A/N: i'm putting the talking stuff the end…b/c i feel like it…and the disclaimer is at the end too, so don't get your knickers in a bunch, i gave credit where credit is due…
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This is taking too long, Draco thought. The old wizard seemed to have droned on for eternity. If anyone asked him, he wouldn't be able to recall anything that had happened after his bride-to-be made her stunning appearance. He supposed it didn't matter too much as long as he said what he was supposed to when he was supposed to and made the appropriate actions correctly and on time.
He heard his name and he dragged his focus to what the Ministry wizard was saying. "Ginevera Molly Weasley, do you take Draco Lucas Malfoy to be your lawful wedded husband?"
"I do." She smiled at him. Merlin she's beautiful…
"Do you promise to love and cherish him, in sickness and in health, for richer, for poorer," Draco wrinkled his nose then smirked as Ginny bit back a laugh, "for better, for worse, and forsaking all others, keep yourself only unto him, for so long as you both shall live?"
"I do." Her smile was wider this time. Focus, don't think about anything, just listen to the words…
"Draco Lucas Malfoy, do you take Ginevera Molly Weasley to be your lawful wedded wife?"
"I do," he answered, his voice strong and assured despite his wandering mind.
"Do you promise to love and cherish her, in sickness and in health, for richer, for poorer," she raised a ginger eyebrow and copied his smirk when he didn't make a face this time, "for better, for worse, and forsaking all others, keep yourself only unto her, for so long as you both shall live?"
"I do."
"Do you together promise in the presence of your friends and families," Draco resisted the urge to roll his eyes, they had repeatedly told the man that his family wasn't here and the only members to show from the Weasley clan were the twins and her oldest brother to walk her down the aisle, "that you will at all times and in all circumstances, conduct yourselves toward one another as becomes Husband and Wife?"
"We do," they replied in unison.
"Do you together promise you will love, cherish, and respect one another throughout the years?"
"We do."
"Then by the authority of the Ministry of Magic, and this spell of legal binding, I pronounce you Husband and Wife." Draco wasn't even listening as the Ministry official waved his wand and told him he could kiss his wife. At last…He leaned down and captured her lips in his. After a few moments she began to smile and he pulled back slightly with a questioning look. She giggled and nodded her head towards the Ministry wizard then at the audience who were clapping and cheering with a few cat calls from the twins and a couple of Draco's friends on the England National Quidditch team. He rolled his eyes and she laughed again.
After a couple of hours of celebration Draco was ready to leave and spend some 'quality time' with his new wife, but the guests seemed intent on keeping them there for the rest of the evening. Each time another person would approach them to congratulate them and talk endlessly about pointless and mundane things, Ginny would laugh as Draco grimaced and ground his teeth in frustration.
"Finally!" Draco sighed as he and his new wife left the celebrations to their friends and made their way to their private wing of Malfoy Manor.
"You sound as if you didn't enjoy the ceremony and celebrations," the new Mrs. Malfoy teased.
"Absolutely not," Draco replied with an air of arrogance, "they mean I'm finally allowed to do what I want to you whenever I want," he said with a smirk.
"Oh, I do believe you misheard, Mr. Malfoy," Ginny replied imitating his smirk, "I believe that ceremony gave me exclusive rights to do what I want with you."
"You keep telling yourself that, Mrs. Malfoy," Draco grinned as they entered their suite.
With a flourish, he spun her into a kiss. Draco pulled out his wand to cast the contraception charm and Ginny paused. "You know we don't have to do that anymore."
"I know, I just want to keep you for myself a little longer," Draco smiled as he cast the charm.
A few hours later Ginny was back to asking questions about their destination for the next two weeks. They had moved from the bed to the couches, where Ginny was sitting with her feet propped up and Draco's head in her lap. Draco just smirked and refused to respond to her questioning.
"If you won't tell me where we're going, then at least tell me what I should bring," she tried. He snorted.
"But that would spoil the surprise. And we have a portkey, so you don't have to know where we're going," he added looking up at her face. "Don't pout, love, you look like your brother when you do that," he said wrinkling his nose in distaste.
She laughed. "Which brother?"
"Okay, let's see, which one have I hated for the past twenty odd years? And who also hates me just as much?" Ginny just laughed again. "And he's Wonder Boy's poof, and the Know-It-All's secret obsession…need I continue?"
"No, I think I know which one you're referring to," she giggled. They sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes before Ginny spoke up again. "You know, we should both be sleeping like the dead, but I'm not the least bit sleepy."
"Why do you say we should be that tired?"
"Well, I know that I had trouble sleeping last night, then my friends got me up before the sun this morning, and now it's nearing two in the morning."
"They probably put something in our wine. It's probably why we had our own bottle for just the two of us," Draco surmised.
"So what are we going to do for the next seven hours before we can leave for this mystery place?" Draco looked up at her and gave her a sly grin. She rolled her eyes. "You're so unoriginal," she laughed.
"Fine then," he muttered sitting up. Ginny opened her mouth, but Draco smiled and gave her a soft kiss. "I wasn't planning on doing this tonight…actually I hadn't planned on any specific time of doing this, but since we've got time, and you don't seem up to another round—" Ginny opened her mouth in protest, but Draco continued with a smirk, "—this seems like a good enough time."
"Hey, I never said I wasn't up to 'another round,' I was merely stating that you don't like to be so cliché, and I also didn't want embarrass you when you weren't able to get it up after such a short rest," she replied sweetly.
Draco's smirk widened as he turned back and gave her a quick passionate kiss, then swiftly pulled away before she could deepen it. "Have no fear for my performance, Mrs. Malfoy. I have no problems 'getting it up'." She laughed as he walked to the desk and began searching for something. "And you are right that I'd hate to be so cliché," he said glancing over his shoulder at her and she grinned in triumph. "But I might surprise you sometime," he added and he brought a small bag back to the couch with him. "This is still technically the prototype, but Brian says that it's basically ready to be put on the shelves, it just needs the final 'stamp of approval' by me." He pulled an object out of the bag and restored it to its original size.
"What is it?" Ginny asked. "Is it a new type of wireless?"
"In a way," Draco said smiling. "It's similar to a Muggle CD player except it doesn't run on their electricity stuff so we can listen to it in Wizarding areas. It plays Muggle music and Wizarding music, so I think it'll sell fairly well. Especially with the younger generations and Mu—" Ginny arched an eyebrow, "—ggle-borns. I had Brian pick me up some Muggle music and Wizard music to test it with. And since we'd rather not be so cliché as to spend our entire wedding night shagging, we can test this out." With Ginny's help, he managed to get all of the music into the player and get it started playing a random selection of songs. The first song was by the Weird Sisters. Draco settled back down on the couch with his head in Ginny's lap. "Brian either has horrible taste in music, or he just grabbed completely random things," Draco commented when the song changed to a Muggle song with drums and guitars.
"It's not that bad though," Ginny admitted. "I think I prefer this to the Weird Sisters. They were so popular for a while and I kinda got tired of listening to them."
"Well, they're not really my style, but since they were so popular, you could hear them almost everywhere. I guessI got used to them somewhat."
They began talking about random things as the music played. They talked about the ceremony, Draco admitting that he hadn't paid much attention after seeing her, Ginny's dress, which she admitted wasn't as uncomfortable as she had thought it was going to be, and they laughed at the ministry wizard who couldn't have remembered the changes they had wanted in the vows or his long-winded speech that they had requested if his life had depended on it.
"You knew that there was a very small chance that he would actually shorten his babble and not mention family," Ginny giggled.
"Yes, but I thought you had to be somewhat intelligent to get into the Ministry. He's even worse than Longbottom," Draco laughed. "So what excuses did your family send for not coming today?"
"They didn't bother except for Charlie, and his excuse was only slightly lame," she sighed. Draco raised an eyebrow in question. "He said they just got two new Peruvian Vipertooths, a male and female. He said they were going to try breeding them; it seems that they're researching on new ways to utilize their venom. So it was somewhat legitimate, but I'm fairly sure if he really wanted, he could have come for the afternoon," she said a little regretfully. "What about your mother?"
"When I first told her about us, she decided to move to the estate in France. She didn't bother to respond to the wedding invitation. What about your parents, they didn't strike me as the type to not come to their only daughter's wedding, even if it was to me."
"Yeah, I knew that they would have come, so I didn't send them an invitation. I had already asked Bill if he would walk me down the aisle, and I knew that they wouldn't have enjoyed or even been very happy for me. I decided to save them the trouble of deciding between me and everything else. I did send them a letter this afternoon trying to explain myself, but I'm not sure if I was very clear…" she trailed off.
"Hey," Draco said, reaching up and turning her face to his. "If they can't accept why you did what you did, then they really aren't the kind of people or the kind of family they say they are."
"I suppose," she replied sadly.
They sat in comfortable silence for a few moments just listening to the music play. There was a few seconds of silence before the next song began.
I've never seen you look so lovely as you did tonight
I've never seen you shine so bright
I've never seen so many men ask you if you wanted to dance
Looking for a little romance
Given half a chance
And I have never seen that dress you're wearing
Or the highlights in your hair that catch your eyes
I have been blind
Draco smiled as he listened to the lyrics of the song that had just come on. It seemed to fit that afternoon so perfectly. He remembered again the moment he saw her step into the garden. Then later at the celebrations, everyone was waiting for their turn to dance with the bride. He hadn't gotten a chance to actually dance with his new wife after their first opening dance. It also reminded him of their first meeting outside of Hogwarts. He hadn't recognized her that night.
FLASHBACK
He hated having to show up at these parties. He hated them, but he still went to them regardless. It had been hard enough trying to clear the Malfoy name after the fall of Lord Voldemort. If he didn't go to the annual celebrations of that day, then people would start thinking he sympathized with his father's crowd.
When Lucius had been sent to Azkaban the first time, the Dark Lord had taken his anger and frustration out on the other members of the Malfoy family. When Draco had failed to kill Dumbledore himself, the Dark Lord wasn't pleased. Though since the deed had been done, by Snape's hand no less, and Draco had managed to get Death Eaters onto the school grounds, he wasn't punished as severely as he would have been had he completely failed. The Dark Lord was not happy about losing his spy in Dumbledore's ranks, though.
Draco scanned the growing crowd of people. It was mostly Ministry workers, Healers, and well-known families such as his. He caught a flash of bright red and rolled his eyes. Of course the Weasley's would be here; they had practically adopted Potter, and had been members of Dumbledore's Order fighting the Dark Lord. He noted that there didn't seem to be as many of them as he thought there were. He noted that the twin troublemakers didn't seem to be associating much with the rest of the family. He also noted that the youngest Weasel, the girl, didn't seem to be around either. He vaguely remembered reading something in the Daily Prophet of her disappearing during the war. He shrugged it off; the Weasleys were none of his business.
He made his way over to the bar and ordered a firewhiskey to hopefully help dull the evening. He didn't see why the ministry hosted this big ball every year on the day that their precious Potter and the Dark Lord finally killed each other. As he finished ordering, a young brunette came up and ordered red rum on the rocks. He glanced appreciatively at her figured. She was slender but not skinny, slightly taller than average but still shorter than him even in heels, and well proportioned curves, not overly large or fake, but still there. She had a dark red dress on that seemed to bring out a hint of red in her brown hair.
"A bit early in the celebrations to be hitting the hard stuff, don't you think?" he asked her with his most charming smile, grabbing his drink that the bartender just set down. She glanced at him and raised a shaped eyebrow.
"You don't seem to be one to talk. Ogden's already? As you said, it's a bit early," she replied.
"Ah, touché, but does the lady have a reason for not wanting to remember this evening?"
"Probably as good a reason as you have," she quipped, accepting her drink with a nod.
He glanced around. "You came alone?" he asked when he didn't see a boyfriend or escort. She shrugged.
"A friend of mine somehow managed to persuade me to come this year. She thinks she's going to find me a boyfriend here," she answered with a snort. Draco grinned.
"Well, it looks like your friend has already started," he gestured to a couple different men glancing their way, and another who began approaching. He saw her wrinkle her nose at the man approaching. He had an odd set of blue dress robes on and a funny comb over. Draco laughed. "Would you care to dance?" he asked, offering his hand. She glanced back at the approaching man then back at him. She nodded and let him lead her out to the dancing area. He was glad his mother had insisted he learn to dance when he was younger because this girl was quick and light on her feet. She smiled at him as he spun her around the dance floor. As the song finished, he realized that he was smiling back at her. "May I ask your name?"
"And why would Draco Malfoy want to know my name?" she asked with a small smile and a raised eyebrow.
"Well, there's one reason, you seem to know who I am, so it would only be polite to introduce yourself," he replied smoothly. "Besides, a man cannot dance with a lovely lady such as yourself and not ask her name." He gave her his most winning smile.
"As charming as ever, aren't you?" she laughed, a small blush creeping into her cheeks.
"Of course," he replied. "So do I get to know the name of the person I saved from having to dance with that Fudge look-alike?" He smiled as she began to laugh.
"He did resemble that oaf, didn't he?" she laughed. "My name is Genevieve Wilson, if it makes any difference to you." The band began to play another song, and he saw her recognize someone behind him as couples began dancing again. Her eyes widened and she began to turn away. He glanced over his shoulder and saw a flash of bright red approaching. He rolled his eyes and turned back just in time to see Genevieve disappearing off of the dance floor. He followed after her.
"So you don't want to associate with the Weasel. Very understandable," he commented when he caught up to her back at the bar.
"Basically. And I really didn't want to dance with him, either. Besides, I don't think he recognized either of us or he wouldn't have started to come over," she commented as she accepted a drink.
"So you also have some bad history with them."
"Maybe not to the same extent as you do, but I'm sure that particular Weasley would not have wanted to talk to me if he had actually recognized me," she said wryly. As they spoke, another man approached.
"May I have this dance?" Genevieve turned towards the voice and Draco could tell that she was hiding a look of revulsion. It was Fudge's look-alike again.
Feeling a rush of unexpected sympathy, Draco addressed the man with a glare, "I believe the lady and I were talking." He saw her hide a grin as she raised her glass to her lips.
END FLASHBACK
"You know, that kinda reminds me of the first time we met outside of school," Draco said with a small smile. Ginny laughed.
"D'you really think so?"
"Of course, I remember you were calling yourself Genevieve Wilson, you had dyed or changed your hair to brown, and you had hidden your freckles. Your red dress made your hair look slightly red, but not as glaring as your brothers. Everyone, even your own brother, was hitting on you and trying to get you to dance with them. If I remember correctly," he said with a smirk, "I saved you multiple times from dancing with ugly old blokes."
"Ah yes, the annual celebration 'in honor of the day the great Harry Potter died defeating He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.' How could I forget," she laughed and rolled her eyes. "The only reason I went that year was because I had forgotten about it and didn't have a good excuse to not go. And according to you that night, the only reason you went was so that the ministry wouldn't start looking at you suspiciously."
Draco just smirked at her. His eyes widened as the chorus started.
Lady in red
Is dancing with me
Cheek to cheek
There's nobody here
It's just you and me
It's where I wanna be
But I hardly know
The beauty by my side
I'll never forget
The way you look tonight
He glanced at Ginny and saw her smirking at him.
"Sounds familiar," he grinned. "Now I'm really going to have to ask Brian if he purposely picked out the music selection or if he was being completely random."
"It is rather suspicious," she giggled.
"The only difference is we're not dancing," Draco grinned. Suddenly he sat up causing Ginny to start in surprise. With a flourish and a bow, Draco offered his hand to his new bride. "Would you care to dance, Mrs. Malfoy?" Ginny smiled as she took his hand.
I've never seen you look as gorgeous as you did tonight
I've never seen you shine so bright, you were amazing
I've never seen so many people wanna be there by your side
And when you turned to me and smiled,
It took my breath away
I have never had such a feeling
Such a feeling of complete and utter love
As I do tonight
Even those who weren't opposed to them being together would have been surprised at the scene the newlyweds made. They were slow-dancing to a Muggle song in the middle of their suite. Ginny was wearing a dark green negligee, a gift from her bride's maids, with her vibrant red hair still curled and half pinned up with several charms. Draco was similarly devoid of clothing except for his black boxer shorts. The sarcastic smirks and mischievous glint in their eyes were gone. A bystander would have mistaken them for anyone one but Draco Malfoy and Ginevera Weasley Malfoy, they seemed so out of character. Gone were the sarcastic remarks and affectionate teasing that the rest of the world knew to be part of their relationship.
Draco was so stunned at how well the lyrics voiced his thoughts. He could only stare at his wife as they unconsciously danced to the melodic tones of the song that seemed to describe them so well. Ginny smiled and laid her head on his shoulder as they continued to dance.
Ginny knew that the members of her family who had not accepted her relationship with Draco would not be able to understand why she had even become friends with him in the beginning. She couldn't even say specifically why she had talked with him that evening at the Ministry's celebration. They had spent the rest of the evening chatting amicably and helping her avoid dancing with certain people such as her brother and several repulsive old men. Even though she couldn't explain why she had started associating with him, she did know that it was times like these, when it was just the two of them and they let down their protective barriers, that explained why she chose to spend the rest of her life with him.
Lady in red
Is dancing with me
Cheek to cheek
There's nobody here
It's just you and me
It's where I wanna be
But I hardly know
The beauty by my side
I'll never forget
The way you look tonight
I never will forget
The way you look tonight
Lady in red
Lady in red
Lady in red
My lady in red
As the song faded out, Ginny barely heard him whisper in to her hair, "I love you."
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DISCLAMER: ok, most of this isn't mine…the song is "Lady in Red"by Chris de Burgh, and is an awesome song btw and so obviously I don't own it, and of course all characters belong to the awesome genius of JKRowling and I so want the last book to be out soon,lol
A/N: YAY this one's not county,lol…ok, so I've had this idea for a LONG while, but I'v not had ANY time EVER to work on it…school, work, school, work, sleep, random trips into town, that takes a lot out of a poor college freshman, that & apparently I'm taking some hard classes…besides just hanging out w/my new buddies is just as essential as finishing all my homework…
ok, so about this fic…i wanted to show that draco has a sweet/romantic side, but since he has a reputation of being a sarcastic, smart-ass, he only shows his sweet side to ginny XD does that kinda make sense? i kinda tried to show that contrast, but i'm not sure if it came across so feed back would be very nice XD hint hint the button's just right below…also my friend and I have these theories about the last book/how the war will progress & end and watnot…so we're like well, we think harry's gonna die killing voldie & ginny gets either sucked over to the 'dark side' or just away from the light side…that's how we say that my obsession w/her paired with draco is possible… ok yeah,lol, so that's where my ideas about the war & her relationship w/her parents & family…I couldn't think of exactly what happened to make her leave so I left it rather ambiguous (big word XD)…obviously Draco doesn't have anyone on his side, the Dark Lord would have been very very unhappy with him & of course the Order wouldn't have trusted him either so he was kinda on his own…oh yeah & I'm thinking he runs all of the Malfoy businesses but not full-time, more like he oversees stuff…& he plays Quidditch mostly for the fun of it and I'd like to think he actually enjoyed playing back at Hogwarts except when he played against Potter (for obvious reasons) but he approves ideas & stuff for his businesses…I'm kinda thinking he looks for profit & things that people will buy, that's why he's making things like a wizarding version of a CD player, he still believes in the purity of blood and all that, but he realizes that Voldemort's way of going about it didn't work so now he's mostly disdainful of them, but not 'ah! lets kill you all!' I like to think that he's matured (a bit) since Hogwarts & come to realize that realistically, they can't kill off all of the muggle-borns and half-bloods…and I think he'd be rather disgusted to find out that Voldemort was such a hypocrite (being a half-blood & all)