TCOTP

Chapter 11

Settling In

Now Lucius understood why Ginevra didn't fight with Potter. He took his time to reflect on this information and to decide what to do about it. He also reflected on how Draco took the news of the marriage. Lucius was extremely proud of Draco. The year he had been in Azkaban had been good for Draco, putting aside being ordered to kill Dumbledore. It had changed Draco from a spoiled brat to a mature young man. The Draco of the past would have pitched a fit over the fact Lucius had married again, and not even two weeks after Narcissa's death, never mind the fact of who his new bride was. But this matured Draco took the news well and realized why his father did it. He even thanked Lucius.

Draco was in his room when he heard crying coming from down the hall, so he went to investigate the source of the noise. It was in the Rose room, two doors down from his. He remembered Lucius saying that that was the room Ginny was to take up residence in. He turned on his heel and headed down to his father's study. After being invited in, he poured himself some Firewhiskey. He and his father exchanged long looks, then Draco stated, "She's in the Rose room, crying."

Lucius nodded and asked, "What do you know about her and Potter?"

Draco shrugged his shoulders. "I think she's always had a thing for him. That day in Diagon Alley before her first year, she defended him before you entered. She made him a pathetic valentine that year. Toward the end of her fifth year, they started dating. I had almost forgotten about her until that time, and by then she was considered quite the catch. I heard the next year that he had broken things off. Rumor had it he was doing it to protect her. Despite the efforts of most of the school's male population, she remained single last year."

"I witnessed her and Potter talking about our marriage. He was unhappy, and she informed me that he had asked her to marry him on her birthday."

Draco snickered. "I would have loved to see that."

"Draco, tell me: from what you know of her, what do you think her reaction to being called a 'gold digging whore' would be?"

"How many pieces of him were left?" he asked through his laughter.

"I thought as much. She allowed him to get away with it."

"What? No! I don't know her that well, but..."

"I know. She has insulted me and fought me enough times already for me to realize earlier today was not the real Ginevra. I don't know how her family is taking the news, however I think it's a good sign that no one has shown up to try to kill me yet."

"What's your plan with her, Father?"

"Plan? Plan? I don't have one yet. We must have a child together. We are bonded to each other until death." He then smirked. "There is passion there. I think for me it would be good to find a way to make it work with her."

"Passion? I would guess hatred, but not passion," Draco replied.

"Love and hate are simply two sides of the same coin; two extremely powerful emotions, Draco. That's why you'll never be happy with Pansy; the two of you are too much alike. Trust me, if you find someone who makes your blood boil one way or another, you'll be better off. Oh, and one more thing as far as Ginevra goes; she needs understanding of what she's going through right now."

Draco looked surprised at this. "Understanding of a Weasley, Father?"

"Draco, remember I'm not the only one who has made a sacrifice here. Yes, she may not care about whether the Malfoy line continues or not, but without her consent I would not have been able to make this sacrifice. And until she is with child, the curse will remain."

"Are you only being understanding of her until she has your child?"

"I'm saying that she has the ultimate control at this moment, and at this point in the game we would do well not to upset her any more than necessary."

"But Father, you said that a life bond was made," Draco stressed.

"It was, but Draco, even if she does have to have sex with me to stay alive, there are ways to prevent pregnancy. And even ways to end it."

"But you can place a magical protection on a child once it is conceived, right?"

"Yes, if I'm aware of the child, but there are ways around that too. I once heard of a Muggle way to end a pregnancy by ripping it from the uterus in it's early stages of development."

Draco got a look of disgust on his face. "That's barbaric!"

"Yes it is, but with Ginevra, we must remember who her father is and his love of Muggle things. We must assume that she knows of the barbaric ways of Muggles."

"Father, from what little I know about her, I still don't think she could do that."

"Under most circumstances, perhaps not, but we don't know how her family is taking the news; which is why we must be understanding... you maybe even more than me. Because of our history, my attempts at understanding may not be met happily."

"Surely, she has friends who could be there for her. She seemed quite close to Neville Longbottom and Lonny Lovegood."

"Draco, your aunt and uncle are the ones responsible for Longbottom's parents being in St. Mungo's all these years, and do you forget that Miss Lovegood was kept in the dungeons of this very home? Her friends may not be understanding either. She could find herself very alone in the world," Lucius concluded.

Meanwhile Ginny sat in her room crying. She did what she had to for her family. She broke Harry's heart, but really, she was doing what was best for everyone. She needed this time to cry for she had already made up her mind; she would have this one last cry and then move on. She hoped Luna would understand. Luna was easily the most open minded person she had ever meet.

As for her husband, she wondered what was in store for her there. Was last night part of some head game to him? Was the next time going to be hell? Or did the man possibly have a soul after all? She doubted it. Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of someone knocking on the door. She stopped crying and looked at the door. "J-just a minute," she called out, then ran for the adjoining bathroom and quickly washed her face. She didn't want anyone, especially a Malfoy, to see her crying. She quickly dried her face and opened the door, only to find Lucius standing on the other side. He had changed from his business attire and was now wearing tailored casual slacks and a navy polo style top. His long hair hung loosely around his shoulders.

As he looked at her he could tell she had been crying, but decided not to bring it up. "I don't know how much time you spent here in the Manor today, but I believed that there was a chance you might get lost looking for the dining room."

She remembered her words about this only being as hard as they made it out to be. If he was trying to be civil, she would too. "Thank you." As he moved away from the doorway she stepped out of the room.

He then offered her his arm, which she hesitantly took, allowing him to lead her to the dining room. "The room you have been staying in is only a guest room. I think you might be more comfortable in a family bedroom," Lucius said in an attempt to make conversation.

"That's a guest room?" He nodded. "Well, I really like it. Honestly. There's a lot of pink there."

"You like pink?" he questioned.

"I think it was because I could never wear it, so it just made me like pink more," she explained.

They continued in silence until they reached the bottom of the stairs, then Lucius said, "I told Draco earlier." Lucius was stealing glances at her, and even he had to admit she was putting up a brave front.

"How did he take the news?" she asked.

"He understands the position that we both were in. He is joining us for dinner tonight." She nodded and as they reached the dining room he felt her draw herself up even more. This made him smirk; the forever brave little Gryffindor.

The dining room was informal and not at all what Ginny had been expecting. Instead of a table that went on forever, this table would fit six comfortably, yet it was still rectangular in shape. There was blue above the wainscoting and the walls were a pale blue in color. When they entered the room Draco rose from the table and greeted them. "Father," he paused to consider Ginny, "What should I call you?" he asked, politely.

"I have always been most comfortable with Ginny," she replied.

"You will refer to her by her proper name," Lucius stated. He then led Ginny to the seat at the right of the head of the table and pulled out the chair for her. Before he sat down himself, a slim man entered the room.

"I'm sorry sir, but your New York office is on the Floo. They say it is important," the man informed Lucius.

"Thank you, Paul. Excuse me Ginevra, Draco."

"Father, do you want me to join you?" Draco asked.

"No, stay here with Ginevra." Lucius then left the room.

Draco watched Ginny for a moment; she didn't touch the food that had appeared in front of her. "He could be an hour or more. You'll learn to not wait for him." Ginny nodded, picked up her fork, and poked at the salad in front of her. "He's always been weird about proper names. It doesn't make much sense. I mean, how many Lucius' or Dracos have you ever heard of?"

"Not that many, I guess," she said, then popped a cherry tomato in her month.

"So, do you have any guesses on who the Head Boy and Girl will be this year?"

"Head Boy, no. I could never guess who."

"And Head Girl?" he questioned.

"That would be me."

"McGonagall was- er, congratulations!" Draco shifted uncomfortably. "I'm going to say this just to get it out... This is weird."

"You're telling me? You're just watching from the sidelines; try living it." She hardly looked at him.

"Look, I appreciate what you have done..."

"Yeah? Well, I did it for my family!" She placed her fork back down on her plate.

When Lucius returned, most of the dinner conversation was about business. And while Ginny felt left out, she wondered what they could have talked about that would have included her.

Lucius noticed Ginny was hardly eating any of her meal. "Ginevra, is there something wrong with your food?" He sounded, even to himself, like a father instead of her husband.

"No. It's fine, I'm just not that hungry. We had a late lunch at the Burrow."

Once dinner was over Lucius led Ginny to his study, where she sat on a sofa that was in front of the large fireplace. "There are many things you need to be aware of about living in the Manor. First of all, house elves are not allowed to touch humans. Don't ask me why! Second, whether you like it or not, you are now the Mistress of the Manor. All household issues will be yours to deal with. However, you are lucky in the fact that my late wife had most things planned out almost six months in advance, so you have time to get used to your new role and how things are done. I said before that there are times I will need you home on weekends. I would plan on at least half of your weekends being spent here, and every weekend of December. As well, you should plan on returning to the Manor for all school breaks.. Now, I get the feeling that you are not fully aware of how a marriage bond works."

"What else could there be to understand? I must have sex with you on a regular basis for the rest of our lives or I will lose my magic and die."

"For the most part, that is correct. However, there are some additions to the marriage bond that the Malfoy family has personally added, like the fact that you and I cannot use magic against each other. And do you know what happens if you ignore your body when it is telling you that we need to be together? Do you know the signs you need to look out for?"

"Um, no."

"If you don't listen to your body, at first you will become tired, like you're getting sick. Then you'll notice it will become harder to do simple spells. You will eventually become unconscious, and if that happens, I would have to take you in that state. If I did not, we both would die."

"Thank you for explaining it to me," she said as she began to get up.

"Ginevra, there's more," he said as he stopped her. "At the beginning of the marriage the need to be together is... well, we must be together more often than you might think. If you want to make it until next weekend, we should engage in relations tonight."

"Oh!" She tensed up.

"Relax, we still have time before that tonight." He paused, "There is one other thing; I can't have you leaving tomorrow without this." He got up, made his way over to the desk, and opened a drawer. After selecting something from it, he returned to the sofa where she sat. "This is your wedding ring." He held out a silver and peridot ring in a channel-like setting. She looked at it and slowly reached up to take it from him. She then examined it and frowned. "Every Malfoy bride wears this design. The only difference is the stone. It alway is the bride's birthstone."

"It's nice, I guess."

"It's a ring you should be proud to wear. Or is it just the events of our wedding that make you unhappy?"

"It's a lovely ring, really. I just always hated my birthstone," she explained, still holding the ring in her hand.

"Why is that?" he asked.

"Because, well, look at it! It looks like it's dirty."

"I would like you to be pleased to wear your ring. There are times when the stones are different from the birthstone. However, I'm guessing you would be unhappy with that, too."

She looked at him, puzzled. "Why?"

"Because when the stone is different, it's still in the same color family. The only possibility would be an emerald."

"Honestly, I would rather have emeralds than these," she decided, surprising him again. He reached out and took the ring from her.

"I will have a new one ready before you leave tomorrow."

She smiled at him. "Thank you, but that was not what I was asking 'why' for. I wanted to know why you care about me being happy."

"I'm trying to make this work!" he said with more force than he had planned.

"I'm sorry," she muttered.

"How did your family take the news?" he inquired, more calmly.

"They, I think, were still in shock when I left. I expected them to explode, but they didn't, really."