As the weeks passed, Draco and Ginny grew closer. They met almost every day, and it became more difficult for them to hide their relationship. Little did they know of Hermoine's correspondance with Tonks - Draco had thought she was kidding about going to 'H.Q.' for Christmas. Tonks was reluctant to let him stay, but after listening to Molly Weasley rant about 'proper nourishment', and 'motherly contact', and 'deserving of a chance', she wasn't one to argue.
One morning, at breakfast, an owl dropped Draco a note, instructing him to meet with Professor McGonagall before his first class. This cut into his time with Ginny, so he wasn't too happy when he arrived at the large gargoyle. He muttered something about raspberry jam, and the gargoyle leapt aside. As he entered the Headmistress' office, he noticed boxes still lying around - apparently she wasn't done unpacking her things.
"Ah, Mr. Malfoy. Please, have a seat." McGonagall said cordially. Draco sat down, antsy to find out the purpose of the meeting and leave as quickly as possible. "I have been informed that you will be joining us for Christmas this year." She continued, and Draco became utterly confused.
"I guess so, I mean. I can't go home, and I don't know where my mum is, so...yeah, I'll be staying." McGonagall chuckled.
"No, I'm sorry. When I said 'us', I meant The Order of the Phoenix. Miss Granger suggested you might want to spend this Christmas with what little family you had left, and when Molly caught wind of the idea, she wouldn't settle for anything less." McGonagall smiled a little when she said this, remembering the Howler she'd received earlier that week, after her objection to bringing Draco to Grimmauld Place. They went on to discuss plans for getting him there and back safely, which included a guard of Tonks, Kingsley, Harry, Ron, and Hermoine. That didn't please Draco much, but it was McGonagall's condition. Apparently this year, as many people who could leave Hogwarts were, for safety reasons. No one was to stay behind except for Filch and Hagrid. Then she began to tell him about Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, and apologized for not updating him on his mother's whereabouts and condition. Apparently after Dumbledore died, McGonagall had taken over all of his head duties - Hogwarts and the Order, certain charms and spells in his will automatically made her Secret-Keeper. They finished their conversation, and Draco left for class.
As Draco made his way to Herbology, he thought about spending Christmas with a real family. As much as he hated to admit it, the Weasleys had always been more of a family than the Malfoys, and the Order seemed to be like a family in and of itself. After lunch that afternoon, he met Ginny quickly to explain the plan. Her eyes lit up as he spoke, and he'd never seen anything so wonderful. No one had ever been that excited at the prospect of his company. She hugged him tightly, and he kissed her.
"Oo! I can't wait! You're going to love it. Well, not the place - that's kind of gross. But it's so fun being there all together...I've never spent a Christmas there, but there's no time like the present! I guess that means I have to get you a present..." Draco smiled as he put his arm around Ginny and just let her talk for awhile. Eventually she realized he'd stopped listening, and just kissed him for awhile. When they finally broke apart, Ginny had to run off to her Care of Magical Creatures class, while Draco made his way to Potions.
As he walked towards the dungeons, Harry again stopped him from entering the classroom. This time, Ron was behind him.
"Don't think you're actually going to get there." Harry shot.
"What are you talking about, Potter?" Draco sneered.
"You know what I'm talking about. I'm never going to take you there, and I'm not about to let anyone else take you there."
"That's not exactly your choice, now is it?" looking at Ron, he said, "I believe it was your mother who insisted on it. Thank her for me." He said in the most polite, fake voice he could muster. This enraged Ron to no end, but Harry silenced him quickly.
"No one likes you, Malfoy. No one wants you around. No one will put up with your crap there, and no one's going to show you where it is, so I guess you're stuck."
"Ginny seems to like me, and I think I'm growing on Hermoine if I do say so myself." Just as he finished that sentence, Hermoine walked down the corridor.
"What about me?" She asked innocently. Innocently enough to make it obvious that Malfoy's presence didn't bother her. She moved next to Malfoy when she noticed Harry and Ron's aggressive positions. They all took note of her obvious support for Malfoy, and her friends became more aggressive.
"Malfoy here seems to think you're ok with him coming with us for Christmas." She smiled triumphantly, and looked at Malfoy.
"So it worked out!" He smiled back and nodded. "Oh that's wonderful!"
"You mean you knew about this?" Ron interjected.
"Of course I did, Ronald. It was my idea." She said in her trademark honestly-didn't-you-see-that-coming? voice. Draco smirked at how blatantly out-of-the-loop they'd been lately.
"What were you thinking? I'm not going along with this and neither is Ron. He won't make it there - we won't let him."
"Potter, how many times does someone have to remind you that you're not in charge? McGonagall made this decision, and I don't think she answers to you."
"So what? You're my friend, Ginny's my--" before he could even finish his sentence, Draco's wand was out, and Harry's mouth was hexed shut. Ron was startled and amazed, no one knew Draco could use his wand, let alone perform a pretty difficult hex. Hermoine giggled, but Malfoy was not happy.
"Listen, Potter. Things are the way they are for a reason. You may not like it, but I'm going to be there. You don't have to talk to me, in fact - I'd prefer it if you didn't. But don't bring Ginny into this. She doesn't like you, and she's not with you. She's with me, and if you mess with that - if you upset her in any way - don't expect to be able to walk for very much longer." He'd gotten so close, Harry could almost feel the anger seething from every pore of his body. Draco's voice had dropped to a vicious whisper, until he finally pushed past the two friends and into the classroom.
"Aren't you going to lift the hex?" Ron yelled after him.
"I don't think he should. Serves you both right." With that, Hermoine followed Draco and sat with him in protest. Potions was quieter than usual, and as class ended Draco lifted the hex. Hermoine ran off to tell Ginny of Draco's brilliance, and they all made their way to dinner. Hermoine sat on the opposite side of the House table than Ron and Harry, and instructed Ginny to do the same. She told Ginny about the fiasco, and as Ginny finished dinner, she walked towards Harry and Ron.
"If you ever speak about me like that again, Harry Potter, I will not only never speak to you again, I will make sure you don't ever get the chance to do it again. I am not 'yours' in any sense of the word, and don't you dare think otherwise. You are an arrogant git who cares about no one but himself, and how dare you interfere in my life like that." With her tirade finished, Ginny stormed out of the Great Hall, Hermoine in tow.
"Mate, I don't like Malfoy much either, but if Mum gets wind of this, I'm dead." Ron was almost pleading with Harry to take it down a notch.
"You don't actually like this, do you! Seriously, Ron, this is Malfoy we're talking about! I just don't understand why Ginny would do that to me."
"I never said I liked him, but it's not worth angering a Weasley woman over. I don't know if you really want to mess with that. And Mum's not as forgiving as Ginny. If it were her, you'd be doing chores and making up for this for the rest of the year. And I mean next year, mate." Harry may not have been keen on the idea, but it was true. The temper of a Weasley woman was not to be challenged.
Hermoine began spending more time with Draco during classes, and Ginny after classes. Harry and Ron weren't welcome with them, and they made that quite clear.
Draco's relationship with a Weasley wasn't welcome news, but the Slytherins were afraid of him, and the Gryffindors were afraid of her, and the Huffelpuffs and Ravenclaws decided it was best to let them deal with it. In the beginning, when the rumors had first started circulating, random hexes flew across corridors between Gryffindors and Slytherins, but any time Hermoine, Draco or Ginny were around, a worse hex flew at whoever had thrown the first punch. It got so bad, that everyone just gave up.
Christmas rolled around, and it was finally the last day before break. A few people who were still unhappy about the relationship were making one final stand in the corridor outside the Headmistress' office. Ginny and Draco were walking by, hand in hand, when Pansy Parkinson and Lavender Brown got into a scuffle. It engulfed the whole corridor, until a curse hit the wall behind Ginny's head. The couple swirled around, wands drawn, when Ginny's voice overpowered everything else going on in the hall.
"ALRIGHT! THAT'S. IT. WHO DID IT! WHO STARTED IT!" A few people from each house started blaming each other, so Draco hexed all their mouths shut so Ginny could continue. "You know what? I don't really care. This is NONE of your business. I don't care what you think, and neither does he. You guys had better come back for break in a better mood than this because I WILL NOT PUT UP WITH ANY MORE OF THIS!" With that, she turned around and stormed off. Draco had listened to her tirade, and was doing the best he could not to laugh out loud. He turned to follow her and came face to face with McGonagall. That wiped the smirk off his face pretty quickly.
"Oh...hello, Professor. Er...Sorry about...all this...I'll just..."
"No worry, Mr. Malfoy. I understand. You may go, I'll lift the hexes." He was surprised he'd gotten off without a detention, but decided to take what he could get and ran off after Ginny. As he did, he heard McGonagall begin her lecture...
"Honestly, you'd think you children would know better! ...Ginny Weasley, for Pete's sake! ...should wait for HER to lift the hexes. Ah, well..." Draco laughed all the way down the hall.
As all the Hogwarts students made their way towards the Hogwarts Express, Harry, Ron, Hermoine, Ginny and Draco made their way to the Three Broomsticks to meet up with Tonks and Kingsley. They all mounted their brooms as Kngsley eyed Draco suspiciously. Draco stopped belligerantly to confront him.
"Is this how it's going to be the whole break! Cause if it is I can find something better to do."
"Wow. He is hard-headed." Kingsley said to Tonks. All he got was a 'told ya' back. "Listen kid, ya gotta understand where we're coming from. You almost killed the headmaster last year."
"Yeah but he didn't! He DIDN'T kill Dumbledore!" Ginny exclaimed. "You can't blame him for something he didn't go through with!" Tonks and Kingsley exchanged glances, basically saying 'she's just like her mum, that one'. They all took off, and got there without another hitch.
Molly Weasley came out of Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place to greet the new guests. She hugged and kissed everyone down the line, until she came upon Draco.
"Well! Welcome, Draco! It's not much, but I've been cleaning for weeks. You'd be surprised at how much better it is, not that you knew it dirty. Turns out your Mum's been able to quiet Sirius' mother's potrait! Never can thank her enough for that..." Molly trailed off as she led Draco into the humble house he'd be spending Christmas in. The reunion with his mother was a happy one, filled with smiles and tears (from her, of course). She took him up to their room, and while everyone got settled in, Molly made dinner.
Up in their room, Harry and Ron were trying to figure out what to do about having to spend Christmas with Malfoy when a loud CRACK! interrupted their conversation, and two identical red heads appeared in front of them.
"Hello boys!" Said Fred, "How's it going?" inquired George. The two friends grumbled in response. "Ah, yes. Well seven years in school will do that to you. Don't worry, it'll all be over soon. I'd just advise you not to leave early. Mum would kill us."
"No, you don't get it. Malfoy's here." The twins looked at Ron, and Harry in turn. Then they broke out laughing. They were saying...things, but their laughter was too much, no one could make out actual sentences, just "Malfoy...ferret...Mum..." until finally one of them spit out, "Oh, to see the look on Ginny's face!" Which made the scowls on Harry's and Ron's faces grow deathly as they pushed the twins out of their room.
As soon as dinner was ready, everyone gathered in the kitchen to eat. Mrs. Weasley had prepared a brilliant feast to welcome everyone, and sure enough, Draco and Narcissa Malfoy were sitting at the table. Dinner was awkward, the Malfoys mostly kept to each other. Mrs. Weasley tried to make conversation involving everyone - talking about Hogwarts, classes, even Quidditch - but Harry, Ron and Draco still refused to interact. Later on they were all in the living room (on Mrs. Weasley's orders) to help decorate the Christmas tree. She had finally broken the ice, with Narcissa's help, when they all began talking about Christmas' passed, and wishfully reminiscing.
"Ah, yes, those were the good ol' days," Mrs. Weasley sighed. Mrs. Malfoy was also lost in thought,
"It's a shame things have changed so much..." she whispered. "Molly, I cannot thank you enough for your hospitality. I appreciate not having to spend Christmas alone, although I'm sorry you all don't get to go home. I would also like to take this opportunity to apologize for anything my late husband may have said or done to offend you." She looked earnest and sincere, but even if she hadn't - Molly Weasley was never one to hold a grudge.
"Oh, Narcissa, don't be silly. We can put all that behind us. I'm sorry for your loss. I'm glad we could help you, I would never want you two to spend Christmas alone! And I never properly thanked you for helping us with that portrait..." Narcissa smiled and chuckled a little."Yes, well, she just needed to see a familiar, friendly face. She'll get over this invasion soon enough. She'll get tired." That made Ginny smile and look up from her seat on the floor,
"It's been almost two bloody years and she hasn't given up yet!" she exclaimed. Narcissa just smiled again.
"She was one stubborn witch..." After that, Professor McGonagall showed up with a few bottles of butterbeer to share. Tonks happily bounced off to fetch some glasses, and they all shared in the wealth. They thanked the Professor profusely, and went back to their projects. Harry, Ron, Hermoine, Ginny and Draco were stringing popcorn onto string, while Fred and George were hanging up the finished strands. Everyone seemed happy, being all together. Even Harry and Ron were beginning to come around - they couldn't pass up an opportunity to tease Ginny about her crush, now could they?
"I'm just glad we're all here together - happy. This is bigger than a family - it's the most wonderful Christmas!" Ginny said as Draco took her into his arms and hugged her. "Me too," he whispered, so that only she could hear.
"You're just happy so you don't have to pine for Malfoy all break." Something about that statement hit Ginny in a place she had thought dead. Her eyes turned to the smirk on Harry's face - triumphantly waiting for Ginny's biting response. When she spoke, though, it wasn't playfully.
"I do not pine over boys." She stated simply, trying to hide the acidity of the statement.
"Oh, come on, Gin, yes you do!" He was still playing around, completely oblivious to Ginny's discomfort.
"Harry..." Hermoine began, everyone else may not have noticed, but Hermoine saw ice daggers flying out of Ginny's eyes at her old crush.
"You pined over me, didn't you? you're a hopeless romantic!" That pushed Ginny over the edge. She stood up calmly, but everyone felt the tension fill the room.
"I. Do not. Pine. Over boys. I will never. Pine. Over boys." She said, hostility and acid dripping from every word.
"Ginerva!" Her mother scolded, "What's gotten into you!" Ginny turned to her mother, and tried her best to soften her look, but was failing miserably.
"I do not pine. I do NOT. Pine over boys." A tear escaped Ginny's eye which prompted her to run out of the room, which was left in utter confusion.
"Was it something I said?"