Once we apparate back to Malfoy Manor, Draco gives me a light kiss on the cheek and bids me farewell outside the manor gates. He disapparates once more, heading back to work, and I begin making my way up to the manor.
When I reach the steps Pansy comes flying through the front door, bawling like a baby. "I'm so sorry, Jayde!" she calls. "I should've told you Draco was standing there! I just wanted to help!" She pulls me into a tight hug and practically begs for my forgiveness. Though I am admittedly still very angry at her for what she did, I have to admit that her tricking me actually helped Draco and I work things out, so I tell her I accept her apology. She says she hopes we can still be friends, and I quietly agree. I make a mental note, however, not to trust Pansy with sensitive information ever again.
She and I make our way back inside and spend the rest of the day together, watching films on the slide projector in the drawing room and talking about our relationships. Pansy leaves just as Draco's getting home from work, and Draco and I decide to have all his friends over for dinner sometime soon. We go for another of our walks around the grounds before dinner, after which we have a long discussion about my upcoming due date and the changes we'll need to make in the next few weeks.
One of the changes Draco suggests is that I have my friends come over to Malfoy manor to see me instead of going to the Burrow; he says it would make him feel better if he knew I was at home. I personally find a flaw with this plan; Narcissa won't want my friends in her house, nor will Lucius. Though I don't agree with his suggestion at first, Draco says he'll take care of his parents and then makes another valid point; my pregnant woman waddle is very noticeable now, and I can't keep explaining it away forever. Draco points out that the more Harry sees me, the more likely he is to figure things out, and although Draco doesn't care if Harry knows about the baby, I still haven't found a way to break the news to him yet… so I decide that Draco's suggestion will have to work.
I write to Hermione and Ginny before bed, asking them to come over to the manor tomorrow, and then Draco and I head off to bed. My friends, who received my letters late last night, arrive around ten-o-clock in the morning on Tuesday, and I give them a grand tour of the manor. Narcissa sneers slightly when they enter but tries her best to be nice to them for me, which I greatly appreciate. We spend the day talking and laughing, playing wizards' chess and other games we played while we were in school together. We also browse through the dress catalogs together, trying to find the perfect wedding dress and bridesmaid's dresses. Draco comes home that afternoon to find the girls and I sitting on our bed, laughing and joking.
Though I expect him to be angry that I've brought my friends into our bedroom, he simply smiles brightly and asks, "Having fun, girls?" I nod my head in response, but Hermione and Ginny immediately get to their feet, preparing to leave. I hug both girls and then walk them downstairs and see them off, and they promise to return tomorrow. When I close the front door and turn around, I find Draco standing right behind me. He pulls me into a passionate, mind-blowing kiss which I have to pull away from a few moments later when I hear Narcissa's footsteps on the stairs behind us.
He and I walk off into the drawing room and sit on the sofa talking until dinner is ready, and after dinner the Malfoys and I retreat to the drawing room once more, enjoying a quiet night at home by the fire. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday pass in the exact same manner; my friends come to visit me at Malfoy manor and we spend the entire day together.
Saturday is October 2nd, and is the day my wedding attendants and I have chosen to go pick out dresses; Draco has decided to use today to get all his groomsmen together as well, to pick out their tuxedos. Mrs. McGreggor, Narcissa, Hermione, Ginny, Marie and I all meet in Diagon Alley at ten in the morning, and we spend the entire day searching every single store for the perfect dresses. As Marie and I are both still heavily pregnant, Marie a little moreso than myself, we both have to cast disillusionment charms on our bellies to get fitted for our dresses; the both of us will have already given birth by the time Draco's and my wedding rolls around. I decide to leave my belly concealed all day, just in case I happen to run into Harry.
We find the perfect bridesmaid's dress in the fourth shop we've tried today; Marie and I have to sit while the other girls model the dress for us. It's a deep shade of purple with an empire waist line and is knee-length. There are two layers; the first is a soft satin, and beautiful chiffon sits atop the satin. It's a halter top with chiffon straps that meet behind the neck, and a sash sits at the waist with a large diamond directly in the center. All the girls absolutely adore the dress, as do Narcissa and I. All the girls tell the sales witch their sizes, and she immediately produces exact duplicates of the dress for each bridesmaid. Narcissa pays for all the girls' dresses, even though they protest.
Wanting Mrs. McGreggor to stand out as the Matron of Honor, I decide to have her wear a different dress, which we also happen to find in the same shop. The main differences between the two dress styles are that Mrs. McGreggor's dress is a tank-top instead of a halter, and it's slightly longer than all the other girls'. Once Mrs. McGreggor's dress is chosen, Narcissa chooses a lovely purple Mother-of-the-groom piece for herself, and then pays for she and Mrs. McGreggor's dresses as well. All the ladies and I then scurry off to another shop in search of my wedding gown.
We find it nearly two hours later, but we immediately recognize it once we see it and its well worth all the time spent searching. The gown is absolutely gorgeous, everyone gasps without saying a word as we examine it. It's a white, sleeveless halter top dress that flows all the way to the floor. A deep purple band rests above the bust, with white scrolling embroidered on it. The purple band extends out in the back; the middle of the back of the dress is purple instead of white, and the sides of the purple section are also embroidered with the same white scrolling pattern from the front. The entirety of the chapel-length train is purple, and once again has the same white designs on its sides and bottom. Everyone immediately urges me to try it on, and it fits me like a glove… though I realize that's only because my baby bump is hidden.
Not needing to contemplate the situation for long, Narcissa immediately goes to the counter and purchases the dress, though I argue with her that I was going to buy it. Finally finished with the hardest part of our day, my attendants and I decide to stop for a well-deserved lunch break at one of the upscale restaurants in Diagon Alley. We all eat our fill and laugh merrily for an hour and a half, after which Narcissa once again insists on paying for everyone's meals herself. Refueled and rejuvenated, we all head out into Diagon Alley again, this time looking for the perfect shoes to go with the perfect dresses.
The shoe hunting goes much easier; we find them almost immediately. We decide that everyone will wear the exact same pair of shoes; a pair of dark purple, high-heeled sandals. In the same store we also find the perfect jewelry for the occasion… everyone but myself gets a pair of purple, dangling earrings and a necklace to match, all courtesty of Narcissa, of course. I, however, wind up with a triangular-shaped necklace that is completely covered with diamonds, as well as earrings to match.
Having found all the pieces we'll need for the big day, my attendants and I all hug and say goodbye to each other, each of us ready to get home as we're exhausted from a long and frantic day of shopping. Narcissa and I disapparate once everyone else has left Diagon Alley, and she and I arrive home with our arms full of shopping bags to discover that Draco and Lucius have been home for hours awaiting our return. Apparently, it takes women much longer to shop for wedding apparel than it does men. Narcissa scurries off to her room to hide my wedding gown from Draco as soon as we get inside; she claims its bad luck for Draco to see the dress until our wedding day. Completely exhausted, I make my way to the drawing room as she does so, joining Draco on his favorite sofa.
He wraps his arms around me and gives me a kiss on the cheek, and we each start telling the other how our day went. When Narcissa makes her way back down to the drawing room a few moments later, she starts a conversation about the wedding day and all the different customs and rituals that will be performed. Though she mentions several rituals, only one sticks out in my mind; it's something I haven't thought of before. On the day a woman gets married, her father is supposed to give her away. Knowing that my father is dead, I wonder how this custom can still be honored at Draco's and my wedding.
Able to tell that something's bothering me, Draco asks me what's wrong. "I was just thinking," I say solemnly, "that there's no one to give me away." Draco's face falls and I can tell he wishes he could provide me a solution to this problem, but he doesn't have to.
"Nonsense!" Lucius says, breaking up the silence that has suddenly fallen on the room. "You're my daughter… I'm giving you away."
I look across the room at Lucius and smile at him in response, my heart ready to explode with happiness at the thought that I will have someone to give me away after all, even if it's not my 'real' father. I thank Lucius for his kind offer and consider getting to my feet to hug him, but think better of it when I notice my feet are swollen again. And as soon as Draco notices how swollen my feet are, he refuses to let me walk anywhere for the rest of the night. He carries me to the dinner table a little while later, and after dinner he carries me up to our bedroom and lays me down gently.
I fall asleep almost immediately, completely drained from the day's activities but glad to have them behind me. Draco and I spend a very quiet, relaxing Sunday at home, and on Monday morning he heads off to work once more. I go back to bed after he leaves for work to be awoken a few hours later by Hermione and Ginny, who have just arrived to spend the day with me. I notice that the both of them have very solemn expressions on their faces, and I'm not exactly sure I want to know the answer when I ask them what's wrong.
"Jayde, it's getting harder to keep the truth from Harry. About the baby, I mean," Hermione begins as she and Ginny take a seat at the edge of my bed.
"Well… what do you mean?" I ask worriedly.
"Apparently Harry's heard half the wizard world gossiping about you being pregnant," Ginny replies. "He came back to the Burrow very upset the other day, and it was everything Ron, Hermione and I could do to convince him it's all a load of rubbish. When we came to your baby shower, we told him it was just a simple party, but he's heard other people say it was your baby shower. And the fact that you've stopped coming to the Burrow looks suspicious to him, too."
"Oh, God," I say in an exasperated way. I sit up in my bed and place my hands over my face, wondering what to do now.
"I really think you should be the one to tell Harry about this, Jayde," Hermione says. "And if I were you, I'd do it soon." I remove my hands from my face and nod my head in response, agreeing with Hermione's advice.
"I'll try to find a good time to do it, then," I say solemnly. I take a deep breath before continuing. "I just don't want to tell Harry because I know it'll hurt him," I say quietly.
"We know," Ginny and Hermione whisper, both of them placing a comforting hand on my shoulder.
"I can just hear him now," I continue sarcastically, "he'll start going on and on about how I've mated with the spawn of Satan and now I'm carrying his little demon-child."
"That's actually not too far from what he said when he got back to the Burrow the other day," Ginny replies apologetically.
"Well, I can't be mad at him," I reply, "he's not really saying anything ugly about me, personally. After all, that's what everyone who knows about the baby thinks; Neville, Ron… hell, even you two."
"Um… actually, Jayde," Hermione begins cautiously, "we've been wanting to talk to you about that since the baby shower." Confused, I glance back and forth between my two friends for a moment, waiting for one of them to explain. "You see, Jayde," Hermione finally continues, "it was really hard for Ginny and I to grasp the concept of Draco Malfoy loving anyone besides himself. We thought he was up to another of his schemes… even though we saw how different he was acting once the two of you got together, we didn't think he could change so much; we thought he was still the same old Malfoy we'd been dealing with all our lives. We… we sort of gave you a hard time about him…"
"It's okay, Hermione," I interrupt, "I understand…"
"No Jayde, let me finish," Hermione replies, cutting me off. "Ginny and I were both shocked the other day at your baby shower… at the way Draco reacted when everyone started fighting and got you all upset. Draco's beliefs are identical to Mrs. Parkinson and Mrs. Goyle's, but he still told them they were wrong… because of you… because that's not what you believe. He was even willing to curse his mother, his grandmother, and the minister's wife for you! Hermione stops here, and Ginny takes over the conversation.
"When we saw that, Hermione and I were both floored," she says. "We now realize that Draco's not the same person he was; not when it comes to you. We actually saw how much he loves you the other day! And we gave you such a hard time about him at first when clearly, you were right… Draco's not so horrible after all… at least… not with you."
"So… what are you two saying?" I ask impatiently.
"We're saying that we're sorry, Jayde," Hermione replies, "for being so judgmental of Draco, and trying to get you to date Harry. It's obvious to us now that you and Draco belong together, and we should never have tried to interfere. We had the best intentions; we just wanted both you and Harry to be happy… and now we see that you are happy… and we won't ever try to interfere again. And even though Draco is still going to act like an arse towards us and we'll never be friends, and we still think he's a prat, we're happy for the two of you. Draco's a… good… man."
Hermione has to force these last words to come out, and her face scrunches up as though she's tasted something terrible. Her expression doesn't faze me though, I'm much too happy at this point to care. I realize how hard it must have been for Hermione to say something good about her sworn enemy, and the fact that she and Ginny actually apologized to me for judging Draco speaks volumes to me. Near tears, I rush forward and wrap both girls in a tight group hug. "Th… thank you both, so much!" I exclaim. The girls don't answer but continue to hug me for a few moments before releasing me.
"Thank goodness that's settled!" Ginny finally replies, "Now we just need to find someone for Harry to date, so he'll get off your back, too."
"Oh and I'm sure you've already got someone in mind," Hermione says sarcastically with an accusatory look. Piecing two and two together, I gasp and look at Ginny in awe.
"You fancy Harry?" I half-state, half-ask. Ginny blushes a violent shade of red and doesn't even bother denying the accusation. "Oh Ginny, that's wonderful! The two of you would be great together!" I exclaim.
"There's just one problem," she replies, "he's too stuck up on you to notice me."
"Oh no, not anymore," I reply, "because we're going to find a way to get the two of you together." Ginny gives Hermione and I a hopeful look, and we smile in return. The girls and I spend the entirety of the rest of the day talking and laughing, trying to figure out a way to make Harry notice Ginny.