Chapter Sixteen

Northanger Hall was glorious. The only place that could possibly top it was Malfoy Manor and Draco considered, not for the first time, that maybe he should talk his mom into hosting a ball. It wouldn't take much nudging, he figured.

He entered alone, noting almost absently that Blaise and Hermione had come together. For reasons he wasn't ready to go into yet, he didn't care about the contest any more.

He singled out Ginny immediately. She was dressed in a dark brown dress that hugged her figure in a way that told him it wasn't a hand-me-down. Her flaming red hair was a dead giveaway.

Of course the fact that she was having what looked to be a heated argument with Herbert West didn't hinder facts.

Draco felt his lips curl up and he strode unimpeded over to the two of them.

"I said I'm fine," Ginny snarled as he came into earshot.

"Your-" Herbert began but trailed off when he saw Draco.

"I'd listen to her," Draco drawled. Her shoulders went stiff but she looked back at him with a fonder look than the one she'd had trained on Herbert. "She has this nasty habit of castrating people who don't listen all that well."

Herbert glared at Draco. "This is a private conversation, Malfoy."

"So it is. Please continue this oh so private conversation at the top of your lungs. I'll just go somewhere I can't hear you. Like Canada perhaps?"

"You can stay," Ginny said. "Herbert here was just leaving."

Draco bit back a smirk of triumph.

Herbert looked between the two of them then turned and grabbed Taurine Parkinson. A slow song started and partners were found. Before Ginny could move, Draco snagged her by her waist and pulled her into his chest.

"So what was that about, Ginny?"

She looked up at him then sighed. "Profits are down at our store. Herbert was no so subtly hinting that I would have more than enough money to keep it afloat if I married him."

"Well that's just stupid," Draco said, scowling at Herbert across the dance floor. "If you'd wanted something like that, you could have just told Potter you were knocked up or else seduced someone like my father who didn't care what you did with the money."

"Not you?" she said softly.

"Well, you could marry me," he conceeded. "But I would care what you did with the money."

"Why's that?" she asked. "Don't you have enough?"

"I could buy Poland if I wanted to," he confirmed.

"Why would you want to?"

"I am trying to make a point here, Miss Literal."

"Then why would you care what I did with your money?"

He looked her dead on. "Because I would want it to make you happy. You could have anything as long as it made you happy."

She stared at him, her cheeks flaming with something and a fire in her eyes.

"You could be my anything," he whispered, moving closer to her.

"Your horse?" she whispered back.

He caught the reference and grinned. "And here you stand," he said. "Touch her whoever dares. I'll bring mine action on the proudest he that stops my way in Padua."

"We're not in Padua," she managed before he closed the distance and sealed her lips with a kiss.

888

Hermione let out a yelp of surprise and ground to a halt.

Blaise, who was paying attention to the way her hair sat on her neck, almost ran her over. He frowned then followed her gaze.

"Well," he said.

"Well, indeed," Hermione replied, watching Ginny and Draco spin in lazy circles, barely taking their eyes or lips off each other.

The End.

(A/N: That's it. The end. No epilogue for this one. You'll have to fill in the blanks for yourself.

By the way, Ginny and Draco's back and forth at the end of this chapter is from the play The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare. I thought it pretty apropos for the two of them. If you haven't read the play, I recommend it. The play follows several different plots, like most of Shakespeare's do. Basically it's about a girl who is an extremely rude and abusive person and no guys will go near her. Oh, and Northanger hall is a fictional place created by Jane Austen.