Chapter 8: Different Worlds
For the new few weeks Draco, Ginny, Uriel, and Blaise lived in two different worlds; the real world and their perfect world.
In the real world Draco went to work at St. Mongo's, Blaise did all of the snooping and research he could, and Ginny tried her best to take care of Emily and help Uriel appeal to Harry Potter as much as possible. Ginny taught Uri all of her tricks, all of the things Harry was most attracted to. Ginny swore that by the time she walked into that bar if Harry Potter didn't all but flock to her then Ginny would go back to him.
In the perfect world nothing was wrong. Draco and Ginny were in love and could be open about it, everyone was happy. In France everything was right; Emily and Narcissa got along as well as Emily got along with Mrs. Weasley. The odd little family had dinner together every night; the three Malfoy's, the two Weasley's, and Blaise.
It started to get to the point where no one would want to go back to the manor, France became their utopia. That house of Black became their home. Draco had been thinking a lot since they had begun to live in their two worlds and one night at dinner he brought up an idea to his mother and his sister.
"Mother, what do you think about selling the manor?"
"What? Draco don't be absurd, Malfoy Manor is our ancestral home, we could never sell it."
"But mother, you haven't lived there for years, we all hardly feel at home in it now, we could sell it and build a new Malfoy manor just like we're all building ourselves new lives."
Narcissa understood what her son was asking, and why, but that still didn't mean she was going to cave in.
"Draco, I understand why you want to be rid of the manor. It holds so many bad memories, it can be dark and depressing…"
"Mother, you are not helping your cause right now," Uriel pointed out. "I agree with my brother. The Malfoy's should make a new start. The Manor is part of our old lives, we need to start fresh."
Narcissa held up her hands. "This subject is closed. The Manor belongs in our family and nothing can change that."
She departed after that with not another word.
"We tried," Uriel looked at her brother sadly.
Draco slumped back in his chair a little. "I don't know why she would object so much. She was abused in that house, her own daughter was ripped out of her hands in that house."
Ginny took Draco by the hand. "She is just scared Draco. Think about it, over the past few weeks she has endured so much change coming at her from all sides at a very fast pace, my guess was that was a little too much. Plus she has some good memories there, you and Uriel were born there and that is probably enough to outshine all the bad that happened in the Manor."
Draco kissed Ginny's hand grateful, as always, for her support. "Maybe we'll try again later."
Blaise entered the room again.
"Uriel, I swear if you don't stop giving Emily all that candy before she goes to bed I am going to make you put her to sleep every night."
Uri smiled. "Now Blaise you know she always asks for you when it's bed time. You are quite the lady killer and I think Ms. Emily has a little bit of a crush on you."
Blaise looked intently at her. "How much did you pay Emily to become obsessed with me every night right at bedtime?"
"I did no such thing…and it totally worked." Uri laughed looking mischievous. "If you must know I have been paying her one Galleon a day since we got here so she is up to about fifteen at this point."
For a minute or two Blaise looked like he was about to strike but his look of anger quickly faded into laughter. "I could marry you for your tricks, and ask nothing else of you except to keep playing pranks on me for the rest of our lives."
Uriel didn't respond but Ginny saw her blush a little and it made the redhead wonder if Uriel felt more for Blaise then she let on. Ginny knew that Blaise liked Uri, but that he was too afraid of Draco to ever made a move. She decided that she was going to talk to Uri first to make sure she was right and then talk both of the boys about it. She may not have been any good when it came to her own love life, but she was a veritable master when it came to setting other people up.
The next day when Ginny got up and went down to breakfast Narcissa and Emily were already finishing up, it looked like Uriel was just sitting down.
"Ginevra, I'm taking Emily to the park today and maybe shopping for some new clothes. We'll be home later when Draco and Blaise get here for dinner."
Without another word she took the little girl by the hand and apparated away.
Ginny looked at her friend. "What was that about? Is she kidnapping my daughter?"
Uriel laughed. "No I promise Emily will be fine, my mother always gets like this on these days."
Ginny looked at the older women with a question in her eyes. "What is so bad about these days?"
"I'm going to see my adoptive parents for lunch this afternoon, and on days that I do mother can hardly stand to be around me."
Ginny sat down across from her, a House Elf popping up with a plate for the redhead as she did. "That's horrible."
Uriel held her hand up. "It isn't like that, my mother has repeatedly thanked the Van Alan's for raising me, loving me, turning me into the women I am despite the fact that I was a Malfoy through and through. My mother just can't help but feel guilty, feel like she should have fought harder for me, left Lucius sooner, tried to find me instead of waiting for Draco to do it. She still feels like she hasn't done right by me and of course she does feel a little jealous."
"She told you that?" Ginny was surprised that Narcissa was that open.
"No," Uriel sighed. "But it's been written all over her face since the first time I went back to visit them. Mother has met the Van Alan's, so has Draco, he comes with me to visit them often. They love him, and they would love my mother if she could let them."
Ginny looked at her friend whose eyes had all of a sudden became sad.
"Ginny, will you come to lunch with me? I really don't want to be alone right now, and my parents would love to meet you."
"They know about me?'
"One time when Draco and I visited them was right after he ran into you and Emily for the first time in Diagon Alley, he could hardly hide his excitement."
Ginny blushed a little. "I feel like I am not going to live up to the hype that Draco has created around me."
Uriel laughed. "Don't worry, that will never happen. So please, will you come with me?"
Ginny smiled. "Of course, I am happy that you want me to come with you."
The two finished their meal in peace and then both went to change and get ready. At around noon Ginny went to Uriel's room. She was on a small black cell phone speaking to someone in French. Being around Fleur and her family Ginny had picked up a little French.
Uriel snapped the phone shut and turned to Ginny. "They're ready for us to Floo in."
Uri gave Ginny the address and sent her ahead making sure to follow close behind her just in case she missed. Her parents lived in a Muggle part of France and the last thing someone needed was a random redheaded young women spilling out of a fireplace by magic.
When they arrived both women picked themselves off the ground where a women with fair hair that was graying around her temples and blue eyes handed them towels to wipe the soot off of their skin. When they were set to rights Uriel presented Ginny to her mother.
"Mama this is Ginny Weasley, and Ginny this is my adoptive mother Anette Van Alan."
The women embraced Ginny. "So you are Draco's Ginny?"
Ginny smiled and nodded.
"Allegra why didn't you tell me you were bringing Ginny to meet us?"
Ginny was taken aback for a moment to hear Uriel called by her middle name, but then she of course remembered that Lucius had bid her be called Allegra.
"I'm sorry mama, I asked Ginny to come with me at the last minute. Things were a little tense at home and I didn't want to go anywhere alone."
"Is that my little girl I hear?" Ginny heard a male voice from upstairs.
"It is Claude, now come down so we can all have lunch."
A moment or two later a man with light brown and gray hair came down the stairs. He had kind eyes that crinkled when he smiled, and laugh lines all over his face.
"Darling, it has been too long."
"Papa, it has been two weeks since I saw you." Uriel smiled as her father kissed her cheek. "Papa this is Ginny Weasley, Draco has talked about her."
Uriel's adoptive father caught Ginny's hand in his and kissed it. "I am pleased to meet you Ginny, I am Claude Van Alan. We were wondering if we were ever going to meet Draco's dream girl."
Ginny blushed yet again but was thankfully saved by Anette calling them to the terrace where lunch was being served. Ginny sat and had a meal just as pleasant as the ones she had every night with Blaise, and Draco and Narcissa. Uriel's parents were wonderful, they made her feel right at home, part of a warm, loving, and accepting family, and that was something she had missed. Not that life with the Malfoy's wasn't wonderful in it's own way, but there was a certain degree of ice there. Narcissa still didn't trust them after they had been sneaking around behind her back, and Ginny knew she was a little hesitant to accept her, being that she was taking Narcissa's baby boy away from her. Draco was never cold with her, or Emily, or his sister, but there would be times that he would seem far away. It was then that Ginny knew he was imagining all the worse case scenarios like he always did. Uri was the only one who was never cold. It really amazed Ginny how alike and yet how vastly different she was from her family, and she pointed that out to her friend.
Uriel smiled. "Being raised a different way can really change who you are. From what you told me it happened with Harry Potter as well. He was raised in a family who hated him, ignored him, and didn't want anything to do with him. So he in turn became a loner, a little socially awkward, and when he had a problem he would pull into himself. When he found his family that changed because he had the love and kinship he had been denied. I was raised in a warm and close household with two parents who loved me more than words. Malfoy or not being raised like that changed who I am, and now I don't quite have the Malfoy ability to be cold like my mother, or like even Draco can be sometimes."
She smiled gratefully at her adoptive parents, before Anette spoke.
"You see Ginny, a Muggle disease called Cancer, let me unable to have children. Claude and I got married a little older than most and my time frame was limited to begin with so when we found out that we couldn't have children of our own we decided to adopt."
"We walked into the orphanage and immediately we saw this beautiful little blonde haired girl." Claude began to spin his tale, as Uri blushed a little. "Well Anette and I both couldn't imagine anyone not wanting a child as wonderful as the one we saw, so we decided to steal her away before someone else did. We took her home with us, and we loved her, and we raised her, and she will always be our daughter no matter what."
Anette shook her head at her husband and took over the story again. "We were thrown for a loop when Allegra was invited to study at Beauxbatons, we of course didn't really believe in magic, but we accepted it rather quickly. Unfortnately it was then that we encouraged her to tell us anything and everything, and we found out the way she had been treated by her real father, and why she ended up in the orphanage."
Ginny saw both of the Van Alan's expression's go dark.
"When Allegra told us that her brother had found her, we were thrilled for her. When she told us a few years after she graduated she was moving back to London to be with her biological family we were a littled worried that we were losing our little girl, but she has come to visit us at least once every few weeks if not more. I still remember she stayed with us a week after Lucius Malfoy died, she said she wanted to be with us when that happened." The older women finished her story.
"That man better be glad he died before I had the chance to get my hands on him, or I would have killed him myself for treating my daughter the way he did." Claude spoke gruffly.
"No one ever has to worry about him again Papa," Uriel assured him. "You are the only father I've ever known."
Claude smiled, but Anette just looked down at her plate. Ginny could tell as soon as Uriel had said those words she regretted them, so Ginny decided to change the subject.
"Uriel," she addressed her the way she normally would. "I did want to ask you something."
"Ask away,"
"It's about Blaise."
"Oh, that nice friend of Draco's we met a few times?" Anette wondered, grateful that Ginny changed the subject.
"You brought him to meet your parents?" Ginny asked.
"Draco brought him to lunch one time," Uri tried to dodge several bullets.
"No, Draco told me that you had wanted us to meet Blaise," Claude interjected.
Uriel stared her father down. "Papa….shall we not!"
"What?" Claude didn't know he was treading on thin ice.
"My love, why don't we go get desert ready and let the girls talk," Anette said, pulling her husband into the kitchen.
Ginny laughed while Uri just hid her head in her hand.
"I like your parents," Ginny smiled. "I'm so glad I got to meet them. Thank you so much for asking me to come with you Uri."
Uriel narrowed her eyes at her. "Don't change the subject Gin, you said you wanted to ask me about Blaise."
"Well I don't know if this question is allowed, but do you like Blaise?"
"He's my brother's best friend of course I like him…"
"No I mean do you like him in the same way that I like Draco?"
Uriel blushed again. "I don't know Gin, he is my brothers best friend. Besides he is 25 and I am almost 31."
"What does that have to do with anything Uri? I can tell you like him, and I know he likes you. So what is stopping you from asking him out, or going out with him, or anything?"
"Ginny, what part of 'brothers best friend' are you not getting?"
"But Draco just wants you to be happy, will it really matter that it happens to be with Blaise?"
Uri shrugged. "I'm not sure what to do Gin. I've never really had a relationship, not a real one anyway."
"And we're back to you being a true Malfoy." Ginny smiled trying to make her friend laugh.
"Okay Gin, I know your not going to get off of this idea but right now is not the time. I promise that right after we've put Harry Potter in his place I will at the very least ask Draco what he thinks."
Ginny accepted her answer for now, knowing that she would ask Draco about it before Uriel had a chance to. The finished up lunch with Uri's parents and after bidding them farewell they returned to the Black manor in France. As soon as Ginny and Uriel walked out of the fire place they were greeted by a worried looking Draco and Blaise.
"Where have you two been? We have been worried sick" Draco said pulling Ginny into a hug.
"What happened? Is Emily okay?" Ginny asked breaking away from him without leaving his arms.
"She's fine, she is with mother in the gardens, she just got up from a nap not too long ago. The manor has been broken into and trashed. Mother is beside herself the only person she won't burst into tears around is Emily. We have no idea who did it, or what they were trying to achieve, but we can't go back to the manor."
"What?" Uriel asked more paniced than she thought she would have been in these circumstances. "The wards on the Manor are impossible to break."
Blaise put a comforting arm around her shoulders. "Someone with some serious pull at the ministry could have broken in."
"You don't think…" Ginny asked, worried that Harry Potter had found her at last.
"Don't worry Gin," Draco cut her off before she could start to worry too much. "As long as we stay here we should be fine. Blaise and I have already doubled the protection wards. Nothing will happen to any of us."
Both girls looked at each other, they both had a feeling that something was going to go wrong. The just had no idea how right they were.
Hey guys! I know this was more fluff and less content but I hope you enjoyed anyway! I just wanted to get this up before I leave for Colorado tomorrow so you have something to keep you alive while I'm on vacation. Maybe if I get some really nice reviews I'll start to write out chapter nine while I'm there. As always lots of love to my followers and reviewers! You guys keep me writing!