Chapter 12

Ginny grimaced at the seemingly never ending whirling of the third International Portkey she had taken that month. She really was growing quite tired of them, although Draco assured her that the journeys they had been taking would be much worse without the jet lag potion they had been taking daily for the past two weeks. The first week in Newport had been tedious, the second week in China had been lovely, even if life changing events had occurred there, and she wondered where her mother-in-law had sent them now.

After what seemed an eternity, the whirling stopped and as she tried to settle her stomach, she noticed bright sun, endless stretches of sand, and –

"Bill!" she cried out in delight, rushing over to give her eldest brother a warm hug. "And Fleur! How's little Victoire doing?"

"She's doing well," Bill chuckled. "Mind introducing us to this dashing young fellow next to you?"

"Oh yes," Ginny said, blushing slightly. "Bill, Fleur, this is my husband, Draco. Draco, this is my brother Bill and my sister-in-law, Fleur."

"Charmed," Draco drawled, lifting Fleur's hand to his lips. She giggled lightly and Bill looked annoyed.

"I'm so glad that we got to see you!" Ginny exclaimed, breaking the brief tension. "I never dreamed Mrs. Malfoy would send us here, I imagine Mum must've gotten involved in the planning."

Bill chuckled. "From what Mum's told us, this was entirely Mrs. Malfoy's idea. It was all quite sudden too, something about making it up to you."

"Oh, that," Ginny scowled. "She'll be making up for that for years to come."

"I don't think I want to know," Fleur laughed. "But anyways, come along, it's nearly dinnertime here. I've even got jet lag potion for the two of you."

Bill and Fleur walked a few steps before Fleur opened a door, seemingly from thin air. Ginny and Draco could only gape at them as a small stone structure shimmered into view.

"Pretty impressive, huh?" Bill asked. "It's a charm we've been working on at Gringotts, well Fleur has, at any rate."

Fleur smiled graciously. "Bill's just being modest," she explained as they stepped into the house. "He discovered an ancient curse that produced mirages to ensnare thirsty desert wanderers. I was merely able to reverse it so that large objects could be hidden more effectively. Unfortunately, it seems to be atmosphere dependant, we haven't gotten it to work properly on buildings that aren't in deserts."

"And I thought Bill was the one being modest here," Draco whispered to Ginny, who thwacked him lightly on his back.

Ginny received her third surprise of the day when they stepped into the kitchen, which appeared to be nearly as large as the outside structure, but several more doors appeared to belie this. Sitting at the table, in a high chair, was a toddler with pale red wispy hair. She apparently was in the middle of her own dinner and was covered in some sort of mashed green vegetable. "Auntie Ginny! Auntie Ginny!" the little girl cried, throwing her hands up in the air in a demand to be held.

Ginny crossed over to the toddler in a few short steps, scooping her up in her arms and swinging her around as Draco let out a noise of disgust. "Ginny, I'm not sure that's such a good idea," Bill warned.

"Oh, please, you used to do this to me all the time when I was little," Ginny laughed.

"Yes, and I eventually learned that it made you sick," he replied, frowning. "I'll tell you the same that Mum told me: if she gets sick, you're the one taking care of her."

"You're no fun," Ginny pouted, although she stopped swinging Victoire around and rested her on her hip instead. The little girl snuggled up to her aunt, getting the green substance all over her robes.

"Oh, Ginny," Fleur sighed as she placed a dish on the table. "She's made a mess all over you. Scourgify!"

Ginny's robes instantly became clean once more, but Victoire's face was still covered in the lumpy green vegetable. Conjuring a handkerchief and a little water to wet it, Ginny carefully scrubbed her little face and hands clean. The little girl did not seem to care for this at all, making faces at her aunt when her ablutions were complete.

Fleur carried the final dish to the table and invited them all to sit down. The table was made of a light, knotted wood and though unfinished, was free of splinters. The chairs had clearly been charmed: while they actually looked splintery, they were quite comfortable once you were seated in them.

Dinner itself was a strange affair as well. For the most part, Ginny and Draco had stuck with relatively standard English cuisine, which this most certainly was not. Dinner consisted of stuffed grape leaves, lamb kebabs, and pita bread, with some sort of almond shortbread for dessert. Finally, when Victoire began rubbing her eyes nearly constantly, Ginny and Fleur rose to put her to bed.

Victoire was asleep by the time they reached her small, pink room. Fleur carefully dressed her in a frilly pink nightgown and placed her on a small bed that grew nearly imperceptibly as soon as she touched the mattress.

"Oh, now that's neat," Ginny said quietly.

"Oh yes," Fleur sighed. "She's going through a growth spurt. I don't suppose you'd mind coming along to shop for new clothes for her tomorrow?"

"I'd love to!" she whispered. "I suppose I should start picking some stuff up too," she trailed off sadly.

"What do you mean?" Fleur asked sharply.

Ginny performed the complicated charm again, golden smoke erupting from her wand once more when she tapped her abdomen.

"Oh, Ginny, I'm so sorry," she promptly said, in French.

"Me too," Ginny sighed, likewise in French, before looking up in surprise. "Why'd you switch?"

"Because Bill still cannot understand us when we speak quickly and I don't want him finding out about this just yet. You can't be very far along though, can you?"

"Two weeks to the day."

"Then how will you know what kind of clothes to get?"

Ginny laughed. "I'm the first girl in the Weasley family in how many generations? And there haven't been any female Malfoy's in centuries."

"Fair point."

"So why don't we want Bill to know just yet?"

"You really think he won't slay that husband of yours the moment he finds out you're with child?"

"It's not a real marriage, Fleur, I'm not going to force my baby sister to sleep with some monster!"

Ginny sighed. Bill and Fleur had been arguing over their sleeping arrangements for the past hour or so and it appeared that Bill had finally stopped tip-toeing around the real reason he wanted them sleeping in separate rooms. She really needed to put a stop to it, not only had Draco's back stiffened considerably after Bill's last comment, she had had to scoop up a sleepy Victoire who had woken up to the loud, angry voices of her parents.

"Bill, stop it," she finally cut in wearily. "You've finally woken your daughter."

Bill looked horrified at this and Fleur shot him a nasty look, as if her waking had been solely his doing.

"Now listen closely, both of you," she continued, hoisting Victoire further up her hip. "Draco is hardly my first choice for a husband, but he's not a bad person. He's certainly not some "monster", as you claim him to be, Bill." Draco visibly relaxed at this statement and she made note that she'd have to congratulate him for containing his temper throughout the evening. "Besides, much as you both may like it, your sofa is really not suitable as a bed, so please show us the guest room so we all can get some sleep."

Bill stayed where he was, bright red, before sighing and calling out, "Come here, Victoire. Let's get you back into bed."

Victoire sniffled loudly and buried her face in Ginny's robes. "Auntie Ginny," she proclaimed in a tired, muffled voice.

"It's alright, you can come with me," Ginny told her softly, glaring at her brother who wearily dropped his hands to his side. She turned back to face Draco and Fleur and they walked to the guestroom.

The guestroom was probably the smallest room in the house, barely big enough for the double bed and dresser. A small window showed a breathtaking view of stars and sand. Suddenly, the gas lamps flared to life and revealed that the room was decorated in soft yellows, blues, and greens.

"Here, let me take Victoire," Fleur said softly, holding out her arms. Victoire shook her head vigorously and clung to Ginny with a death grip.

"She can stay with us tonight, if you don't mind," Ginny said, rubbing her back gently.

"Just for tonight," Fleur warned both of them. "Well, now that that's all set, I've brought your trunks in here, so you should be all set for the night. Sweet dreams." She kissed Victoire on the head, whispering I love you and walked out of the room, gently shutting the door behind her.

"I strongly dislike your brother," Draco informed her, a scowl fixed on his face.

Ginny sighed for the umpteenth time that night, sitting down on the bed. "Bill's just trying to watch out for me," she said softly. "He understands that I didn't want this marriage, still don't want it, for that matter, and he's taking it all out on you. I'll have a word with him in the morning."

"Good," he proclaimed. "Now where exactly is she going to sleep?"

"I assumed with us," Ginny said in surprise.

"With us? There's barely enough room for the two of us on that bed!"

"Keep your voice down, I just got her back to sleep," Ginny scolded him quietly. "I suppose I could charm the dresser…"

"Why not simply transfigure it?"

Ginny blushed. "Transfiguration's my worst subject, I'm afraid. We'd be lucky if it stayed transfigured for more than five minutes."

"You were transfiguring things in Newport," he said in confusion.

"I'd recast it every few minutes," she admitted sheepishly. "I'm not about to stay up all night transfiguring a bed every few minutes while my niece is trying to sleep."

"I'll show you how it's done then, shall I?" smirked Draco. He raised his wand, gave a short little twiddle and the dresser was now a small bed made of dark wood. Ginny made to move the throw blanket from the foot of the bed, but Draco grabbed her wrist and conjured a heavy green blanket and a pillow. Ginny carefully picked up the sleeping toddler and placed her on the bed, gently tucking her in for the remainder of the evening.

After they had changed for the evening, they climbed into the bed. It was quite a change from the large king-sized beds they had previously been sleeping in.

"Ow! You kicked me!" Draco whispered harshly.

"I did not! You kicked me!"

"It's that blasted code, remember? If you kick me it's like kicking yourself!"

"I'm still going to have a bruise in the morning!"

"So am I!"

Both then rolled over to the very edges of the bed and began tugging at the covers.

"Let go, you cover hog!"

"I'm trying to sleep over here, pipe down!"

"I will as soon as you give me the covers!"

Ginny sat up in a huff. "Fine! Have the blasted covers!" She whipped the throw off the top of the bed and wrapped herself in it.

"Your niece is in here! Watch your language!"

"She's sound asleep!"

"She won't be for long if you keep raising this racket!"

"Me? I am the one solely responsible for raising this racket?"

"Yes! You kicked me and stole all the covers!"

"Fine! Just go to sleep!"

"I think I will!"

Finally, both curled up under their own separate covers and fell sound asleep.

The next morning dawned bright and quickly grew warm. After a breakfast of fruit and more pita bread, Ginny took Bill aside.

"Let me guess, you're going to talk to me about last night," he said wearily. "I'll have you know Fleur's already given me an earful."

"As well she should have," Ginny said crossly. "Look, whether or not you like it, Draco is my husband. We're going to be married for the rest of our lives, so you'll have to learn to at least be polite. You really hurt him last night when you called him a monster."

"Alright, alright," Bill said, running his hand through his long hair. "But still, you know he was a Death Eater and in my book that makes him a monster."

Ginny quirked an eyebrow at him. "He never was a Death Eater."

"Yes he was! He was responsible for the death of Albus Dumbledore! He's the reason I was attacked by Greyback!"

"And if he hadn't done that his whole family would've been killed. It was a burden placed on his very young shoulders. Surely you would do the same in his position. Besides, he failed in his mission and thus wasn't allowed the 'honor' of becoming a Death Eater."

"You're right, I probably would do the same to protect Fleur and Victoire. But still, how are you so sure he's not a Death Eater?"

"He's my husband. You really don't think I've seen him naked?"

Bill and Ginny walked back into the large kitchen where Draco, Fleur, and Victoire were eating breakfast. Bill, looking decidedly green, turned to Draco.

"I'm sorry if I offended you last night," he ground out. "Now if you'll all forgive me, I'm running late for work." He practically fled out the door, stumbling over the threshold in his haste.

"Oh dear, just what did you say to him, Ginny?" Fleur asked.

Ginny grinned wickedly. "Oh, I may have told him that I've seen Draco naked."

Draco turned even paler than normal and Fleur sighed. "I thought the purpose of the conversation was to encourage him to be nicer to Draco rather than increase his desire to flay him alive?"

"Oh, I pulled a Mum and read him the riot act, don't worry. If he doesn't behave again this evening I really will Floo Mum and have her deal with him."

"I just hope he listened to you," Fleur said doubtfully. "Come on then, let's get going."

"Where are we going?" Ginny asked.

"Oh, I still go to Paris for our robes. They have the strangest robe styles around here." She scooped up Victoire from her high chair and made her way to the large fireplace, throwing the silvery Floo powder in the flames.

Draco and Ginny followed her, landing in the familiar cobbled street. "Can I make her a couple of robes?" Ginny asked. "I know the perfect fabric shop right around the corner from here and I haven't had the chance to make children's robes yet."

"If you want," Fleur smiled indulgently. "Have you ever been here, Draco?"

"Oh, yes, many times with my mother. She's especially fond of a shoe shop around here. She claims that you can dance all night in their stilettos and your feet never ache."

"Ah, yes, I know just the shop you're talking about. Those shoes really are amazing."

They turned the corner and found the fabric shop Ginny was looking for. They walked in to the tinkling of a bell and Ginny promptly walked over to the light cotton fabrics. "What do you think of this one?" she asked Fleur, holding up a pale yellow fabric sprigged with embroidered pink flowers.

"That's lovely!" Fleur exclaimed.

"Good," Ginny proclaimed, tucking the bolt under her arm. "Now let's see…"

"What about this one?" Draco called over to the girls, holding up a dark green and blue plaid taffeta.

"I'm not sure..." Fleur trailed off. "Don't you think it's a bit, well, formal for a two year old?"

"Nothing wrong with making her a pair of dress robes," Ginny pointed out, her eyes gleaming with possibilities. Draco tucked the bolt under his arm and snatched the other bolt from Ginny.

"Hmm… now let's see, what about this?" Fleur held up a bolt of light cotton in the palest shade imaginable of lavender.

"Yes, I think that could work," Ginny said tentatively.

"Well, if you're not sure…"

"Nonsense," Ginny proclaimed. "You'll be the one dressing her every day, you have every right to help pick things out." She took the bolt from Fleur and walked up to the counter, where an elderly woman greeted them.

"Oh my goodness, I haven't seen you in ages, Ginevra! How did that wedding robe of yours turn out?"

"Beautifully," Ginny beamed.

"Quite an unusual color, that's for sure, but I'm sure you did something fantastic with it. Now, how may I help you today?"

"I'd like five meters of each of these fabrics, please," Ginny said, handing over the bolts.

"Oh, what are you making now?"

"Some robes for my niece here."

"Fabulous! Let me just measure these out for you now." She waved her wand and suddenly the first bolt of fabric sprang into the air and began unwinding itself so quickly it was blurred. Moments later, there was a slicing sound and a rectangle of fabric gently folded itself before gliding back down to the work surface. The rest of the bolt went flying over their heads and back to where they had originally found it. This process was repeated twice more and finally the elderly woman wrapped them up in brown paper before handing them over.

"That'll be 12 galleons and 7 sickles, please." Fleur gasped in surprise but Draco, unphased, reached into his pocket and produced the correct change.

"Thank you very much and have a wonderful day! I hope to see you again soon, Ginevra!"

"I'm sure I'll be back soon," Ginny beamed. "Have a good day!"

They walked out of the shop and into the bright sunlight. "Mummy, I'm hungry," Victoire whined.

"Do you mind?" Fleur asked apologetically. "We'll only be about fifteen minutes."

"Not at all," Draco responded. "Shall we meet back here?"

"That sounds good," Fleur breathed in relief. "Hold Mummy's hand now, Victoire." The two walked off down the street.

"So, where do you want to go?" Draco asked.

"Well… there's this lovely little shop just down the street," she said tentatively. "They sell the most gorgeous accessories; they even have things for men too. Do you want to try there?"

"Sure, why not," he said nonchalantly.

They headed down the street and into the shop. Ginny sighed in happiness as she eyed the hat display. "Umm, there's the men's accessories," she said, pointing to the back corner of the store containing hats, belts, and colognes. She turned her attention back to the hat display.

Draco had few intentions of checking out the men's section. Making sure Ginny wasn't watching him, he walked over the perfume display, carefully sniffing each of the fragrances. He finally settled on a light floral scent and picked up a bottle of eau de parfum and a bottle of body lotion. He wandered back to Ginny who was now trying on various hats.

"No hats," he said in horror.

"Why not?" Ginny asked, frowning slightly.

"My mother has an enormous hat collection," he stated, quite seriously. "If you ever want any chance of this being a semi-normal marriage, you will not wear hats. Tiaras, yes, hats, no."

Ginny chuckled. "Alright, no hats then," she replied, shaking her head. "What is it that you have there?"

"Oh, nothing, nothing. Just start to head on back to the street corner so I can take care of this nothing."

Ginny sighed and rolled her eyes. "If you insist," she said drily before leaving the shop.

Draco purchased the fragrances and carefully shrunk the package and tucked it into his robes. He strode quickly down the quiet street, knowing that he was running late to meet up with his new sister-in-law and niece. He rounded the street corner where he found the two ladies having a whispered discussion. Fleur had a particularly wicked grin on her face.

"Oh, Draco, we have some ladies business to take care of. Would you mind giving us an extra half hour or so?"

"Not at all," he replied, somewhat baffled.

Ginny linked arms with Fleur, leaving behind her very confused husband. As soon as they were out of earshot, Fleur burst into giggles. "Oh my, I would pay money to see his face later! Just please, please don't tell Bill about this."

"I won't," Ginny replied. "I'm still not sure why exactly you think this is a good idea."

"Because," Fleur stated matter of factly. "You two are newlyweds, both of you deserve this." She steered them into a shop filled with swim suits.

"Oh my goodness, Draco will kill me if he sees me wearing one of these," Ginny said in horror.

"No, he won't," Fleur assured her. "I'm not really supposed to talk about where you're going next, but it's safe to say that there are private beaches involved. He'll be the only one to see you."

"Still, it might be too soon, it's not a love match, you know."

"Please," Fleur huffed. "Surely you two feel something for each other if you're already pregnant, even if I do think it's much too soon for you in your relationship."

"I know, I know," Ginny said miserably. "It wasn't exactly my choice."

"What do you mean?" Fleur asked, her eyes widening.

"His mother had the nerve to feed us a form of Amortentia," Ginny said, glaring at her shoes. "It was hidden in our drinks at dinner and we woke up in a rather compromising position the following morning."

"I'm so sorry," Fleur said genuinely. "But still, time is ticking for you still having your old body, it's time to show it off!"

Finally after forty-five minutes, Ginny had a bright red halter top bikini, a dark blue bikini with many tiny straps holding it up, a pale pink bikini adorned with small, matching roses, a bright yellow bandeau bikini, a basic black bikini, and an emerald green strapless bikini.

"Are you sure I need all these?" Ginny asked doubtfully.

"My dear, I have half a mind to drag you to the lingerie store as well, but we're already running late."

At the end of the week, Bill had begun to relax a bit more around Draco, although he still turned a funny shade of red whenever he saw him with Ginny, which was quite often. Finally, he announced at dinner that tomorrow they would be going on a boat ride down the Nile and would go onto their final destination from there.

"I wonder where we're going next," Ginny mused as the two got ready for bed. After an embarrassing incident where Fleur walked in on Draco changing in the bathroom, they had finally began getting dressed for bed in their room, albeit facing away from one another to give each other some privacy.

"It sounds to be close by, I imagine the boat will take us there," Draco said, his brow furrowed in concentration. "Let's see, my guesses would be Italy or Greece, we have properties in both countries."

"One of these days you're going to have to sit me down and explain exactly how many properties your family has," Ginny laughed. "I still fail to see why you need to have so many."

"They're your properties now too," Draco said absentmindedly. "Property is a good investment. Besides, it gives you an excuse to run away someplace under the pretense of checking up on things."

"So how many are there and where are they?" she asked curiously.

"Er… let's see. There's the mansion in Newport where we spent some quality time, and then the rest are in Europe. An island in Greece, a villa in Italy, a lodge in Switzerland, a chateau in France, a smaller hunting lodge in Scotland, and then of course, the Manor in England. So, that's seven total."

"Where will we be living? I know your mother had talked about France…"

Draco grimaced. "That place is just a little too… drafty for my tastes. I'd really rather stay at the hunting lodge in Scotland, less of a hassle to get to work, you know."

"That makes sense," she sighed.

"There's a gorgeous Quidditch pitch there," he said slyly, chancing a glance at her. He was quite surprised to see her features form a scowl.

"Of course there is," she said bitterly. "Now that I can't fly for the better part of a year. Probably longer, what with taking care of an infant after he's born."

"We'll get a nanny," Draco said confidently.

"No, we won't," Ginny said, glaring at him.

"What do you mean, we won't?" he asked perplexed. "You just said you'd be burdened taking care of an infant."

"That doesn't mean I don't want to take care of him!" she hissed. "I may not like the situation but I am going to do what's right!"

"Fine, fine, no nanny," Draco scowled. "Just don't expect me to be up at all hours taking care of them."

"It's your job!"

"I already have a job, thank you very much! And it sure as hell doesn't involve taking care of squalling newborns!"

"Fine, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Ginny sighed, raking her hand through her hair. "Come on now, I'm tired of fighting with you."

"We wouldn't be fighting if you didn't start them," Draco said sullenly.

"I'm going to ignore that comment so that we don't start another argument." She reached out across the small distance separating and slipped her small hand into his much larger one. "Truce?"

"I feel like we've done this before, but yes, truce," he said grudgingly. "Now let's see how long this lasts."

Author's Note:

There we go, I hope you enjoyed! Once again, thank you for all the reviews, alerts, and favs!