A/N: I am way sorry for not updating. I have a reason, and it's due to the fact my laptop is dead, kinda. It works, but I have no start bar, or desktop icons, so it's hard getting any programs to run, without knowing their shortcut codes on the Task Manager. When it's fixed, I'll update double... I promise.
Ginny had called a cab to take them to the nearest shopping centre, ignoring Draco's moaning. He didn't really see why he had to get her a birthday present, she hadn't even mentioned that it was her birthday tomorrow, so technically he shouldn't even know. The only reason he did was because of the youngest Weasley. In some ways, Draco was glad that she'd told him, at least that way he could get in Hermione's good books, because he didn't want her to threaten him with the couch again. Although...he had already figured out that she wasn't that mean, but God knows, she could be particularly moody one day and follow through with it, and that was the day Draco's back hoped never came.
The cab ride wasn't long, but Draco didn't really like the idea of being sat in a metal box, whilsts other metal boxes sped around him. He didn't think it was the safest way of traveling, and was glad that Wizards had invented the broom sticks. It was a lot better, and there were less brooms in the air than there were cars on the road. Once they'd finally come to a stop, and Ginny had dragged him out of the car, Draco had begun to dread this shopping trip, he didn't know how bad Ginny was with shopping, or if she hated it as much as he did. He blamed his mother for his hatred of it, if she hadn't dragged him around the shops when he was little, then he doubted he would have hated it as much.
"Draco! Hurry up, Hermione'll be home in less than ten hours, and we need to make sure it's wrapped up, and we've got to set arrangemnts up with Lavender and Ron as well." Ginny said, speedwalking in to a shop.
"Ten hours?!" Draco repeated, "why would any of that take ten hours?"
"You might not know what to buy, shopping can never be timed or limited, it's over when it's over."
Draco got the sudden feeling that Lavender and Ginny got on quite well. He said nothing, but groaned. There was no way that he was shopping for more than three hours, and that was pushing his patience. He would be fair though, Ginny was doing something nice for him...kinda. Okay, no she wasn't. She was torturing him, in order to force him to buy one of her best friends a present, but hey, she was pregnant, there was no way he was going to argue with her. He did not want to go home with a black eye, and no ribs. He wasn't convinced that Ginny wasn't a "you've got two kidney's, so you shouldn't mind too much if I just go ahead and rip the spare one out of your mouth." kinda girl. If she was, the pregnancy hormones wouldn't do anything to help that case.
"Where are we actually going?" Draco asked, following around aimlessly.
"A gift store, we need to get her a gift, and a card. Then we'll need wrapping paper, and other bits." Ginny shrugged, "stop moaning, because I do not want to hear it. You came of your own accord."
"No I did not!" Draco protested, "I was pulled out of my house, robbed of my keys - and money - and forced to sit in the back of a box with wheels!"
"You still could have said no." Ginny countered.
"I did!" Draco said, "Twelve times."
"I must have been busy."
"...It was whilst you had my ear, dragging me out of my safe haven, and telling me if I didn't get a move on, then Hermione's child would be the only baby I shall ever have."
"Ahh." Ginny smiled, "I remember now."
She didn't say anything else, and she didn't leave Draco any time to reply. instead she just walked off in to another store, leaving Draco with not much choice but to follow. He hoped that it wouldn't be too bad, Draco knew that Ginny was one of the easist to get along with, so he didn't really have to watch his back, unless he royally annoyed her. She was a woman, after all. A pregnant woman. Damn, just what had Draco let himself in for?
He looked around the store, and tried to work out how much money he had. They'd had about 600 dollars left after their mass-food shopping on their first night, and he'd brought a hundred and fifty out with him, which he would replace when he got a job. He also knew that Hermione got paid soon, so there wouldn't be too much problems, and they had enough for more food. He wasn't sure exactly how much to spend on her, it was her Seventeenth birthday, she was offically an age legal witch now, it was a special age, and he did want to acknowledge the fact. He knew that he was excited about his Seventeenth, just because he would be allowed to do magic outside of the house. He wasn't sure what was going on, but he felt like he was getting soft on Hermione, he hadn't really been mean to her for a while, and it might just be because she was carrying his child, he didn't know what it was, but it was almost as if he could easily treat her with respect and like an equal.
Ginny was slightly ahead of him, and he wondered what she was getting Hermione. He also knew that they didn't have a job as of yet, but he'd heard from Hermione that Harry was looking for a job, so was Ron. He gathered that they were doing it to support their children and pregnant "wives". That reminded him, that whilst he was here he should look for a job, because he knew that in very little time, Hermione would't be able to work and they'd need someone to bring in the money.
"Malfoy!" Ginny's voice cut through his thoughts, and he looked at her.
"What?" He asked, "Now what have I done?"
"You're not even looking for presents, you just seem distant and in a world of your own."
"...It's times like this that I wish I was in a world of my own, sadly I am not, and I'm not looking because I don't have any idea what I'm supposed to be buying her. I've never had to buy for anyone's seventeenth before."
Ginny just rolled her eyes, "Jus get her little bits of stuff, she won't expect anything too great off you, considng you're not exactly brilliant friends."
Draco nodded, and looked at the shelves, he wasn't even sure what type of stuff she liked. He'd get her smelly stuff, but he'd probably get the wrong one, and get a smell that irritated her, or one that she couldn't stand. He'd rather get her something he knew she'd like, ad something that she could actually use.
"How about getting her a book?" Draco asked, and Ginny pulled a face, and shook her head.
"No!" She said sternly, "Everyone gets her books, it's her seventeenth, she needs something special."
Draco just shrugged, "Help me then?" He asked, he was confused. What did girls actually like?
"Nope, it needs to be something you've picked."
Draco just nodded, he supposed she had a point. What was the point in him coming, and giving her the present if he didn't even pick it himself? It was like it meant nothing and he was just doing it because Ginny had forced him too, which wasn't really the reason.
He looked at a baby blue bathset, and shugged, picking it up and reading the back. "What about this?" He asked, holding it up.
Ginny walked over, and took it off him, looking at it. "It'll do as one of the gifts, but if you're getting her that, I think you should get her something else as well."
Draco nodded, and took the box back off her. He'd look around somemore and see what he could find.
---
"Hurry the hell up!" Ginny yelled, hopping on the spot, "I need to wee!"
Draco growled, "Oh come on, you went thirty minutes ago!"
Ginny ignored him, but walked back over and pulled his by his arm, leading him to the nearest public toilets. Draco had ended up getting Hermione the bathset, a book on babies and a small delicate bracelet. He'd got the aproval of Ginny was well, and she said that it would be a really good gift, and that she'd like it.
He knew that as soon as Ginny had finished emptying her bladder, they'd be allowed to go home and then he could wrap it up, and they had other plans apparently, but Ginny hadn't told him of them yet. All she'd said if that the other four needed his house, and he had to stay out of hte way with Hermione. He wondered what they wanted to do, and he wondered if he should be scared.
