Disclaimer- no, sadly I am poor and deprived, which would not be the case if I had created Harry Potter.

Chapter 4

The obligations.

It was now 12 days since their wedding day. They were back at Hogwarts, living separately, of course. Ginny still in 6th year girls dormitories and Draco taking advantage of his Head Boy status to have his own, large room just behind the Slytherin common room. They had managed to keep their marriage under wraps. However, as much as they pushed the incident out of their minds, the contract and its obligations still loomed over their heads like a large, depressing, virginity-losing cloud.

"Look we've only got two days left until…u-until we have to…you know." Ginny reminded him awkwardly.

"Have sex, you mean?" He smirked thought that was the last thing he really wanted to do.

"Yeah, that's what I meant. I think we should do it tonight."

"Eager are we?" He drawled; inside feeling hope bubble up to the surface…if she wanted to then surely…

"Don't be silly. But if we leave it to the last minute and something happens, or interrupts or whatever we could accidentally break the contract." Ginny reasoned, convincing herself as much as him.

"And then I would have married you for absolutely no reason." Draco smirked again then sighed when she gave him 'the look' that only the Weasley women could do. "Alright. My room tonight at...8?" He asked unconsciously choosing the soonest time possible.

"Ok, but I'll meet you in the library and then you can walk me to your room, otherwise I'll have to walk through the Slytherin common room alone and I really hate doing that."

"Fine. See you at eight."

It was quarter to eight. Oh god. 15 minutes. Oh god….ok deep breaths. Deeeep breaths.

"Gin, you ok?" Harry asked in some concern as she suddenly seemed to start practising meditation techniques.

"What? Oh- uh yeah. Yeah I'm fine." She answered, stubbornly ignoring the curious looks she was receiving from Hermione and her brother.

"You sure you're ok?" Hermione asked a few moments later when Ron and Harry were otherwise involved in a deep and meaningful conversation about Quidditch.

"Yeah. Fine. Except that I'm losing my virginity to Draco Malfoy tonight." Ginny whispered quickly in quite a panic.

"Oh Gin." Hermione whispered back sympathetically, knowing that there was no choice in the matter. "When?"

"He'll be here any minute."

"Ginny, you ready?"

They spun around to encounter a rather nervous looking Draco behind them.

"Absolutely not." She answered but stood up anyway.

"Such enthusiasm." He mocked gently as they moved toward the entrance of the library.

"Sorry, I'm just….nervous."

"I know." He actually grabbed her hand in a comfortingly sweaty embrace. "Me too." He admitted in one of his rare 'real' moments that he only ever shared with his wife.

She squeezed his hand, and smiled a genuine, very beautiful, albeit hesitant, smile. And he returned it with a rare one of his own, as, after a quick goodbye to the gang, Ginny was lead out of the library.

"What was all that about?" Ron asked about five minutes later, having finished his in-depth conversation with Harry.

"All what?" Hermione asked innocently, without taking her head out of the book she was pretending to read.

"All that with Malfoy." Harry said, spitting out the last word with an expression akin to disgust. "Where are they going?"

She took a deep breath looked up at them and replied "I…can't tell you." She admitted with a deflating sigh.

Draco and Ginny had been spending a large amount of time together recently, at the gentle insistence of Dumbledore. They'd spoken a lot about their past, well Ginny had and Draco had forced himself to contribute as much as his impersonal façade would let him. They'd both come to realise that their unfounded but strong assumptions about the other were….well for lack of a more eloquent term…wrong.

Draco had assumed, because of his past dealings with Ron, that Ginny was unintelligent and hot tempered. And he'd assumed that he'd find her red hair and freckles as unattractive as he found others. However that was not the case, he actually found them quite endearing. Not that he'd tell her that. Especially as he wasn't completely sure whether she still hated him or not. She didn't seem to. She was quite friendly most of the time. But maybe that was just her.

Ginny's feelings however were mixed. She'd discovered that the most accepted theory, that Draco was happy to follow in his fathers footsteps as a Death Eater was completely incorrect. Draco had had enough of being controlled, having lived with Lucius all his life. The last thing he intended to do now that he was almost out of his fathers clutches, was become a slave to a hypocritical wizard who by all rights should be dead by now. Not that he was suddenly a lovely person- no he was still rude and arrogant and a complete jerk on occasion, but now she understood why.

At the moment he was being far from an arrogant jerk. He seemed almost as nervous as she was. Which was confusing really because according to the rumours of his past exploits he'd been in this situation before. They both sat on the edge of his bed now down-right terrified.

She was fidgeting, wringing her hands uncomfortably. He was sorry that he was making her feel so scared, it wasn't his intention. Plus, he knew how she felt. So he spoke-

"You know what? There's no rush right now, want a drink?"

She smiled in relief and accepted, raising a wry eyebrow when he pulled out a bottle of fire-whiskey from underneath his bed.

Soon, after over half a bottle of the strong spirit they were laying next to each other, sprawled across his bed laughing.

"You really did that?" Ginny giggled "Why?"

"I dunno." He giggled too then coughed to cover it, making Ginny erupt in hysterics. "She was getting on my nerves."

"Yeah but was there really any need to do that? Personally I think it's coz she rejected you." She teased pointedly.

"Oh you do, do you? You do? Well that's just not good enough." He heaved himself off the bed and tickled her mercilessly until neither could breathe from laughing so much. It was probably the first time in his whole life that he'd laughed out of pure amusement until his jaw hurt and his stomach ached.

He suddenly realised how very close she was. She was practically lying on top of him, her face only inches from his. Knowing that she'd probably hex him into oblivion, he threw caution to the wind. (Along with his self-control and legendary cool, calm façade) And he kissed her.

Only a moment later he pulled away, opened his eyes…to find her staring at him. Then without any warning she fisted her hand in his hair and brought his lips back to hers once again.

"Hermione, I'm worried about her. It's been hours." Ron said cajolingly. "Have they gone somewhere?"

"Ron…I-oh no I'm sorry I can't tell you." She said desperately.

"'Mione, come on. He's her brother - he deserves to know." Harry pleaded.

"Stop it! Stop trying to make me feel guilty because I can't tell you!"

A/N- Thank you very much to waytoevil, Norwegian ridgeback andSlytherin Queen for their kind reviews.I know i havent really given you much to actually review so i thank for taking the time to encourage me to write more.I have a few chapters written so i shouldn't be long updating. But if you really want me to hurry i think that you should review and tell me so. (here's where I'm hoping that emotional blackmail really works. thanks