Remembering the How
Summary: Reminiscing before her wedding, Ginny remembers what sparked their relationship, however unseemly it was. WAFFY and slightly amusing, in my own words.
She stared at her reflection…the contrast between her flaming hair and the soft white made her want to gag.
Virginia Weasley knew she didn't belong here, taking part of a ceremony she didn't care for, listening to good wishes and polite inquiries from families she had never seen before, but had merely heard their names in passing. Fingering the diamonds at her neck, her lips twitched into a genuine smile at the thought of a silver-blonde scowling at the strangers. She just wanted to be with him, and skip all the little shows, but caught sight of her engagement ring, which reminded her that they had to go through with them.
He had insisted that she wear something elegant but not gaudy like those horrendously huge stones sitting on gold. When he had kissed her on the neck and murmured his proposal into her ear, she had felt her knees weaken considerably, so it was a good thing that he had his arms wound around her waist. As she whispered her answer, she felt a cool piece of metal sliding over her ring finger. A beautiful band of platinum wound with sparkling diamonds and emeralds met her eyes.
She traced the precious gems with her index finger, feeling a rush of love washing away her frustration.
It had been an interesting courtship to say the least, and a memory she would never let go.
****
(Three Years ago)
"He's so hot; I could pour chocolate on him and lick forever!"
"I know Parvati, he has that sexy sneer that makes you want to growl and bite."
*Giggle Giggle*
This vein of conversation continued for a good amount of time and both Lavender and Parvati didn't care whether or not another girl was trying to do homework. Then again, it wasn't an unusual occurrence, in fact, it was expected. You see, when the boys of Gryffindor are about, the girls twist their faces with disgust at the mention of Draco Malfoy, but when they are away, the head over heels lust never ends.
There was a poor unfortunate girl who sat in the corner of the common room who gripped the edges of her Potions book, her thumbs pressed hard against the pages so that her knuckles were white. She didn't care about the Slytherin brat; she just wanted to pass the upcoming exam, so she headed out of the room and to her favorite spot beside the lake.
She settled down under a tree, more than happy to actually start understanding the stupid brewing process of koalas, or some such thing.
"You ought to stop studying, you'll never pass anyway."
She refused to acknowledge him, the one whose name drove her out of her own common room; he would not make her leave this spot!
"Turning a deaf ear won't help you from lost brain cells little Weasel."
She concentrated on the individual letters, then the words, then put the words into a sentence, yes Koalas are cuddly and cute…cuddly and cute…cuddly and cu-
*Slap*
Her eyes could no longer focus on words, probably because there was no longer a book in her hands. Her potions book lied a few feet away in the dirt. It was then that she felt her chest reach the point of exploding.
With a deadly calmness, she stood, dusting off her clothes as Malfoy sneered.
It was rather sad that Draco underestimated her.
Without so much as a warning, she grabbed him and tossed the spoiled Slytherin into the lake.
The part of her that vaguely recalled guilt, very very softly told her to help him out, but the part that was angry and downright spiteful, told her to shrug it off and watch him become the drenched ferret he was.
Deciding to go with the latter, Ginny waited impatiently for Draco to emerge sputtering and wailing like a baby. Then she frowned…he was taking an awfully long time… Surely the Malfoy scum had culture enough to indulge in a few swimming lessons…didn't they? Now the guilt became worry and she nervously counted a minute before kicking off her shoes, shrugging off her robe, and diving in after him.
The cold water enveloped her and she shivered underneath it. Her eyes stung from the water making contact with her open eyes, but she squinted and searched hard for platinum blonde hair.
She couldn't find any.
Panic began to settle in…the idea of Azkaban didn't appeal to her in the least. Inwardly she bemoaned her bad luck and felt the tugs of guilt overwhelm her spite. When she realized that she wouldn't be able to find him, she decided to go back to the castle and ask Dumbledore for help.
She swam to the edge of the lake, broke the surface of the water and dragged herself back onto land.
It was then that she heard it.
Slowly she lifted her head, tucked her stringy hair behind her ears with trembling fingers and beheld…
Draco Malfoy in his sopping wet glory but still busting a gut and pointing at her.
She could feel her jaw drop, the indignation rising, the guilt had all but fled her growing fury.
"Y-y-you eeeevil little-little-bleached ferret!"
Ginny felt her pride wince at the stuttering.
Surprisingly Draco did not snarl, did not laugh…he sneered.
"Envious Weasel? Just because I know you're drooling over me doesn't mean you have a chance of even getting near my sexy self."
Maybe it was the fact that he was a spoiled brat that picked on her endlessly, maybe it was because he was just a bloody git, or maybe it was because he did look good in wet clothes, but she decided it was because koalas hated spoiled Slytherins. Now, if cute sweet koalas couldn't tolerate Slytherins, how could Ginny? This was the dear redhead's reasoning.
So she kneed him.
Rather proud she had moved relatively graceful, with her clothes feeling like dead weight and her eyes glazed over, it was a pretty nice move.
Too bad she hadn't thought about retaliation.
He grabbed her as soon as she had stepped back, and tossed her to the ground. His forearm was against her throat and cutting off air. When he realized she was turning blue, he let up a bit, but still firmly held her down.
Once she got that much needed oxygen, she saw a flicker of guilt before it gave way to a chilling coldness. His face was inches away from hers and she could feel his warm breath as he hissed, "Don't play with me little girl. You've shoved me into a lake and then you kneed my manhood. Surely you know I'll pay you back for this. Watch yourself."
With the liquid swiftness of a snake, he moved away and back to the castle.
****
It had been Draco's last year, and her sixth…it was also the year of duels, hexes and general sniping between the two. It still surprised her that his revenge had ended up with them sucking face in his private room.
*PSSST*
Snapping out of her reverie without any grace whatsoever, she glared at the door and threw it open, preparing to snarl in all her bridal glory.
There stood a bemused Draco Malfoy.
He slipped past the door and closed the door behind him, muttering a silence charm as well as a locking charm.
Still staring at him as if he was a five-headed-rabid-muggle Chihuahua, he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her overly stylized hair.
"So how's my little Weasel holding up?"
Her eyes welled up with tears, most people would only be able to read the calm indifference, but she heard the concern and gentleness underneath it.
Not caring that the long lasting makeup charm might break and smear all over Draco's pristine white tux, she buried her face into his chest and took a deep breath. He smelled like caramel and vanilla.
She pulled away slightly and met his eyes, "Have you been eating my Godiva ice cream?"
Startled, he blushed slightly at being caught.
"AHA!"
He rolled his eyes and pulled her back to him and told her he'd buy her a truckload of the muggle chocolate brand ice cream.
Ginny smiled into his chest and murmured, "I don't want to ask how you got up here to see me. I was pretty sure mum was guarding the door pretty well."
She didn't see his eyes flash with mischievousness as he drawled, "Well, someone had to see to the ruined flower arrangements, so I sent Blaise to your overexcited mother."
She didn't want to laugh, so she settled for biting her lip and smacking his arm playfully, "You horrible boy! What did you two do to the flowers?"
He drew himself up with pride, "I ordered Blaise to ruin something so I could sneak up here."
Poor Ginny couldn't hold it back anymore; he was so proud and so very adorable but still the spoiled brat, so she laughed outright at him.
Feigning an injured air, he sniffed, "Well I see that I'm not wanted," and made a move to leave.
Stifling her giggles, she pulled him back and tiptoed to kiss his temple, "That was very sweet of you and incredibly ingenious on your behalf Mr. Malfoy. I will be forever grateful."
He raised an eyebrow at her and said with such a stern tone, "As you should be Miss Wealsey," before kissing her full on the mouth.
When he pulled away she had a dreamy smile on her face, and he couldn't help but smile softly as well.
Ginny looked into his cloudy eyes and murmured sadly, "Do we have to go into that huge horrific wedding thing?"
Chuckling he kissed her nose, "Sorry little girl but it's the only way our families will let us be. You remember that deal we cut with them."
She sighed and repeated from memory, "After we have a wedding planned solely by our parents, we will be allowed to live on our own, but not outside of England yadda yadda blah blah bleh."
Draco playfully smirked, adding, "Are you forgetting the 'have at least a brood of children' part?"
She raised an eyebrow at him and poked him in the chest, "You seem awfully happy about that part."
Moving his hands to her waist he huskily whispered, "It's the part preceding the children that makes me awfully happy."
If Hermione had not come barging in at that very moment, the soon-to-be-weds would have been caught doing the dirty.
"Ahem."
Ginny and Draco were hardly children, and even less shy in public, so they didn't spring away from each other, but merely lifted questioning eyebrows at the intruder.
The bushy-haired maid of honor rolled her eyes and addressed Ginny while pointing at Draco, "Your dear soon to be husband just sent your mother into a fit and she's about to come in here and sob about wilted flowers that smell like boiled cabbage, so I recommend for you two to wrap things up."
With that warning she turned around and walked out.
She turned to him with an amused smirk, "Cabbage?"
He grinned and shrugged his shoulders noncommittally.
Ginny groaned loudly and lengthily leaving Draco's arms to plop down on a nearby chair. He walked up to her as she sulked and squatted down to meet her eyes.
"Do you not want to marry me?"
She glared at him, "Don't you dare think that I don't want you! I can't wait to have you all to myself and hoard you away from those evil leeching whores."
"So what's the problem?"
She looked at the ceiling muttering about men being idiots before answering, "I don't want to be paraded about in front of people I could care less about. If it was just close friends and relatives, I could have handled that, but no, we have people who only want business ventures calling me Vinny."
His eyes twinkled laughingly as he kissed her jaw and proposed an idea.
"How about this; as soon as we're officially married, I'll whisk you away romantically so that not only do we not have vultures calling you Vinny, chasing you, but we also get some major alone time."
Sometimes she wondered how he could be such an angel.
"That sounds heavenly…but do we have to go to the reception?"
Draco shook his head sympathetically, "Sorry little girl, that's not going to happen. Your brothers would shave my head."
"Is shaving your head the most awful thing you can think of?"
Genuinely concerned he glanced around the room quickly before whispering, "You mean my eyebrows?"
Giggling she pulled him into another long kiss and held his face with their foreheads touching.
"I love you and your spoiled butt."
"You mean my very firm and sexy butt."
"Definitely."
"Well I love you and your garish hair."
"Surely you mean my temptress locks of spun fire?"
"Exactly."
They stared at each other for a minute, just tracing the other's features with their eyes. Well at least before they heard yelling.
"GINNY! OH MY BABY GIRL! THE FLOWERS HAVE GONE INSANE AND THEY SMELL LIKE CABBAGE!"
She gave him a weak smile and a quick kiss before slapping his sexy butt, "You better get going before mum tosses you out the window."
Draco pulled her into a deep kiss, not settling for a cheaper version before whispering, "Next time we meet, we'll be married and this wonderful dream will become reality."
Surprised by the sweet words, she was about to reply but he had already disapparated.
Her mother barged in looking flustered and close to tears, "GINNY!"
She was still smiling at the spot where Draco had vacated just a moment earlier and whispered, "We'll have a lovely dream together."