get involved in something else and forget ...
pop
Narcissa Malfoy appeared in front of him, an imposing figure with almost white blonde hair in a flowing blue robe, looking displeased.
"You've been avoiding me," she said sternly, walking over to sit by him.
Draco laughed. "Avoiding you? Hardly..."
"How many times have you read that letter?" she said, looking down at the note. "I know you better than you think, dear ... I am your mother."
Draco groaned.
"Fine, yes I've been avoiding you," he said.
Narcissa smiled.
"I still haven't lost my edge," she said. "Now, as you know I've come to discuss your dating life. Apparently, you have been ignoring your sweet girlfriend ..."
Good, he thought. She can't know about Ginny.
"I don't have a girlfriend, mother ..." he said.
Narcissa sighed.
"Right, and you just give any girl off the street diamonds for her birthday ..."
"I've been trying to stop that," he said rolling his eyes, "but she pesters me until I give her something. I've told her time and time again that I am fine with going out with her sometimes, but I want to be free to ..."
He broke off when his mother started laughing.
"I never thought I'd say this to my pride and joy son, but you're acting like a jerk, Draco," she said. "You need to realize that being blessed with being so attractive and rich comes responsibilities. You'll need an heir eventually, and playing around with lower-quality women and blowing off Pansy, who you are obviously meant to be with ..."
"Explain this to me," Draco said. "Why keep pushing me to be with Pansy? You've been doing this ever since I was little, and apparently she isn't even attractive ..."
"Hah!" Narcissa said. "I happen to think she is a nice girl, and her family is such a good, pureblooded family. You could not do any better than marrying her."
"Well," Draco said defiantly, feeling like a teenager again. "I think I already am."
"You are?" Narcissa said skeptically.
How am I going to get out of this one ... Draco thought.
"Yes," he said. "She is beautiful, talented, funny and from a pureblooded family that goes back as far as ours."
He wasn't exactly sure if that was true about Ginny's family line ... the Weasleys had been such a disgrace to the wizarding world despite their family line that he didn't feel the need to check it, but he figured his mother was just as ignorant.
"Fine," she said abruptly. "I want to meet her then."
"Well ..." Draco started.
"If she's as great as you say, Draco, I'm sure there will be no problem," she said, standing up. "I will expect her next Friday for dinner at, say, 8 o'clock."
She walked a few paces and turned around.
"Don't be late," she said, and aparated.
Two hours later, Draco was still trying to think of a way to weasel out of the dinner. Getting out of things was usually what he was best at, but he could still not think of a way.
How am I going to tell Ginny? he thought.
Getting along and starting a relationship had been hard enough with her – and now his mother was going to ruin it. Oh well, though, he had been expecting it.
He still had to tell Ginny, though, and the sooner he could get it over with, the better.
He stood up, and carefully aparated to her house, making sure to land in the woods nearby. He sneaked up to the house, wishing he had one of those handy invisibility cloaks that Potter must have had in school.
Coming closer to the house, he could see the family in the background at some kind of party, he figured, because it seemed like half the county had dyed their hair red and come to their house – with the exception of that attractive Veela he had gone to school with.
Amazingly, though, in the sea of red, there was no Ginny.
Great, he thought. How on earth am I going to find her now?
He aparated again, this time back to his house. Getting out a quill, he motioned for his owl to come over.
"Ginny, come to my house as soon as possible.
-Draco Malfoy"
he wrote.
He grimaced. That sounded ridiculous. Oh well, he was too lazy to rewrite it.
Giving the note to his owl, he ran upstairs to change. He hadn't even realized it, but his clothes were wrinkled and didn't really match. He couldn't have her see him like this.
Half an hour later, he came downstairs, looking his handsome self, and found that Ginny still wasn't there.
Odd, he thought, sitting down on his couch to wait.
Suddenly, he heard what he thought was a reluctant sounding popping noise outside, then a knock on the door.
Draco sprang up, feeling nervous all over again.
He opened the door, and found Ginny there, looking beautiful as always, even though she looked like she hadn't even brushed her hair that day.
"Uh Draco..." she said.
Draco sighed, relieved that he could put off telling her about his mother for a few more minutes.
"Yes?" he said.
"I have something to tell you ..." she said.
Even Draco admitted that he didn't know everything about women, but he did know that was a bad sign.
"Uh, come in," he said, opening the door and gesturing for her to sit down.
She sat down on the couch, and he gingerly sat next to her.
"What's wrong?" he said.
"Well, nothing exactly is wrong," she said, "but ... well ... what do you think of Charlie, Draco? Do you know Charlie? I know you don't like most of the members of my family, but I figured you couldn't really have anything against ..."
Draco cut her off. "If it makes you feel better, I'll like Charlie," he said, hoping this would somehow help.
"Ok, good," she said, smiling a little. "Well, my family wants to meet you ... soon ... all of them ... for dinner ..."
Draco suddenly felt like he was suffocating. "Uh," he choked.
"See!" she said. "I knew this would be bad!"
"No," Draco said, trying to get his voice back. "It'll be fine ... of course I'll come."
Then he had an idea. It was a perfect way to make his mother seem less meddling and oppressive.
"We can meet your family after you meet my mother," he said. "We're having dinner on Friday at eight ..."
Ginny turned completely white, and Draco had to stop himself from laughing at her look of absolute terror.
"It'll be fine, Ginny," he said.
"You also said meeting my family will be fine," she said, "and I don't believe for a second that you really mean that."
"Well," he said, "I at least mean that our rela ... friendship will survive this."
He gave her a hug, and she sank into his arms. For the first time today, he felt good.
"Ok," she sighed, eventually pulling away.
"So," he said. "What crazy thing do you want to do tonight to take our minds off of our horrible families ... uh I mean ... our horrible family situations?"
Ginny laughed. "Today you can call them horrible," she said. "But, sadly, I have to go spend some time with my horrible family now. They're having some sort of party ..."
"Oh yeah, I saw them ..." he stopped himself. "I saw that you were all dressed up," he finished. She wasn't exactly dressed up, but it had been the only thing he could think of to cover up his mistake. Luckily, she didn't seem to notice.
"Yeah," she said.
They stood up together and she gave him a little peck on the lips.
This is going much better than I thought it would, he thought. ... for now.
"Bye Draco," she said, staring into his eyes.
"Bye Gin," he said.
She disappeared with a pop.
Thank yous:
Emily – Glad you liked it. Awkward doorstep scenes are the best, as long as they're not happening to me, that is.
Rasbery1298, Lynn RoMancie, Chat-Chen, Secret World – Thanks so much for reading and reviewing! I hope you like this chapter.
Johnson – I have a different beginning for the last chapter with more details about the date – when I get around to it hopefully I can merge them and give you more! I hope I explained some of your questions in this chapter, though. Ginny's experience with forgetting about what it was like to kiss Harry because it is replaced by the thought of kissing Draco is based on my own experiences and those of others I've talked to haha. Not everyone has the same thoughts on it I'm sure, though.
Naazju – Thanks! Haha I loved the Mr. Weasley thing too–it just came to me (at first I was going to have it be Ron). Here's your brother confrontation – I've been planning it for a while, except now it's a whole family affair ... it just seemed to work better for now. Draco is so cocky – which is why I love him. I will explain more about his kisses (I think) when he eventually talks to Jack.