Well it turns out I may well update this weekend! Please excuse any spelling mistakes as my evening has been very broken up with wedding issues. Do please note any inaccuracies and I will of course amend them!

Thanks as always to the lovely, wonderful people who reviewed. I read a story yesterday which had about 900 reviews! Yikes, obviously I'm not doing quite as well as I thought. Hey ho. I'm having a blast writing anyway ;)

x

Great thought Draco. Well, I never saw this coming… Summer holidays with the bloody Weasley family.

Ron didn't wake up that night so they all ate a fairly quiet dinner and retired for the night. The next morning Draco woke to a knock on his door. He rubbed his bleary eyes and cracked open the door to see who was there. Ginny was there in an oversized dressing gown, she giggled at him.

"Wa?" he muttered still half asleep.

"Your hair – it's a mess." She giggled and reached up to brush it back into place. Half asleep Draco gave a little moan. "Mmm, that feels nice. You can do my hair every morning if you want." Ginny blushed and swatted him round the head.

"Come on silly. Dad's said that he can get us some specially charmed clothes to conceal us so we can shop for wedding presents and stuff without having to drink Polyjuice. It's quite an honour as they're really rare. He only managed it as he cleared up a huge problem for them last week so they owed him! First though we have to go see Ron because he seems like he's going to wake up. He's been mumbling about being cold, Hermione and other crap for the last five minutes..."

Draco just mumbled incoherently and lay back down in his bed. Ginny followed him and tried to pull him up. Draco opened one eyelid and peered out at her. "I can see that you're going to be persistent aren't you. Gods you're a pain woman…" He sat up and pulled on his own very expensive gown. It was nice having his own things to use. Maybe more shopping wasn't a bad idea, although being flanked by a load of Weasley's wasn't exactly how he'd choose to do it!

They both shuffled down the corridor to the medical room where Ron was sitting up and kissing Hermione passionately.

Draco looked on in horror. "Now that's put my off my breakfast. Thanks Ginny, that horrific vision is enough to give me nightmares." Ginny giggled realising that this was all his sense of humour but Ron's eyes shot open and Hermione looked very embarrassed.

"WHAT is HE doing here?" Ron bellowed at the top of his voice. He rummaged around for his wand. "He saved your arse Ron." Ginny said with a smirk that would do a Malfoy proud.

Ron stuttered for a minute before looking to Hermione for an explanation. "Can you please explain what the bloody hell a Malfoy is doing standing next to my sister, in a dressing gown and… and… WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS GOING ON?"

"That's quite enough of that language young man." Molly came through the door levitating a tray full of delectable food; Arthur followed her with a giant pot of tea and cups.

Ron looked as though his eyes were going to pop out of his head. "I'm dreaming, this is all a horrible nightmare and I will wake up." He tried slapping himself but Hermione grabbed his hand. "Ron, it's no dream. I should have told you before but you and Harry have had so much work with the horcruxes I thought it best not to worry you…"
"Worry me? WORRY ME… You think this is how I should find out… Why is he here?"

Ginny explained to Ron how she had met Malfoy and how he had saved Ron's life the day before. She watched as the expressions on his face turned from anger to disgust to shock and finally all out confusion as his brain tried to put the idea of helpfulness and Malfoy's together and failed miserably.

"So Ronald, where are your manners? You owe this boy a life debt." Molly said "Say thank you."

Ron opened and shut his mouth several times "He looks like a fish!" Draco whispered to Ginny who just about managed to stop herself snorting with laughter.

Arthur stepped in to save his poor son. "Now Ronald. I understand this will be difficult for you given your history, but Draco here did save your life and he certainly seems to have made a turnaround with his life so the least you can do is be civil and thank him."

Hermione stroked his arm gently. "I would have lost you if it wasn't for him Ron. Be thankful that we will have some more time together at least."

Ron looked deeply into her eyes and sighed. "I'm still mad at you for not telling me but… I was so scared I might lose you if you went to get the horcrux. I'd die for you 'Mione… I love you." He squared his shoulders and grunted. "Thank you Fer- Malfoy for saving my life. I'm still not quite sure why you and my sister are in dressing gowns however." he added a little forcefully at the end.

"Because I dragged him out of his own bed to come and see your grand awakening you prat. We're just friends Ron." Ginny said. Draco wondered why she sounded a little sad; maybe she was fed up with getting the third degree from her brother.

"Right then, that's all settled, tea everybody?" Molly said, in her element. They all tucked in happily to the tea and breakfast provided, when they had all had their fill Molly drew her wand and cleaned up all the mess. "Will Ron be ok to come shopping with us Draco?" Molly asked.

Ron turned a little red and said "I think I'd like a little time alone with Hermione if that's ok? We've got a lot to talk about and we'll need to be getting back to Harry soon."

Molly smiled sadly. "Of course dear. But don't forget your poor old mother. I miss you. We're all very worried; I know you're doing a lot of dangerous things."

"I promise mum. We'll all put everything aside for Bill's wedding. Hopefully this will all be over with soon." He gave a big sigh; life was so difficult at the moment. At least he had Hermione now.

They all went and got washed and dressed and met in the hallway. Ginny approached Draco and gave his arm a small squeeze. "Would you mind if I cast the binding charm again? It's not that anyone doubts you still but… well; I'd like to know that you're near me so if anything goes wrong you can get us out of there. You seem to be good at that!" Draco nodded his consent and Ginny once again bound them together.

He started thinking about bonds and wondered if the reason he felt so strongly about the little witch was the bond formed when she had saved his life. It would explain a lot but then she was good looking and funny and his only real friend so he might have felt that way anyway. Still it made him wonder, he was glad he'd taken a step back, now he would have time to consider this new thought.

Arthur handed around various articles of clothing, Draco had a watch, Ginny a neck scarf, Molly a hat and he had a jacket. Arthur seemed awfully happy about using them. "Now these are really very special items. I'm amazed the ministry allowed me to borrow them but they did owe me an awfully big favour! These articles will confuse people's memories. While you're talking to them people will hear you and you can carry on a normal conversation but once you've left they will have difficulty remembering what you talked about and have no recollection of what you looked like. Fabulous isn't it?"

As they made their way to London Draco found that he was unable to dislike Ginny's parents. Arthur seemed to be amazed by the whole world and was in awe of such simple objects, Draco felt a bit humbled by all the things he took for granted. Molly's babble actually was rather soothing and really put him at ease.

The four of them wandered round the shops looking for the perfect gift for Bill and Fleur. They had both said that no one needed to buy anything but as Ginny said "As if we'd do that!" Ginny's parents got them a beautiful dragon skin bound album, each page had beautiful pictures of romantic scenery which changed, trees that blew gently in a summer breeze or the sea lapping against the shore on a beautiful remote beach. Each page had a space for a picture and as Fleur and Bill planned on taking a 'round the world trip' for their honeymoon when the war was over they thought it was a concept that the happy couple would love. Especially as Fleur enjoyed having her picture taken so very much!

Arthur said that Molly and he had to sort something out that was very boring and suggested that Draco take Ginny to look for a present while they finished off. They agreed to meet back by the leaky cauldron in a couple of hours. Draco took Ginny straight to the Magical Menagerie. "I have an idea… if you don't mind sharing a present to them that is?" Ginny shook her head and looked expectantly at him.

"I'll show you." He took her hand and guided her to the back of the shop where there were two brightly coloured green and red parrots.

"I'm not sure birds are an appropriate wedding present Draco." Ginny started.

"They are lovebirds. And not ordinary lovebirds either. They share a bond with each other and when they have two good masters they extend their bond to include them. They are loving and intelligent and almost as good as owls for delivering messages, although somewhat more noticeable. Also they can sense when one of their masters is in danger and will warn the other half of the partnership. To own a pair is meant to be extremely good luck for your own relationship."

Ginny gawped at him. "Wow. You sure know a lot about them, I never had you pegged for a romantic Draco."

Draco scoffed. "Knowledge does not make me a romantic. I happen to like birds and reading so I picked up a few bits here and there."

Ginny laughed. "You sound like Hermione."

Draco gave Ginny a disdainful look. "Please, do not ever make that connection again or I shall be forced to spell your mouth shut and you'll have to eat liquidised food through your nose."

"Eeeew, you're gross." She said nudging him with her shoulder. He pushed her back gently with his hand, his shoulder being far too high to do any nudging with. "No, comparing me to Granger is gross. Can we please quit this conversation before I'm forced to remember the last time I saw her when she was sucking your brother's face off. I may lose my breakfast."

They walked to the counter and Draco ordered the two love birds plus an absolutely gorgeous, hideously expensive wrought iron and glass cage. Ginny looked confused when the assistant brought it up with no door.

"Won't they escape?" She asked. The eccentric looking assistant shook his head. "No ma'am, these birds be comin' back to their masters no matter what. No worries about losin' these birdies. Right special they are." Ginny was rather distracted throughout the man's speech by a large spider that was crawling across the counter. Like her brother she had an irrational fear of anything with more than four legs. Draco could sense her nervousness and went to pick the creature up and move it.

The shop worked grabbed his hand in a very hard grip. "Don't be touching that young master. He be a right poisonous one exceptin to those who own him. Him's never gotten out of his cage before and I see no reason why he shoulda done so now. I'd be a watching your back if I were you."

Ginny and Draco looked around them warily. No one should have known they were there so they both felt the shop assistant was overly cautious and, as Ginny mumbled to Draco, probably trying to sell them something.

They walked out of the shop with the birds sitting happily in their cage and chirping away to each other. Suddenly a sharp whistle sounded from across the street and one of the birds flew from the cage towards the noise. Ginny let out a little cry and ran blindly after it, not noticing the large group of wizards on racing brooms speeding their way towards her.