Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter series. I would usually follow this statement with some whitty comment but as I'm writing this at work and my lunch break was supposed to be over fifteen minutes ago, let's just move along.

Told you the update would be fast!

Without further ado…

Chapter 25

Ginny POV

A rising tide of anger and confusion and even fear swept through me as my eyes settled on the dark haired boy I'd once loved. His eyes found Stella and I could see him connect the dots really quick. His eyes held a possessive fire as he looked back at me and proclaimed I couldn't marry Draco.

At the thought of Draco my eyes found his and in them was an unfamiliar emotion. He was scared. My heart ached with love for him. Grabbing his left hand, I slid the wedding band onto his finger. "Give me a sec, yeah?" I asked softly, eyes flitting from him to Harry.

He leaned down and wrapped his arms around me. In a voice too soft for anyone else to hear, he whispered, "Come back to me."

I nodded, the pressure of tears in my eyes. With that, I rounded on Harry, who'd been making his way determinedly up the aisle towards where we stood. The crowd sat in stunned disbelief, murmurs filling the garden. I stepped down from where I'd stood with my soon-to-be husband and met Harry halfway.

"Ginny," he was saying, his voice soft and green eyes speaking volumes. "Ginny I'm sorry I left I-"

SLAP! The sound of my hand connecting with his cheek silenced him.

"Don't you even, Harry Potter," I said angrily. "Don't you even come back here after two years and all I've been through because of you and say you're sorry! You have no idea what you did to me. You have no right to be here, no right to tell me whom I can and cannot marry. How dare you try and ruin this day."

"Ginny," he breathed, guilt in his voice. "If I had known, there's no way I would have left, I swear it!"

"If you had given me five minutes that day you would have," I told him heatedly. "If you'd even just looked or listened you would have known. It was right there in front of you but all you could see was yourself. And you ran away and you left me. You left her!" I pointed at my sleeping daughter, a little girl that looked undeniably like the man in front of me.

He opened his mouth to speak but I cut him off. "You have no right to be here. Leave, now." I turned my back on him and walked away, back up to Draco. Harry's return ruined a lot, of that I had no doubt. With him there to make claim to Stella, there was no way he'd let Draco adopt her. While that though made me feel like crying, for Stella was more Draco's daughter than she'd ever be Harry's, I pushed that aside. Right now I was going to marry him, no matter what. Harry couldn't take that away from me.

Behind me, several of my brothers rose to remove Harry from the garden, and hopefully from the manor. I could hear the soft tones of Harry pleading with Ron, once his best friend. Little did he realize Ron practically hated him for what he did to both of us. I lost my boyfriend but Ron had lost his best friend. After a few moment, the sound receded as he was led away.

When I reached the front of the aisle once again, I stepped back up to Draco and could see his satisfied grin. Slipping my hands back into his, I turned my gaze to the preacher, the small man standing with his mouth agape. "Can we continue?" I asked pointedly and polite.

"Yes, of course," he said after a moment to compose himself. Picking up where he'd left off, the preacher began to speak once again, blessing our marriage. When he was finished, he looked at the two of us and smiled. "You may now kiss the bride."

Draco's hands slipped from mine to around my waist, pulling me close. Leaning down he captured my lips with his, making the whole world melt away. After a long moment he pulled back and rested his forehead on mine. "You're mine," he said so soft only I could hear. All around us the crowd was clapping and cheering.

Tears filled my eyes and I smiled at my husband, a peace filling me despite what had transpired a few minutes ago. Turning to the crowd, we let the happiness of that moment wash over us. Luna stepped up to us, handing me a still sleeping Stella. I held her close for a moment, enjoying the feel of her small body in my arms, before passing her to Draco. With me on one arm and Stella in the other, he led us down the aisle, finally a family.

The plan had been to retire to the ball room for a few hours after the ceremony then to the dining room where we'd cut the wedding cake Mum had made and serve dinner. Now however, I motioned for our family to follow and the few of us found our way to the drawing room while house elves showed the guests to the ball room.

Draco's parents, Mum and Dad and most of my brothers were there. Hermione, Luna, Fleur and Blaise had joined too. The last to arrive were Ron, Bill and Charlie, having just shown Harry out. "He's gone," Ron said as he slammed the door, making Narcissa Malfoy cringe.

"What's going to happen now?" Fred asked, putting his hand on my arm.

"We need to make one thing clear," Draco said, all eyes falling on him. "He's not to see Stella. Under no circumstance is he to be allowed to see her while we're away. We'll only be gone a week for the honeymoon and she is to stay in the manor." Everyone nodded, agreeing in silence. "Father, put the wards back up when we leave."

"Of course," he acknowledged. For the benefit of everyone else here, he explained what that meant. Addressing the rest of the room, he said, "He won't be permitted on the grounds. Nobody outside the family and those admitted in the warding spells will be able to cross the gate. We haven't had the wards up since the war ended."

"We'll deal with all of this when we get back," I said with a deep sigh. "He knows now, and I'm not sure legally if we can even keep her from him. Not forever." I hadn't even known he was back in Brittan, let alone that he would show up today. When had he come back? Surely that had been big news. I'd been so preoccupied over the last week with preparing for the wedding that I hadn't even picked up a paper.

Looking around the room, I wondered who in here had kept it from me. At least if I had known I would have been able to prepare myself for this. I leaned into Draco, suddenly exhausted. He quickly handed off Stella to our mothers, asking for them to put her down for a nap. "She'll sleep another hour easily," he was saying softly.

They took her and left, everyone else trailing behind. In just seconds we were finally alone, just the two of us. Draco pulled me over to one of the many couches in the large room, sitting and gathering me into his arms. My dress was in the way, but he didn't seem to mind. Letting myself lean into his chest, I relaxed. "How could I not have known he was back?" I asked, more to myself than to him.

Draco tensed under me, causing me to look up at him. His stormy gray eyes met mine and he looked guilty. "It's my fault," he said softly. "I should have told you."

"You knew?" I asked in disbelief. "For how long?"

"Two days," was his quiet response. "It was in the morning paper."

I didn't know how to respond. Why would he have kept that from me? Surely it was something he knew I needed to know about. Neither of us spoke for a while, not caring that we kept our guests waiting.

Finally, he spoke up, his voice filled with pain. "I was afraid to lose you." His arms tightened around me and he buried his face against my neck. "I was afraid if you knew he was back you'd call off the wedding, give him a chance. I couldn't lose you." He fell silent for a long moment before he spoke again. "I tried to tell you today. I knew I shouldn't keep it from you. Mother wouldn't let me in. I tried, I'm sorry Ginny. I should have tried harder."

"It's okay," I murmured, understanding why he hadn't said anything. It hurt that he thought I would leave him. "I wouldn't have done anything different, even if I had known before he came bursting through the door. He holds no place in my heart anymore, none at all. That only belongs to you. I know it'll be harder now that he's here. He'll want Stella, but even if we can't formalize the adoption, you're her father not him."

We sat there for a while longer, talking in soft tones about what we'd do. He still wanted to go on our honeymoon despite the sudden upheaval in our lives. He promised Stella would be fine here. I knew he was right. After we got back, we'd deal with what to do with Harry. I wished beyond anything we could have followed through with our plans to have Draco adopt our daughter but with Harry knowing about her beforehand, it wouldn't be legally binding if he contested it.

Finally we decided to rejoin the guests. Our first dance was beautiful, Draco a master in the ballroom. I followed his lead and we waltzed around the room. Then came the dance with Dad. I cried the whole time he held me practically, feeling surrounded by love. Next each one of my brothers demanded a turn with me. It wasn't for almost an hour before I was dancing with Draco again. Not long after that Stella woke from her nap, full of energy.

Laughing, I had watched in happiness as Draco danced with her, a sight to make my heart ache. She was enjoying herself, twirling with her daddy. If only Harry hadn't shown up, life would have been perfect in this moment.

After the dancing was done, we retired to the dining room. Only about half our guests remained, many having departed before and during the dancing. Who remained were fed a wonderful feast, fit for kings and tasting like Mum's homemade. The cake was a towering confection of sugar and perfection. We both ended up with frosting everywhere as we fed each other the first piece. While my missing his mouth was an honest mistake, the smear of icing across my cheek was ever so purposeful on his part. Stella, wanting in on the action, ended up covered head to toe in icing when she was given a piece.

I tried all evening to enjoy myself and put Harry out of my mind, but the thought of him kept creeping back up. I wished more than anything he hadn't come back. Life was so perfect and simple with just Draco, Stella and I. Now it would be complicated and potentially heartbreaking.

It was well after night had fallen that the last of our families drifted home. Only Draco's parents remained. They sat across from us in the drawing room. The two of us were cuddled on one of the couches, Stella asleep in my arms. I held her close, knowing I would miss her so much in the next week. I knew she would be well taken care of, and that there was no possible way for Harry to get to her while we were gone, not with the wards back up. But still my stomach twisted at the thought of leaving.

It wasn't just worry about Harry being back, or even missing Stella, that had my stomach doing tumbles. Tonight, finally tonight, I was Draco's wife. It had been over two and a half years since I'd been with a man and never had it been with Draco. Time and time and time again over the last year and a half I'd wanted to, but never did we. He respected my wish to wait, even when I wanted him so much I didn't care about waiting anymore. He was much stronger than I. But tonight neither of us had to be strong. We didn't have to stop. I shivered slightly with anticipation.

As if he sensed the direction of my thoughts, Draco shifted next to me, sitting up straighter. His parents looked over, having each been caught up with their own things. Lucius had been reading the evening Prophet and Narcissa had been looking through a baby clothes catalog. "It's getting late," Draco's mother said, putting the booklet aside. "Why don't you go lay her down and get going? She'll be fine, and you know we're only a floo away."

It wasn't the first time she'd dealt with my anxiety of leaving Stella, and I was grateful she was still so reassuring. I nodded, knowing she was right and anxious to see what lay ahead. I had no idea even where Draco was planning on us going for our honeymoon. Yet another surprise on his part.

Standing, I cuddled my small daughter close. She was getting heavy at nearly a year and a half old. Her head rested on my shoulder, face buried in the crock of my neck. Her dark locks spilled around her face, sticking to her sweaty neck. She always got so hot when she slept. Draco walked with me upstairs to the new nursery and kissed her goodnight as I lay her in the crib.

"She'll be in a real bed before we know it," I said softly as I brushed the hair from her face. "Can you believe she's gotten so big?"

Draco pulled me close, kissing me softly. "She'll always be our baby, no matter how big she gets," he murmured quietly.

We stood a while longer, neither of us wanting to leave her just yet. Finally though, Draco took my hand and led me from the room. Once outside in the crisp night air, for with the wards up it was impossible to apparate inside the manor. "Ready?" he asked, his voice tinged with excitement. I nodded and with a turn, we were gone.

Well there you have it! Did it meet expectations? Where do you think they went for their honeymoon? How do you think Ginny will handle finally introducing little Stella to Harry? Oh so much to learn! More to come!

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