Chapter Eleven

Wherein Draco Discovers the Softer Side of Ginny

The bike was sitting outside the manor when they emerged.

"Ah, my old enemy," Draco muttered.

"What?" Ginny asked.

"Nothing. Where are we going?

"I thought you were the one with a plan."

"Not so much," he said.

"I should probably check in with my family," she said. "I'm sure Harry has mentioned it to them."

"Nah, he's probably still out."

She smiled. He was surprised to feel his own lips twitch up at it.

"Okay, let's go see your fam. But I'm not coming in."

"See how that works for you," she said and he remembered the damned spell.

"Bugger fuck. How far do you think this spell will let us get?"

"Do you want to find out?" she asked.

"I got time."

THe Burrow looked same as always. Despite having been rebuilt, it still looked as rundown and decrepit as always. Draco itched to throw money at it until it looked like a real building and not something from a Mother Goose rhyme.

He was going to say as much to Ginny but he looked at her and saw the look on her face. No matter how awful this place looked, it was still her home and she was happy to be home.

So he shut his mouth and focused instead on the invisibility cloak he'd swiped from the manor before leaving. It was an older cloak and sometimes did not fully mask him but only turned him to a thin vapor. Ginny had promised to warn him if that happened.

"I really hope Harry isn't here," Ginny said. "I don't think your disguise will last long if he's around."

"It's not going to last at all if you keep talking to me," he told her. She pulled a face and he bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing. As it was, he smiled.

Ginny walked up to the front door. She strode into the house as if she owned it. Draco envied that. He often felt like a visitor in the Malfoy Manor. Despite himself, Draco cast a quick spell to repair the broken window in the door.

"Show off," Ginny muttered under her breath.

Draco just grinned.

Molly Weasley bustled into the main hall and stopped when she saw her daughter. She rushed over to give Ginny a hug, almost knocking over Draco.

"Hi Mum," Ginny said.

"How wonderful to see you, dear. I simply knew Harry was mistaken."

"What was Harry saying?"

"That you went and got kidnapped by Draco Malfoy."

"Oh, no," Ginny said glibly. "Nothing like that."

"But what on Earth were you doing in the Magister head quarters?"

"Just..."

"Harry fell off his broom and suffered a minor concussion," Draco supplied, breathing it into her ear.

"Harry fell off his broom and suffered a minor concussion. It's nothing too serious but they called me in to take a look at it. One of the Magisters has been flirting with me lately and I'm afraid he went a bit overboard today in front of Harry. I had to slap him. I'm sure Harry just saw that and thought the Magister was Malfoy. I can't really blame Harry. They're both blonde and both gits."

Draco pinched her ass, thrilled when she jumped.

"That's fine, dear. But when are you going to settle down? Ron and Hermione are living happily together and Harry is dating that pretty miss Brown."

"Harry and Lavender?" Draco breathed, just barely above the sound of silence.

Ginny's lips twitched but there was no other sign to indicate she heard him. Draco found himself unexpectedly taken by that lip twitch. It was cute. Maybe it was seeing her here, amid her comfort zone, but he suddenly found her...soft. She was like a kitten, he realized. Fuzzy and cuddly but she had teeth and claws.

Oddly enough, he liked that.

Ginny felt like her attention was torn in two. She was paying attention to her mom but at the same time she knew exactly where Draco was at every moment.

After he pinched her ass, she took a seat as her mother once again ran through the list of men she could date. "Mum, if I want a boyfriend I'll go find one."

"You say that but I don't feel as if you mean it," Molly said. Which was true. Ginny had no interest whatsoever.

"I'll find a guy when I'm good and ready," she said.

"Or when my crazy father traps the two of us together," Draco breathed in her ear. She shivered unwillingly at that feeling. "What would your mum say if we told her about this?"

Considering what the real spell was and the implications it held, Ginny was not going to chance it. Her mum might like it but her brothers had once tried to kill Blaise Zabini when he shared his opinion of her ass a little too loudly in their presence.

Just to amuse herself and see if she couldn't get Draco to squirm a bit, she asked "Would it be the worst thing in the world if I happened to date Malfoy?"

Molly looked surprised. "Of course not. But I hope you would be careful. Just because you think someone can be saved, does not mean they wish to be."

"That sounded like permission," Draco said.

Ginny knew what he was going to do just before he did it. He was gone from her side and the kitchen door opened and closed. A moment later Draco burst into the kitchen. He strode across the room before she could fully rise from the table.

One hand on the table, one on her chair, he pinned her back to her seat and then they were kissing.

(A/N: Yup. Cliffie. Also their first real kiss. The one where he did CPR doesn't count. Next chapter? Lots of yelling and Lucius shall bake.