"Ginny," Harry yelled up the stairs, and Draco stared at him in perplexed befuddlement. This whole day had been a whirlwind and he was fairly sure his brain had just stopped working.

"What?" she yelled back down.

"Get your broom. Your husband here thinks he can outfly me."

Draco took a nervous step back. He'd been speaking theoretically. He'd been trying to reassure the git that he wasn't ruined as a person because of the war. "I don't have a broom," he said, summoning as much cockiness as he could. "Perhaps you could ask the Ministry to return whatever schoolboy things they haven't shredded in their attempts to prove I was eager to be in bed with Voldemort."

"Backing down?" Harry asked. "Because if you just want to admit I'm the better Seeker…."

"Fuck you," Draco said.

"Promises, promises," Ginny said. Draco's head shot around to see her in the doorway, two brooms in her hand. He could feel the heat burning up through his cheeks and she grinned, obviously pleased to have embarrassed him. "You can use one of ours," she said.

"The real question is where," Harry said. He and Ginny exchanged glances and Draco read what they meant at once. If people saw the hero of the wizarding world engaged in a knock-down, drag out flight with him, they'd assume the worst.

He accioed the broom from Ginny's hands and felt his fingers close around the wooden handle with a little too much eagerness. He missed this. "The Manor," he said. When they both looked at him he said, "Well, I hardly think it's unreasonable of me to invite my wife to my childhood home and fly with her."

"Making me the third wheel," Harry said.

"You said it," Draco said.

Ginny laughed. It made her nose crinkle and her eyes squint a bit. When she was older she'd have lines around her eyes from that and for a brief moment Draco felt a surge of warmth that he'd see that. He'd see her go from a woman still barely not a girl, once who could laugh despite it all, to someone grown with joy etched onto her face. Than Harry put an arm around her and pulled her close for a kiss and that woke him up.

He knew who the third wheel was in this house and it wasn't Harry Potter.

"We should owl my mother," Draco said as the couple broke apart. He had to watch Ginny brush her nose against Harry's. He had to watch Harry smile at Ginny as if she were the sun shining on his life. He couldn't bear it.

"Why?" Harry asked.

Ginny hit him on the arm. "So she knows we're coming, idiot brain," she said. "So she can be a hostess. So she's prepared to put on a good act for her Ministry spy."

"Oh," Harry rubbed the spot she'd hit. "You're right."

"He says as if it's a surprise," Ginny said. She was already searching through a drawer for a sheet of parchment and she scribbled off a note. Draco opened his mouth to warn her it would get read, whatever it was, then pressed his lips shut. She'd survived the same year with the Carrows that he had. She knew how to guard her words when she had to. Within 30 awkward minutes, the owl had returned. His mother would be delighted to have them come over and fly, and looked forward to seeing Mr. Potter again. She'd have refreshments ready for them on the back veranda for after, no need to come inside and say hullo before hand. Just start your game.

When they apparated to the Manor, that's exactly what they did. Draco paused to look back the house where he'd grown up, where he'd spent all his Christmases, where he'd seen men tortured by his own hand. A curtain in an upstairs window shifted.

"You coming?" Harry asked, "or do you plan to admire the architecture all day?"

"It's good architecture," Draco said, but he pointed the broom he was borrowing into the air. "Let's go."

Ginny released the Snitch. "First person to catch it kisses the loser of her – or his – choosing," she said with a grin that dared either man to object. Draco supposed he should have known that she wouldn't have settled for being the dutiful girlfriend watching from the sidelines and he sprang into the air, already behind her. Already losing.

That thought disappeared into the joy of flight. The ground dropped away beneath him and the wind stung his eyes. None of them had bothered to put on any of the gear you'd wear for a real match and if they didn't need protection from Bludgers the air was just as biting, the cold just as cruel. He didn't care, though. Not when a flash of gold flirted with him then danced up and away too quickly to follow.

He darted after it, his eyes stinging from the tears the wind stole. It flew left, then right, then dropped down to the ground as quickly as it could and he plunged down after it. Ginny was swooping in from one side. He could see her out of the corner of his eye. She moved in and out of his vision with flashes of red as she swung herself around, trying to cut him off. He didn't see Harry until a body slammed into him from behind, knocking him off course. He had to fight to stay in control and when he'd wrestled the broom back into compliance with his will, the Snitch had disappeared again.

He pulled his broom alongside Harry's. He hadn't been able to grab the Snitch either. Knocking Draco aside had destabilized him almost as much, though not so much he hadn't stopped to hover and watch Draco struggle.

"Cheater," Draco said. He was breathing heavily and the word came out more as a pant.

"I'm just clumsy," Harry said with a disingenuous grin. "Sorry."

"The day you're clumsy on a broom is the day Pygmy Puffs fly," Draco said with narrowed eyes.

"A compliment?" Harry asked. "You're slipping." The he jerked himself away and soared through the air. The broom seemed like an extension of himself. He didn't seem to need to steer it. He barely held on. Draco let himself float for a minute and admired Harry's seemingly effortless athleticism. He needed to catch his breath, after all, and the Snitch was nowhere in sight. Harry was just showing off as he pointed himself at the ground, pulled back up in a roll, then turned to face Draco with a mocking tilt to his head. Draco spread his hands in pretend confusion.

Neither of them noticed Ginny until it was too late. She'd been circling above them in slow, lazy loops, and every time she passed by a particular tree Draco had caught a glimpse of her. He and Harry had been alternating between hovering and doing increasingly elaborate feints as she flew. They'd dive and roll and corkscrew through the air, each time pulling up to check if the other had been watching and the whole time Ginny kept up her steady pattern until Draco realized he hadn't seen her for a bit. At least three of her passes should have gone by and he hadn't spotted her.

"Shite," he said out loud, and twisted on his broom. She was skimming over a flower bed, Snitch just ahead of her. He pointed at her and Harry took after her. He could fly. He could really fly. He raced through the air and Draco had to admit it hadn't been favoritism that had put him on the Hogwarts House team at eleven but Draco was no slouch himself and he'd almost caught up when the Snitch seemed to pause, or perhaps Ginny put on a burst of speed, and she had the tiny golden ball, wings aflutter, in her hand.

She came to rest on the lawn. "I think I win," she said.

Harry landed next to her first. He looked pleased and annoyed and proud of her and irritated with himself all at once. It was a stew of expressions and Draco wouldn't have been able to interpret half of it if he hadn't spent so many years just staring at him. It also helped that he felt much of the same confusing tumult himself. Ginny was brilliant. She'd just outflown both of them and her cheeks were flushed and her eyes shone. True, that was because the wind had made all their eyes water. Harry's eyes had the same glittering sparkle to them. But Ginny looked alive and beautiful and Draco felt something in his soul soar that she was just so good.

He'd also failed to one-up Harry Potter again, thanks to her, and a lifetime of bitter rivalry threatened to wash away all the happiness seeing the glee on Ginny's face brought him. Then Harry asked, "Do I get a kiss from the winner?" and it got worse.

Ginny threw a hand around his neck and pressed her lips into his. Draco looked down at his feet. Blades of grass bent under the toes of his shoes, and the end of his broomstick had crushed a three-leaf-clover so only one sad leaf peaked out. He waited for them to be done, his whole mind so focused on the greenery that he missed Ginny coming over and poking him with one finger until she was already there. She prodded and he let out a sigh. "I'm sure my mother has tea ready," he said. "And biscuits if you like."

"I didn't only beat Harry," she said.

"What?" Draco didn't follow her.

"If the loser has to give the winner a kiss," she said. "You owe me."

He took a panicked step backward. She followed him, and held the Snitch up for him to see. "I caught it," she said unnecessarily. "I want my prize."

Draco looked over at Harry in a panic. This was not how this was supposed to go. Things just didn't play out this way. She was either making fun, or Harry was gearing up to wallop him. Harry just spread his hands and, if Draco didn't know such a thing was impossible, smirked at him. How dare that bastard just stand there and smirk. It would serve him right if he did kiss her. Draco could hear all the pronouns getting mixed up in his head as his thoughts raced but he didn't care. If Harry Potter was going to be like that, he'd show him.

He dropped the broom he was still holding onto and pulled Ginny Weasley against him. She was so tiny. He'd forgotten that since their last kiss. She was tiny and sweet and perfect. He could smell the sweat of their flight on her skin and her hair smelled of the air and he pushed his mouth against hers with more force than skill, driven more by spite than desire.

He froze once her lips were on his. If it had been up to him the kiss probably would have ended there, just a peck followed by a graceless fumble for his broom and history's most awkward round of tea and biscuits. Ginny, however, wound a hand along the back of his neck and then up through his hair. Her fingers caught in the wind-swept tangles and she tugged a bit which should have hurt but instead made him pull her closer and groan a bit as she opened her mouth.

The sane part of his brain told him this was the dumbest thing he'd done in a lifetime of idiotic choices. Sure, they were married, but that had been an accident. It was an inconvenience they would get straightened out. She loved Harry Potter, who was standing right there, watching all of this. Draco waited for the fist or the curse or the shove but somehow the kiss went on and he'd curled his fingers into her back and was holding on. He never wanted to let go. He never wanted to kiss anyone else.

Except –

He stopped that thought at once, so shocked by it he stepped away from the girl in his arms. His eyes flew to Harry, who swallowed hard when he met Draco's glance and shifted so he hunched forward a little. Draco squinted. He knew that awkward shift, where you tried to create a little more room in your trousers to hide the evidence of your…

That wasn't possible.

He looked back at Ginny who had the temerity to look smug. "This," she said, "has worked out far better than I could have ever planned."

"I have no idea what you are talking about," Draco said because the obvious possibility was, well, impossible.

She tossed him the Snitch. "Let's go get something to drink," she said. "After all that, I could use some lemonade."

She strolled up the lawn toward the Manor as if it belonged to her, Harry and Draco behind her, both carefully not looking at one another. Draco wanted a drink too. He just didn't think lemonade would be strong enough.

. . . . . . . . .

A/N - Thank you so much to slytherinxbadxgirl for beta reading. She is a gift.