Chapter Three

Ginny could barely wait to leave the dressing room. Hermione would be thrilled with her. The dress was perfect. It was long and white and the bodice of it was glittery and shimmered in the light of the small Hogsmeade store. The skirt was made of satin and it flowed down past Ginny's feet. That, of course, would be fixed with the pair of white sandal heels that they had bought the day before. Only those shoes were capable of making Ginny look taller than her typical petite size of 5'3.

As she stepped out of the room and out into the main store, Hermione rushed over to her, making sure not to go to fast, because of her new pregnancy—5 months in. She squealed at the sight of Ginny who looked beautiful.

"Hell, Ginny!" was all the expecting mother had to say at first.

"What?" Ginny asked, suddenly horrified. "Is there something wrong with it? I thought it was nice!"

"No, it's just that you're almost glowing more than I am… and I'm the pregnant lass over here. Don't tell me you're pregnant too, Gin!" Hermione threatened, jokingly.

"No! No! Nothing like that," she replied. "Harry and I don't do that sort of thing."

Hermione laughed. "Oh I know, don't worry. I trust you completely," she added with a wink. "But, Ginny, you're gorgeous. You were always so rash and brazen at school… I never really noticed how pretty you are!"

"Because your head was always in the books, silly!" Ginny retorted. "Besides, I've always been beautiful… runs in the family, of course. Hell, I'm prettier than Ron."

The other woman was silent for a moment. "I wouldn't go that far."

Both laughed as they purchased the dress, preparing for the wedding that was only a few days away.

"Hermione?" Ginny asked, as she walked briskly through the halls of St. Mungo's. She searched floor after floor trying to find her friend's office, only to have finally found it on the very last floor. "Hermione, can I bother you for a moment?"

Hermione sat at her desk, her hair pulled into a tight bun, wearing her usual blue robes. Her reading glasses (newly prescribed by a friend in the building) sat on the edge of her nose as she appeared to be reading a report. She looked up at the sound of Ginny's voice and shut the folder immediately.

"Ginny!" she practically shouted, surprised. "What are you doing here?"

"I have a question and you work here, so I wanted to ask you something," she replied.

"Oh," Hermione sighed, relieved, "I thought… never mind what I thought. What's the issue? What's the dilemma?"

"What does one wear when they go to someone's house for dinner?"

Hermione was cautious in her response, trying to figure out why Ginny would be going over to someone's house for dinner. "You mean a date? Or just as a welcoming sort of thing? What do you mean?"

"Draco invited me to dinner with him and Blaise and Draco's girlfriend Alezia."

"The Minister's daughter?"

"I s'pose."

"So… why would he invite you if he has a girlfriend?" Hermione inquired.

"For Blaise," Ginny replied. "Apparently Blaise likes me and he's trying to get the two of us to talk. He told me to give Blaise a chance and besides, it's nice to talk to Draco, he's not that bad of a person."

"He's scum," the expectant mother snapped. "Scum—you know that? I don't care how much you say that boy has changed, but he hasn't. He only joined the Order in the end because he knew we'd kill him if he didn't. He's got sense, but he doesn't know any better otherwise. If you're going to associate yourself with scum like him, you may as well just tell your mother that you're leaving the family. She'll disown you, she will."

"She almost has already," was the almost silent reply.

"Serves you right," Hermione added. "You've been slacking off your entire life. When you were engaged to Harry, she thought he'd help you be organized and a responsible adult. But of course, everything went wrong and you became so cynical and stupid. You're so rash again, Ginny, just doing dumb things you'd never usually do. Look at yourself! You're about to go out to dinner with some old Slytherin boys who made your Hogwarts life horrid! Are you just going to let them be your friends now?"

"They have changed! You just don't understand! You've always had Ron and Ron has always had you! There were never people between you!" Ginny shouted.

"Never people—!" she sputtered. "Of course there were girls between me and Ron! He always had a thing for Parvati and Lavender, but we worked through our problems! I didn't start to scream at him and leave him!"

The other woman stood silently. I won't cry, Ginny told herself, it'll just say that I'm weak and stupid. I'm neither and I'm not going to let her get to me.

"But you! Not even a week after your dead ex-boyfriend's funeral, you start to be interested in another boy, possibly two! Don't you think you should grieve a little, like a decent person!" Hermione yelled.

"Mrs. Weasley?"

Hermione turned to see another worker peek their head into her office. "Yes?" she asked, blushing greatly.

"D'you think you and your… friend could keep it down a little bit?"

"Oh certainly," Hermione agreed, apologetically. "I'm so sorry. And, Velma?"

"Yes?"

"D'you want to go out to lunch then, at noon or something?"

"Of course, lovely! I was actually coming to ask you!"

Hermione beamed as her coworker walked out of her office. Then, scowling at Ginny, went back to their conversation. "I don't want to deal with you right now, Ginny, really… I have a lot on my mind with the baby and all and I don't want you ruining my pregnancy by sending me into an early labor. Trust me, I know what stress can do to a baby and you need to leave… please, Ginny."

"Can we talk another time?" she asked, quietly. "I didn't mean to get you angry or make you have a lot of stress. I just … this isn't easy for me, Hermione, and you and Ron aren't exactly helping."

"We have lives of our own now, Gin," Hermione replied, dryly, going back to her report she was filling out. "You're an adult and you can't expect us to baby you and fix all of your problems. You know what's the good kind and bad kind when it comes to wizards. The kind you're with right now isn't exactly the good kind, especially after the Final Battle. D'you think Alezia's father is particularly happy with her for seeing a Malfoy? Of course not, and I think you'd have better common sense than her. So, please, Ginny, can you just go home?"

Ginny didn't bother to answer. She was half-way out of the door as Hermione made her request.

Later that night, Ginny threw clothes all over her apartment, looking for a suitable outfit for the night. Nothing she had would work. All of her robes were gone and replaced with muggle clothing. Surely Draco and Blaise would be dissatisfied with jeans and a sweatshirt!

Suddenly, there was a knock on her door. Lucky for Draco, Ginny happened to be fully dressed in her jeans and gray sweatshirt. When she opened the door to greet him, both seem quite excited to talk.

"I can't find anything to wear to—"

"I know I'm a bit early but I brought—"

The two paused to laugh, and Draco motioned for Ginny to go ahead and speak.

"I can't find anything to wear for tonight, because I know you and Draco are practically Galleonaires and your girlfriend will be in a dress. I'm really sorry, but I don't have anything nice but that dress I wore to the funeral—and I rented that," she said very quickly.

He chuckled and lifted up his briefcase slightly. "May I walk in?" he asked, courteously.

"You don't have to ask… the bugs certainly don't."

"Right," he laughed. "Well, I assumed you wouldn't have anything to wear after some of the things you said a few nights ago and I thought I would do you a kindness… I went out and got you a dress."

He opened up the suitcase and took out a long dark green dress. He held it up to Ginny and found that it matched her height perfectly.

"Oh Draco," she breathed, looking at the dress. "No one's done anything like this for me before. Not since… not for a while… But really, you didn't have to do this for me. I feel awful, like I owe you money or some—"

"No, because really, I feel that I owe you. I was horrible to you at Hogwarts. Really, I was a smarmy little bastard and I'm so sorry. Because you aren't that bad and I just judged you because you were a Weasley. But… Granger and the older Weasley… they're another story, if you don't mind me saying so," he added, with a wink.

"Oh no," she giggled, "go on and say whatever you want about them. They hate me now… for seeing you—I mean—talking to you… looking at you… speaking to you as if you were an equal. They're so hypocritical, Hermione especially, because you used to treat her as if she was under you because of her blood. And just today she said you were worse than her, wizard-wise, because you were an ex-Death Eater. She thinks you haven't changed at all, but how would she even know?"

"My," he said, thinking, "you really did change after the fiasco with Potter."

"People change… but let's not get on about this. I'm going to go put on the dress."

Ginny walked into her bathroom, undressed, and slipped the dress on. It fit perfectly on her body, falling to the length of her knees. It had a bit of a low neck, with black lace along the edges. The sleeves were short and decorated with a bit of lace as well. Looking around her closet as Draco sat on one of her beanbag chairs, she found a pair of matching green flip-flops.

"I assume flip-flops are acceptable?" she presumed.

"Flip what?"

"These," Ginny replied, showing off her shoes.

"Oh, they're fine," Draco answered, waving his hand. "Alezia isn't going to care. She's really mellow when you think about it; she's never gotten angry at me at all. Her father's not overly happy that I'm an ex-Death Eater, but he's considering me now that he sees that our relationship is really going somewhere."

"Mmph," she responded, not particularly interested in Alezia.

"Listen to me," he laughed, "rambling on like a bumbling git. You must be bored to tears about me and my girlfriend—who you've never heard of. C'mon then, we'd better get going."

Ginny slipped on her flip-flops and left her apartment arm-in-arm with Draco.

A/N: I know Hermione seems like such a bitch in this chapter, but I don't want you to judge her too quickly and call her OOC. First of all, Harry is her best guy friend, and it seems likely that she would side with him before Ginny. Second of all, they're all adults now. Both Ron and Hermione earn their keep and can't waste money by housing Ginny. Third, she's pregnant. She's got a lot on her mind and the worries that Ginny causes have finally caused her to explode.

Also, there are clues to the events of the chapter in the flashback. There will always be a connection, although it may not be particularly obvious. Thanks for reviewing!