Chapter 13: Dating is such a drag…
Draco had spent some time cooking which meant making sandwiches and picking up a salad and pie from the local market before picking Ginny up. He was taking her on a picnic, he'd wanted to take her out somewhere fancy but he'd already bought tickets for the concert and he didn't have the funds for anything more extravagant. He picked her up and chatted inanely through the walk to the park.
"Are you alright?" He asked her as he lay down the blanket he'd brought.
"Yeah," she said, "Draco where'd you get this blanket, this is silk; you don't bring silk blankets to a picnic." She said sitting down carefully making sure her shoes never touched the blanket.
"Sorry, I didn't know, we only own silk blankets."
"Of course you do," she said distractedly as she looked at a girl on a swing. Draco looked at the girl too noticing how hard she was working on trying to swing as fast as the boy next to her who was going so high Draco thought at any moment he'd go flying through the air.
"Are you sure you're alright? You're usually much more livelier than this."
"Sorry, I was at Hermione's and she was nagging me again, you'd think six years as Ron's wife would mellow her out!"
"What was it she was nagging you about?" Draco asked.
"Uh- nothing," she stammered, "forget I mentioned it." She said nervously and turned around, "Uh!"
Draco turned quickly to where she was staring; a dog was whimpering and trying to move away from a small boy. The boy started to walk angrily towards the dog and suddenly Ginny leapt up and ran towards them, Draco followed quickly.
"Stop!" Ginny yelled at the boy, "what do you think you are doing, hurting a defenceless dog!"
"He won't catch the ball!" The boy said throwing the ball at the dog again and hitting him in the leg.
"You little monster!" Ginny yelled and was about to launch herself at the boy when Draco grabbed her around the waist, "let me go, I'll teach him never to hit that dog again!"
"He's ten!" Draco tried to say but was drowned out by the screaming boy.
"Mummy! This lady's trying to hit me!" The boy yelled.
Out of nowhere a woman appeared, she seemed to be in her mid thirties and was wearing clothing that was a bit inappropriate for someone's mum. Ginny had stopped struggling when the woman started walking near them but Draco kept his arm around her waist mostly to protect himself from the woman who kept giving him strange, lustful looks.
Sometime during the woman's walk the boy had begun to cry and the woman was fussing over the boy who was gasping for air, "mummy's here, don't worry love, that mean ugly witch isn't going to hurt you." She said hugging the boy who stuck his tongue out at Ginny.
Draco was glad he'd kept his arm around Ginny because she suddenly leapt at the mother and son, "you wanna see witch, I'll give you witch I'm going to hex you until-" She pulled her wand out of her pocket and Draco grabbed it trying to wrench it from her grasp, "Draco!"
"Help! Police!" The woman began yelling her son clutched tightly to her, an officer was running towards them and Draco was finally able to put the wand away in his pocket.
"What is happening here?" The tall man asked looking accusingly at Draco, he didn't know why everyone always assumed it was his fault and he scowled at the officer as the woman told him Ginny was trying to hurt her son.
"Miss you're going to have to leave, we cannot have that sort of behaviour here. These parks are for the children, because you haven't actually harmed the child I'm not going to arrest you."
"Me! Arrest him!" Ginny exclaimed pointing at the boy, "that thing was hurting that poor innocent dog!" Ginny waved at the dog which lay whimpering nearby looking extremely confused.
The officer turned to the boy who was now a telltale red apparently afraid that he'd been found out, "no-uh, I was playing catch with my dog and she came over here screaming 'cause…the ball! Hit her! Her basket I mean!"
"That's not true!" Draco yelled speaking for the first time, "you little liar,"
"That's enough!" The officer interrupted, "everyone go back to your areas and if I see you at all near each other I'll throw you all out of the park and you'll never be allowed back again!"
"What about him?" Ginny asked motioning to the dog.
"Take him with you!"
"What! No!" The woman yelled. "That dog cost a lot of money, I bet you started all of this just to get your freckly mitts on him!"
"Ma'am! It has been decided maybe you ought to teach your son some manners, now all of you scat!" The officer commanded and the woman jumped and dragged her son away quickly while the boy yelled and tugged away from her.
Ginny rushed off to the dog and Draco turned to the officer, "thank you very much for diffusing the situation," he said, "it was very much appreciated." The man merely scowled and turned away walking back towards the entrance to the park.
Draco rolled his eyes and walked back to the blanket where Ginny was scratching the dog's belly and saying nonsense words to him.
He plopped onto the blanket, "so what are you going to name him?"
"You should name him, he's your dog," she said in that sugary voice she used right after she's slipped one of her brothers' concoctions into his drink.
"Funny, haha," Draco said and leaned back grabbing an apple from inside the basket.
"I'm serious," Ginny said looking him straight in the eye, "pets aren't allowed in my building."
"You've got that owl, what's her name, Morgan?" He said nervously, "you're a witch, you can charm the apartment so that no one knows."
"Morgan's different, and besides you've got that big mansion all to yourself, you've got the room, and he can keep you company," she said and then turning to the dog she grabbed him behind the ears kissed him right on the lips, Draco couldn't help but be disgusted, I'm not kissing her today, "won't you baby?"
"Mother will kill me if she comes home from Paris to find the house destroyed by that mongrel!" Draco exclaimed.
"Oh, Draco, you're a wizard, you can charm the rooms so that he can't enter the really nice ones."
"You've been there, you know, they're all really nice, the hallway's really nice, the dungeons are really nice!" He said desperately.
"Please, there's no other place for him!" She said.
"What about your brothers? You have enough of them, surely one of them can take him!" He said, "and they've probably got tons of places that are appropriate for an animal." Suddenly her face changed and he realized what it must have sounded like, "because they have children! Animals and children go together! Actually I don't think you've ever said anything about whether or not they have children. Do they?"
"That's none of your business!" She said sitting up.
"What do you mean?" Draco asked putting down his uneaten apple, "we're dating, we're supposed to be finding out about each other, you have to talk about your family sometime!"
"Like you've told me sooo much," she said derisively.
"I've told you about everything! Father, Inez, New Jersey! You never say anything about your family!"
"You already know everything about my family! You already hate everything about them!" She said starting to put things away, "all you've done all our lives is talk badly of us and try to hurt us!"
"Oh, please Ginevra, I don't know your family, I never did! I was a stupid, spoiled little boy and you are a gullible, reproachful imbecile for taking anything I said seriously and for holding it against me all these years!"
She didn't say anything just continued her work; he looked at her as she packed up their food, her red hair shimmering in the sunlight. She was so beautiful…
He'd never met a more amazing woman, she was intelligent, funny, and didn't get upset over things that got most women angry in a second. She was perfect he felt his heart thrumming, the snitches returning to his stomach and he knew he didn't want to spend a second without her. He noticed the frown she still wore as she huffily folded the blanket, unfortunately Ginny was hiding something and no matter how amazingly things started with them they always ended poorly…
A/N: Wednesday, May 5th, 2004.