all characters belong to JKR

Chapter 28:

"No, no, no, George!" Draco shouted from the other side of the porch. "I told you she had a butter churn in the corner! You just transfigured that pot into a coat rack! Why would someone have a coat rack in the corner of a porch, for Merlin's sakes?"

George looked at Bill and said, "Why would someone have a butter churn in the corner of a porch?" He then snickered, but he changed the coat rack to a butter churn, but he said, "At least with the coat rack, you could hang your hat. What can you do with a butter churn?"

"Churn butter?" Charlie asked as he carried a wicker rocking chair from the front garden to place on the porch next to the butter churn.

"Gentlemen! We don't have time for your antics!" Draco shouted as he fluffed a pillow and handed it to Charlie to put on the wicker rocker. "I even took you all on a tour of the house just moments ago using Hermione's fantasy spell so you would know exactly how it looked, and yet you still are getting everything wrong!" He turned to everyone else and said, "Please everyone, this is important! Try to do everything exactly as it was!"

"Who does he remind you of, when he's all serious and bossy like that?" Bill asked Charlie.

"Hermione?"

"No, think again."

"Mum?"

"Think again."

"Our little sister?"

"That's the one."

"I heard that!" Ginny shouted from the living room. She came out the front door and she said, "Listen to me gentlemen, and unlike Draco, I use that term loosely. We don't have much time here! Draco paid the witch that bought Red Rose Cottage ten times what it was worth just so she would move out immediately, but it still took the stupid bint over two hours to pack up, even with magic, so now we only have an hour or so to get this place up to snuff for Hermione's belated anniversary gift! We got all of her old things out of storage, but we will still have to transfigure many things, and redecorate! It will take hard work and dedication, but Hermione's worth it! Do you want to disappoint Hermione? You all like Hermione, don't you? Well? Don't you?" By the end of her speech, her voice was loud and shrill.

And all five of her brothers, as well as Draco, and Draco's friends Theo, Blaise and Adrian were all quivering in their boots. "Now then, Draco, Ron and I are the only ones who really know how this place looked when Hermione lived here, so you will do exactly what we say, do you understand? Charlie, you and Percy go tackle the basement. Remember, she had all her shelves and books down there. You can't replace the books, but you can do the best you can."

"George, you and Theo finish up on the porch and then come and help me in the living room. Ron is working in the back bedroom, instead of making it like it was, he's making it into a nursery for Cygnus. Blaise, you help him."

"No Chudley Cannons paraphernalia," Draco said to Ron. "Blaise, I trust you."

"Damn," Ron said as they headed into the nursery.

Ginny said, "That just leaves the master bedroom. Adrian, you go start in there."

Adrian grinned, a most wicked grin, turned to Malfoy and said, "Shall I put some erotica in your nightstand? Perhaps some fancy lingerie for Hermione. Or maybe some scented oils and candles? A mirror on the ceiling?"

"Just do it as it was, and I'll come in and help in a moment!" Draco said with a roll of his eyes. Adrian started up the porch steps, but Draco pulled him back, and whispered in his ear, "The sexy lingerie would be okay, I guess, if you can handle that sort of transfiguration."

Adrian laughed and went straight to work.

Fleur walked out to the porch, held open the front door, smiled at her husband and said, "Bill, I'll borrow you to help me in the kitchen. I think I can remember how she had it decorated, and there are old pictures that Draco brought with him for us to look at, so would you like to help me?"

"Merlin, yes, thank you, sweetheart," Bill said, relieved to be away from Ginny and Draco. He practically ran into the house.

Draco stood back, staring at the house while everyone continued working. He remembered how Hermione described it to him:

She said, "It only has four main rooms, a living room, a large kitchen, two bedrooms, and a bath, but there's a basement, and it has one large room in it, which I use for books. There's a small detached shed, that isn't even large enough for one car, and it has a large porch that starts in the front, and goes all the way around the house on one side, to the back."

"It has red, clapboard shingle siding, and a grey, slate roof, and a large brick fireplace, and hardwood floors, and a wrought-iron fence all around it, and pine cupboards in the kitchen."

"There are red and pink rosebushes all around the outside. I love it. My aunt Rose gave it to me, hence the name. It was the very first place I could call that was just my very own. She left it to me right after the war, and at that time, I really needed the peace and solitude that it afforded me."

When he moved in here, right after they married, he never gave it any thought. He thought it was a nice little house, comfortable, and everywhere he looked, he thought of his wife, but he never thought of it as 'Home'. He never gave this little place a chance. It was out in the country, far away from everyone and everything, and it was small, with only one bathroom, and crammed to the hilt with books and baskets and pillows with flowers on them, and checkered couches and lace curtains and at the time he couldn't wait to move to a bigger, better house. His parents even decorated a whole wing of the Manor for them, ten rooms, in the hope that they would move there. That was where he lived when he married her, but in hindsight, he now knows why she will never be able to live there.

Therefore, they compromised…a bit. No, what they really did was what Draco wanted to do. Right after their honeymoon, he started looking for another house, and they moved in right before Cyggy was born. It was large, and it had four bathrooms, and it showcased both of their taste, and she had a library, and he had his den, and they had a large garden for Cyggy to play in someday, and it was their home. They had made it into something special and nice…but this cottage was something special to Hermione, too.

This would be THEIR weekend cottage. Their home away from home. Their getaway location. There was already a trout pond behind the house, as well as a little woods, so they could hike and fish and…and…

"Draco?" Ginny asked. She walked up to him and turned him away from the cottage. She reached up to his cheek and wiped away a tear. She whispered, "What's wrong?"

"Hermione loved this place because it was part of her, and I never took the time to appreciate that, and after this weekend, I've realized that to love someone, you have to love them completely, and take the time to appreciate every little thing about them. Do you think she'll be happy with the gesture? Do you think this will make up for the fact that I've been a terrible husband?"

"Get back to work you two wankers!" George yelled from the porch.

Ginny turned to face her brother and said, "Don't make me come up there, George!" He quickly ran into the house. She took Draco to a little wooden bench that was by an old pine tree in the front garden. She sat him down, sat beside him and said, "You've not been a bad husband, Draco Malfoy. Marriage is a learning process. No one goes into it knowing exactly what to do. The first few years are like the practice years. It's like you're in training for the years to come. It's the time when you learn from your mistakes, and you don't repeat them."

She stood up and said, "And she will be so happy about this. She loves you more than anything. You and the baby are her whole life. This is perhaps the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for another person." She leaned down and kissed his cheek.

Harry Potter was standing at the edge of the garden. He approached the pair and said, "Kissing my wife, Malfoy?"

He looked up and said, "Actually, she kissed me. She wanted to know what it was like to kiss a real man."

"Right," Harry said with a smile.

Suddenly, there was a loud crash from the house. Percy looked out the door and said, "I didn't do it, it was George."

"GEORGE WEASLEY!" Ginny yelled as she marched into the house.

Harry sat beside Draco on the bench and said, "What's going on here?"

"It's a belated anniversary present for my wife. I needed a lot of help, so I called in the troops," Draco explained. "How did you find us? I purposely didn't want you to come. I knew you were stuck in the office, with paperwork."

"Gee, thanks," Harry said.

"No, I mean, I wanted you to be surprised, too," Draco explained, though he seemed embarrassed. "I wanted you to finally accept me as Hermione's husband, and to see how much I love her."

Harry frowned, clasped his hands in front of him and said, "I've never said anything negative to you, or about you to Hermione, since you've been married, so I don't understand that statement."

Draco stood up. "Listen, Potter, after your wife, you probably love Hermione more than you love anyone, right?"

Harry nodded.

"And after me and Cyggy, Hermione loves you the most," Draco stated.

"And your point?" Harry asked.

"You didn't approve of our quick marriage, right?"

"You know that. I did make my feelings clear that weekend, but that was because it was so rushed, and hurried, and I didn't see the reason you had to hurry things. You could have dated a while, made sure you were meant to be," Harry explained. "But since then, I've never said anything negative."

"Potter," Draco began, "after the weekend at the cabin, I've discovered something. It wouldn't have mattered if Hermione and I had gotten together right out of school, or while she was still with Ron, or even if she had married Ron, or if it was ten years from now, we would have fallen in love and married each other. Some things are inevitable. Some things just are, and you can't change them, for example, you're a git. It's just the way of things."

Harry made a funny face.

Draco paced back and forth in front of him and continued. "But that doesn't mean that every single thing you've thought about me, every worry and concern hasn't also been shared by me, or by Hermione, or by others. Hell, I know I'm not perfect, man."

"Do tell," Harry said sarcastically, his eyebrows in the air.

"I just want her approval, and because you are so important to her, and she to you, I guess what I'm trying to say, without throwing up, though a bit of bile is stuck in the back of my throat, but I'm trying to say that I want your approval, too. I don't want your friendship, because I know that will never happen. I don't want you to even like me. I just want you to accept me, and to see that Hermione and I are meant to be, and that we are no longer an unlikely pair. We are perhaps the most likely couple you've ever known."

Harry nodded his head slowly and stood up. He said, "Well, good luck with the cottage. I have to go. I have work to do, too. Hermione's planning an anniversary party for you back at the Burrow, and it seems as if we are going to have to work shorthanded, since you have all the Weasleys helping you."

Draco looked shocked. "She is?"

"Yep," Harry responded. "How much longer do you think you'll be here?"

"Ginny!" Draco bellowed.

Ginny walked out the front door, the screen banging behind her, and she said, "WHAT?" with an irritated tone.

"My wife is planning a surprise anniversary party at the Burrow for me. How much longer do you think we'll all be, because we can't ruin her plans."

"Don't worry. I'll get out a whip if I have to, and we'll be done in two hours, tops." She blew a kiss to her husband, and added, "You should go help Hermione, sweetheart. Get Oliver Wood to help as well, and maybe even Neville. I love you." She turned and walked inside and began to yell and shout at everyone again.

Draco turned to Harry and said, "Seriously, are you ever afraid of her?"

Harry just laughed and said, "You didn't see her raise her voice to me, did you? She's always sweet natured to me. That's why I love her so." He patted Draco's back and said, "I'll see you all in two hours, and after the party, you can bring everyone back here to show Hermione your surprise."

"Potter, wait," Draco said. "You didn't tell me how you knew we were here."

"I'm the best Auror around, Draco, but besides that, I called Ron on his mobile phone and he told me. See you later." He disapparated away, and Draco smiled. He walked into the cottage and started to work.