Title: Your Mail-Order Bride
Author: hermione278 (Rebecca Falik)
Rating: PG
Warnings: slightly AU
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Summary: Not everything always goes according to plan. Not even the planned things.

Notes: Written for Pud's Great Draco/Ginny Fic Contest 2006

Story Requirements:

All entries MUST:

Strongly feature Draco/Ginny.

It can angsty, humorous, smutty, whatever your little heart desires. It can also be set at any point in their relationship. The only ironclad stipulation is that Ginny chooses to become a mail order bride by her own free will.

Be a minimum of 1,500 words, not counting headers and author's notes. No maximum on word count.

Harry Potter had wanted a mail-order bride, so that's what he got. Or so he thought. It wasn't that he wasn't handsome, smart, or funny. In fact, most girls drooled over him as he walked past, and with good reason. He was famous, after all, and he had killed the Evil-Guy-Who-Just-Wouldn't-Die, and he had just become the Sexiest Wizard alive for the eighth time in a row. In some sense, he could feel himself becoming the next Gilderoy Lockhart, someone who he did not want to become. No, Harry James Potter was a ladies man through and through. Except when it came to kissing. He was rubbish at kissing, and nothing could change that, not even a month of dating Hermione Granger, genius at everything, especially the art of kissing. Hermione really had tried to help Harry, but to no avail. After a month, she just couldn't take it anymore. She was the only one who had stayed with Harry for more than a fortnight.

So Harry James Potter called up Eggs & Silk. He had heard that they were the best in the business. After all, it was owned by none other than Draco Malfoy, the smarmy bastard. He seemed to follow Harry everywhere, or his name did, at least. No matter what the topic of conversation happened to be, Malfoy's name always got wheedled into it. And that's how Harry found out about Malfoy's mail-order bride business, and decided to give it a shot. He sent in the requested headshot, as well as a one-page description of himself, along with a one-page description of what he was looking for in a wife. Harry started to get nervous. It was all he could do to hope that Malfoy wouldn't chuck the parchment in the rubbish pile as soon as he saw Harry's name on it.

Draco Malfoy was an esteemed man throughout the Wizarding World, and not at all like his father, the dreaded Lucius Malfoy, who was rotting away in Azkaban. Although many people thought Draco to be like his father, he was content to know that he was not, and he didn't care what other people thought of him, as long as he made a reasonable amount of money at the end of the day, and the Ministry of Idiots didn't try to put him in Azkaban for no reason. Yes, Draco Malfoy was satisfied with his life; one could even go so far as to say he was happy. But there was one thing missing, and that was Ginny Weasley.

Draco knew that the Weaselette would never want him due to the longtime feud between their families, so when she arrived at his office requesting to be hired as a mail-order bride, to say that Draco was shocked was an understatement. So on that fateful Wednesday morning, when the owl from Harry Bloody Potter landed on his desk, he thanked whoever was watching down on him. He had to get rid of Ginny Weasley, and this was the perfect opportunity. Draco knew that he couldn't deal with the growing problem he was having with his wand for much longer.

Since he knew that the Savior of the Wizarding World was such an important customer, he knew that he as the owner of Eggs & Silk would have to deliver Ginny to the door of her future husband's place of residence.

Ginevra Weasley had never been more nervous in her life. Draco Malfoy had personally come to get her from training because there was an urgent matter that he needed to speak with her about. She wondered if she was going to be fired. To say that she was surprised would have been an understatement when she received a call from Malfoy to say that Eggs & Silk had decided to hire her. She was surprised not only because Malfoy knew how to use a telephone, but also because no matter how many times she had cursed him with her famous Bat-Bogey Hex, he still took it upon himself to call her personally, not getting the hint that she had no interest in his obvious affections.

In truth, Ginny was enamored with Draco Malfoy. Thinking back on it, that was probably the only reason she had decided to interview with Eggs in hopes of getting him to notice her. However, judging by the angry look on his face as he pulled her out of Beginner's Cooking, her efforts had been fruitless.

Ginny slapped him away when he started to drag her down the corridor, and he raised he hands in surrender. She smiled, satisfied, although Draco had no idea why she would be showing this particular emotion, so he shrugged his shoulders and proceeded to escort the redhead onto the lift, and pushed the button for level 10, the highest level in the building that was accessible to the average witch or wizard. Draco glanced at the witch next to him only to notice that she was glaring at him, so he leaned casually against the side of the lift and smirked back at her.

Ginny knew that Level 10 was were all the executive offices were, and Draco Malfoy was most certainly an executive; he owned the bloody company, the rich bastard. However, what Ginny did not know was why she was being brought here. She knew that it had to be important for Malfoy to come fetch her personally. For a brief moment, she wondered if he was going to profess his love to her, but quickly dismissed the idea, if the look on his face was giving off any indication as to what he felt towards her. A sudden PING! Pulled Ginny from her thoughts as the lift came to halt and the doors opened onto the main corridor of Level 10.

Ginny tried hard not to notice that as she followed Draco down a long winding path full of hard to remember turns, that many people were giving her strange looks, making her more nervous and curious than she already was.

Suddenly, the two came to two giant green and black doors with silver inlays. Ginny fought back the urge to laugh as first, he poked the eye of a serpent on the left door, and then one on the right door. After a long pause, and to Ginny's great amazement, the doors slowly began to creak open. As soon as the doors were open wide enough, Draco grabbed Ginny by the hand and roughly dragged her into the room, slamming the doors behind them with the snap of his fingers.

"Hey, watch it!" Ginny cried, "Don't you ever touch me again! Do you understand me?"

Draco chuckled, which surprised Ginny, who never imagined that England's finest Death Eater spawn could laugh. "As your boss, it would behoove you to not tell me what to do. So tell me, Ginevra," he said her name silkily, causing her to shiver, "What were you doing in Beginner's Cooking? From what I hear, your mother is the best cook in all of Britain, and you're a close second."

"Why were all those people staring at me as we were walking here?" she shot back.

"Ahh, it's good to see that you still have your sharp tongue," Draco smirked, "Gut I do believe that I asked my question first. I am the boss around here, you know."

"I burned myself when making some soup on my first day in the Advanced Class," Ginny mumbled, looking at the floor," so they said that I wasn't trustworthy enough, and they stuck me in the Beginner class."

"They stuck you in the Beginner Class because you burned your finger?" Draco questioned incredulously. Ginny nodded, blushing.

"That has got to be the stupidest thing I've ever heard, and I've heard a lot of stupid things during my tenure! I can't believe they did that to you Red. First thing in the morning, you'll be back in the Advanced Class. However, it is my personal opinion that you don't need any of these classes; you're already perfect wife material. In fact, I don't even know why you're here in the first place. If I remember correctly, at Hogwarts all the boys were swooning over you."

"Even you?" she whispered, not sure if she was blushing because Draco had called her Red, or if it was because he had just managed to compliment her not one, but three times in the last minute.

She never heard Draco answer her question with a barely audible "Even me." When she looked up, he was stalking over to his desk, and when he got there, he quickly sunk down into a large, overstuffed leather swivel armchair, with his head in his hand, shaking ever so slightly, whether from anger or sadness, Ginny couldn't tell. She quickly looked away in order to give him some privacy, and began to take in her surroundings. She had guessed, when she saw the two serpent doors, they were walking into Draco Malfoy's office. Looking around, she saw that the room was roughly the size of the Great Hall, maybe a little smaller, but not by much. She noted that the walls were probably made of mahogany, or another wood of similar nature. She also noted something else that she knew Hermione would approve of. The two walls adjacent to the wall on which the doors hinged to were covered with books, old ones, probably mostly first editions. Somehow, Ginny knew that Draco probably did read the books, contrary to what many people might think. The last wall, the one to which Draco's back was faced had two 20-foot windows that almost reached the ceiling. They both had large balconies that she judged to be white marble. She noted that the draperies were made to be a sheer golden color, which she thought to be odd. It was at this moment that Draco made another almost inaudible noise, but this time, Ginny heard him, although she didn't catch what he had said. She turned her attention to the pale man. It was then that she noticed the color of the chair that he was sitting on. It was red.

Ginny made a sudden move to bolt out of the room, but Draco was too quick for her. He leapt out of the red chair and managed to catch her by the arm.

"Red, wait," he whispered.

"Don't give me an explanation; I don't want one."

"What do you want then?" he muttered to himself, "No matter what I do to get your attention, you always seem completely oblivious to my actions. You weren't even fazed when I came to get you, instead of a secretary. What do you want?" He asked again, although this time, he directed the question at her, rather than at himself.

"I want someone who isn't afraid to love me. Someone tall, strong and handsome. Someone like you," she whispered, her breath tickling his ear.

"You were the one I wanted, because I couldn't get you. There was just something about you. You had a fiery passion built up inside of you when we were at Hogwarts. Going out with a string of guys just to get me to notice you. Of course, everyone thought that you were trying to get Potter's attention. But I knew better. Don't think that I didn't notice how you looked at me in the Great Hall. I knew that you could have had Potter any time you wanted to; and you did at the end of your fifth year. Then he dumped you and you pretended to be heartbroken, but you weren't. I saw you smiling as you got off the train. Since I saw you here, you let go of that passion, and you've become even more beautiful. I know why you came here, just as you know why I handled your case personally. I'm not stupid, Ginny Weasley, and neither are you; far from it. The reason I brought you up here is because Potter owled me, requesting a mail-order bride, and I knew you'd be perfect for the old scarhead. And after all, you are a Weasley, so why should I care what happened to you? But then I saw you downstairs, and I knew that I couldn't send you to Potter. You meant too much to me, you were my Weaselette, not his. However, I will still give you a choice. If you want, you can go to Potter. If not, you can either come to me, or leave here and never come near me again, because if you leave me, I don't think I will be able to handle seeing you again," Draco finished. As he looked down, he realized that he was holding the redhead in his arms, and that he was gently running his fingers through her long, luxurious hair.

Ginny looked up at him, eyes shinning with tears, "You know, I never thought Harry would write to you of all people, no matter how good you are, so he must have been desperate. But I have to say, I'm going to go with the more handsome one, even if he is a bad-boy Slytherin," she finished with a brilliant grin (in Draco's opinion, of course) sitting on her face.

"Gin-Gin, will you do me the honor of becoming Mrs. Draco Malfoy?"

"Only if I get to be your mail-order bride."

Fin.

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