Chapter Eighteen

February Tenth, who bloody cares what sodding time it is!

It all started this morning. Draco and I were eating crumpets and jam while reading the morning post when this moth eaten bird came crashing into our table. It looked so much like that tattered thing my family use to own that I was immediately filled with affection for the half dead thing.

Draco, on the other hand, was not.

He picked it up by one wing as was all set to toss it back out the window when it hooted at him and dropped a battered letter into his coffee. He was so unsettled by the splash that he let go of the old owl. The natty thing blinked nastily at him and then coughed up a ball of fur and bones right on to Draco's plate before sticking it's beak in the air and flying off in a lopsided huff.

By this time I was in tears from laughing so hard and was bent over double. Draco just sneered at me as he attempted to fish the letter out of his cup. He finally gave an exasperated sigh and then pointed his wand at the soggy mess and charmed the paper back together and into his hands.

He glared at it for a long moment and then handed it over to me.

It was a note from someone called Sven saying that one Harry Potter had told him that I was a fairly nice sort of girl and that he, Sven was willing to risk a date with me tomorrow night at eight sharp. It was ever so pompous and self-important sounding and it made my ears go red at the thought of being set up with such a man as this.

Then I saw Draco's face and every thing was right in the world again.

He looked about ready to burst. His lips were pressed tight and his nose was pinched. It hurt just to see how clenched his teeth were and the look in his eyes was enough to make a saner woman than I back off slowly.

I asked him if he had any problem with me meeting up with this Sven fellow and I swear I saw a tick start up in his jaw. He told me that he bloody well did mind thank you very much and that he was not about to let the love of his life waltz about with some poxy git named Sven.

Let me say that again in case you missed it the first time: not about to let the love of his life. That's right. Mister I-don't-say-how-I-feel called me the love of his life. I was on such a high that I sort of let it slip that there was no Sven as the handwriting of the note was clearly Nadia's.

Thinking back on it I can clearly see that that was my mistake.

He started muttering death threats aimed at twittering girls who don't know when to give up and then he slammed his hand on to the table and said in a slightly scary voice 'I've ruddy had enough of this rubbish!' before storming out of the room without so much as giving me a kiss goodbye.

Silly git.

I guess I can forgive him since I am the bloody Love of his Life!

February twenty-eight, much to late for me to be awake

Oh my goodness! You will not believe what that wonderfully stupid cuddly prat of a man did today! Guess, go on, I will give you three tries. Not that you will. He... He kissed me and he made love to me and he danced about the room naked when I said yes to his whispered query.

He asked me to marry him.

Yes, I know he has done it a million time before but this time he was down on one knee with the very same ring he gave me a billion years ago. And before hand he went on for hours about how wonderful and perfect I am and told me no less then ten times that he loved and adored me.

How could I not say yes?

Especially when he was starkers when he said it seeing as how we had just finished winning the gold medal in the bedroom Olympics.

Gods how I love this man!

Draco stared at the little ring that circled her finger and sighed with relief. It had been a hellish ten months but finally being able to walk into a room and be presented as 'Mr. and Mrs. Draco Malfoy' was well worth it.

He had wanted to get married as soon as she said yes. He had begged her to let him floo them to the nearest courthouse and get it over with on the spot, but she had told him that she was not going to run off with him like they had something to be ashamed of. In retrospect he knew she had been right.

Nothing would ever compare with the joy he felt as he watched her float down the aisle in that white cloud she called a dress. If he lived to be two hundred he would never again feel the same sort of overwhelming happiness he experienced when she gazed lovingly into his eyes and promise to love, honor and cherish him till death she did part.

It was worth spending hours selecting the perfect cake, it more than made up for the endless chats about the slight difference in dusk rose and spring sunset and the merits of each as a bridesmaid gown. It even smoothed the sting of having a balding rotund Englishman with the fakest French accent he had ever heard calling him 'a dear little thing' that he 'could not wait to dress.'

And here he was holding her close in his arms as the dance to the sweet sounds of the band it had taken her five months to decide on with his gazed firmly fixed on the little golden band and the words carved in it.

"Vous et nul alter" He murmured softly into her ear.

His wife of less than three hours gasped and smiled up at him. Her eyes filled with tears as she closed the gap between their lips. He smiled into her mouth and then lost himself in the feeling of her body pressed firmly against the length of his. She pulled back far too soon and looked dreamily up at him.

"You and no other Draco. Not since that bet ages ago. Not since you first held me in your none to graceful embrace and somehow managed to make me yours."

He kissed he again and then laughed at the scandalized looks their actions were getting from the middle aged witches who lined the dance floor.

"You would think that they have never seen two young people in love before." He said as he twirled her across the ballroom floor in time to the beat. She laughed up at him and he felt something missing slide into place.

"I love you Mrs. Malfoy. I love you more than I can ever say."

"And I love you to you puffed up little popinjay!"

"Thank god for that." He laughed with her.

The music stopped and he lead her from the dance floor toward the long table set up at the head of the room. His heart beat faster as he realized that the woman holding his heart in her hand was now his forever. He heard her mutter something under her breath and came to a stop.

"What did you say love?"

"That it is about bloody time you made an honest woman out of me." She giggled and then put her hand to her belly in the manner of all pregnant woman world wide. "We wouldn't have want the baby to have been a bastard now would we?"

It took a moment for the meaning of her words to sink in but when they did he let out a loud whoop of emotion. He picked her up and swung her about all the while laughing like a crazed man.

And in that second Draco finally knew what it meant to feel a father's love.

Fin