Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the amazing world of Harry Potter!

Chapter 25: Changes

Hallie let herself in to the main part of the Malfoy Manor from the apparition point on Monday afternoon. She waved to Blinky when he popped into the room and continued to rush up to her best friend's room. She immediately let herself in and started to call out Ginny's name.

Ginny emerged from the bathroom fully clothed but towel drying her damp hair after her post work shower on her first day back at work. "Hey Hallie, what's up?"

Hallie narrowed her big blue eyes and scrunched up her little nose and surveyed Ginny as if she already disbelieved everything her friend was about to say. "Where have you been?" she inquired shrewdly.

"Nowhere!"

"What have you been doing?"

"Nothing!"

"Who were you with?"

"No one!"

"Oh my god I knew it! You are sleeping with Draco again."

Ginny looked up sharply and starred at her best friend in both shock and a little bit of awe. "How did you even make that jump?"

"I'm a genius." She said self-satisfactorily as she flopped down on the couch.

"Hallie!"

"No seriously, the only thing you have ever consistently… well not lied about but certainly didn't offer any information about was your relationships with Draco. So when you both vanished for a week with no explanation I put two and two together and voila. And then for confirmation I went to the house elves. Buggers know everything that goes on! Seriously, like watch what you say."

Ginny could do nothing but gaze back with her mouth hanging wide open. "I can't even say anything in my defense… other than I am now coming up with five of six new ways of torturing my favorite house elf."

"Shh! Don't say that too loud or you might give the crazy little masochists new ideas!"

Ginny couldn't help but laugh as she joined her friend's seated position. "I know right? Well actually ever since I ordered Blinky never to hurt himself because of me he has gotten even more outspoken than he was before. It has caused quite the scandal in the manor. I actually found some of the other elves trying to shut his ears in the oven for him for telling me he didn't like the outfit I was wearing. Seems I have created a houseelf monster. Then there's Draco's Lilith… she is an entire different version of crazy."

Hallie's face twitched into a smile but then she remembered why she had come and shouted out, "No! You are trying to get me off topic with your fantastical tales of houseelf antics! Get back on topic! Are you and Draco back together?"

"I can neither confirm nor deny that."

"Which essentially means yes. Why won't you tell me the truth?"

Ginny grinned but then buried her face into the nearest pillow on the couch. "Because we decided we were just going to keep it between the two of us and I still agree that it should stay that way; too many opinions and too much advice if we actually talk to people."

"But I'm your best friend."

"Yes, and so is Luna and Draco has Blaise and Theo. I understand but people knowing just makes it harder. We are trying to rediscover each other and actually make this relationship work… maybe for the long term. I don't know but we are just trying to wait and see."

"Fiiine." Hallie whined, conceding. "Will you at least tell me where you disappeared off to for an entire week without informing anyone?"

"I suppose." Ginny grinned. "We went on a tropical vacation because Draco … bought an island."

"He did WHAT?"

Ginny laughed and repeated her statement. "He bought a bloody island. Like a small piece of land floating out in the middle of the Caribbean and it was absolutely beautiful Hallie! Perfect even."

Hallie threw up her hands as if in defeat. "See how is this in anyway fair?"

"What are you going on about now?"

"Think about it, I got gypped on my choice of Slytherin obviously. Blaise has a gigantic villa in Greece, Draco has a freaking island in the Caribbean…. What does Theo have? Nothing!" she laughed. "I did not make a good decision… unless it turns out that he is secretly the prince of… I-don't-give-a-fuck land and thus making me a freaking princess. I feel like I would win then.

Ginny could hardly catch her breath from all the laughter. Hallie was seriously borderline insane, and that was saying something living in the wizarding world. "Or you could just go find a prince and make him marry you."

"Nah, despite his lack of a muggle title I am too in love with mine to give him up. I kind of want to keep him."

"Well it seems as if Miss Hallie hasn't been sharing with the class either. Little hypocrite! First you skip my ball and then you say nothing on New Years. I know you two fixed everything though, you were both much too happy at the party for you to have not."

"Yes well that happened, get over it."

"It's rather weird that we all seem to be getting our happy endings doesn't it?" Ginny asked contemplatively as she shifted her position to lay her head in the other woman's lap.

"No, I think it is justified after all this time actually." Hallie replied as she began to run her fingers through her friend's long red locks.

"Yeah, you're probably right. I don't know, I just can't shake the feeling that I'm not out of the woods yet. I'm probably crazy, a natural reaction from having to be so on guard for 4 months."

"Well you were crazy before you married Draco but I'm sure this didn't help."

"Wow, thanks Hal." She said sticking her tongue out at her friend. "So you're not going to tell anyone right? I don't want Draco to find out you know, he will get upset."

"Well technically I guessed so it isn't your fault but I won't tell anyone, I promise."

"Thank you."

Not long after that Hallie once again left the manor and just a few minutes later Draco returned from work.

He entered through his room, laid his coat on his bed and then headed straight for the bathroom. He knew that Ginny would be on the other side of the door and did not want to wait a minute longer to see her. He was becoming pathetically in love with the woman yet again. He thought about her all the time, couldn't focus because of how happy he was and even had closed the gallery a bit earlier then he usually did just because he knew that she was off work.

This woman would probably be the ruin of him, he thought as he opened the door to her bedroom. The moment he saw her though he knew that he could not care less.

She was stretched out on her stomach along her bed already in pajamas casually flipping through the pages of the latest edition of Witch Weekly and chewing on the tip of one long strand of her russet locks. Draco could not physically contain himself from smiling at how adorable she was. "Hey Red, mind if I join you?"

"I suppose." Ginny said dramatically despite the giant grin that had slid into place the moment she had heard his voice. "Come on in."-

"Why thank you oh great one." Draco said in his most sarcastic 'we-are-not-amused' voice and rolling his eyes as he stepped across the threshold. He quickly crossed the room and flopped onto the bed which caused the whole bed to shake. He continued to wiggle in an attempt to make himself comfortable.

"Have you quite finished?" Ginny exclaimed as he jostled her elbow for what must have been the tenth time.

"I suppose." He said smirking as he imitated her earlier response.

"You know if I didn't love you I would find you exceptionally annoying."

"I feel like you say that quite often as it were."

"That's because it's true!"

"What are you reading?" he said pointedly ignoring her final comment and snatching the magazine out of her grasp.

"What does it look like you great louse? It's Witch Weekly, now give it back."

Once again he simply ignored her and continued on with his train of thought. "How can you even read this? There is absolutely no substance to it!"

"Oh you only say that because you are no longer the weekly centerfold."

He had to suppress a snort of laughter. "Well obviously they have lost the last shred of good sense they had for not inviting me back."

"Or maybe they did and your new wife could have written them back to say that under no circumstances would you be doing that again as per your grandfather's instructions and her own violent opinion."

Draco's jaw dropped open. "You didn't?"

"Oh but I did." Ginny said haughtily. "First of all you have a new image I am trying to protect, second, your grandfather asked me to do it, and finally and most importantly, you are now mine and I have no intentions of sharing anymore of you with other women even if it is only to look and not touch."

"Possessive much?"

"Very much. How would you feel if I tried to pose for a men's magazine?"

"I'd kill someone."

"Exactly."

Draco sighed in reluctant defeat but still felt the need to get in the last word. "You still could have told me."

"I just did." She said sticking her tongue out at him.

"Fine…You want to take a shower?" he asked wiggling his eyebrows at her in an attempt to smoothly change the subject.

"My hair is wet genius." She said laughing at his playful expression. "I just took a shower not too long before you got home."

"You want to take another one?" he grinned.

"No! You are awful." She giggled leaning down to give him one delightfully lingering kiss. "Go take your shower and then come back to me."

Draco let out a long and overly dramatic sigh. "Fine. I suppose if you refuse to come along and have some fun I will just go by myself… but you owe me woman."

Ginny didn't even reply as she watched him walk back into the bathroom already disrobing as he went.

At the door he turned back around with a wicked expression. "Should I bother getting dressed when I'm done?"

She couldn't help but allow a small smile to play about her lips at his words. "Go!"

She shook her head and the amused smile lingered as he finally disappeared into the bathroom. She was so incandescently happy. She loved their battle of wits and wills. It just wouldn't be their relationship if some light hearted bickering didn't find its way into daily conversation. No, this was practically perfect. She had the best of both worlds: sweet and almost sensitive Draco and the snarky, Slytherin Draco both of whom were entirely in love with her.

And so time passed. Before they knew it January had escaped and then February began in much the same way as the month did every year in England, crisp and cold. Snow covered the grounds of Malfoy Manor transforming it into a winter wonderland the likes of which Ginny had only ever dreamed about, but despite the beauty of winter, Ginny started out the month feeling a bit under the weather. For about a week she had been feeling nauseous and a bit bloated but she convinced herself, as she always did when she was feeling poorly, that there was no way she had time to be sick right now. There was too much going on in the next week for her to take even a moment off for sick leave.

No, this was possibly one of the busiest weeks of her year, the annual St. Mungo's Valentine's Fund Raiser Gala. As if the Malfoys didn't fulfill her annual quota of balls, no now she had to plan the Gala for a third year in a row as the chair of the committee.

And to top it all off she had had no time to take a moment to find herself a dress. Because of this she couldn't believe it but she found herself agreeing to let Draco find her a dress for her biggest personnel event of the season. She still had not decided whether or not this was a good idea but at this point she had no choice. Her husband had good taste and since she would be on his arm she knew he would want her to look spectacular but that still did not ward off the anxiety that formed in the pit of her stomach right under the constant nausea that had taken up permanent residence in her body.

She would just have to have faith in her favorite blond snake for the sake of preserving her sanity because she had far too much else to deal with without any added pressures.

Despite all the pitfalls and crazy sleepless nights of decorating, finalizing and worrying though, everything eventually began to pull itself together so that by the time the night before the gala rolled around Ginny was actually able to crawl into bed ready for a good night's sleep.

Ginny awoke with a start, violently pulled out of her slumber by uncontrollable sobs. She brought her hands to her face and attempted to take a few deep breaths to slow the uncontrollable trembling of her body.

The noise of her episode jostled Draco from his sleep. "Gin?" he asked groggily. "Hey love what's wrong?"

Ginny could not force herself to speak.

Draco grabbed his wand and lit up the room with a soft, warm light. He pushed himself up out from under the covers and rolled his wife over to face him. "What happened Red? Did you have a nightmare or something?" He asked trying in vain to control a yawn.

Ginny took a few deep breaths and then forced herself to nod her head slowly.

"Do you want to tell me about it?"

This time she shook her head no.

He stared down at Ginny and began to gently stroke her hair in an attempt to calm her down. Draco was really beginning to worry about her. She had been running herself ragged for the last few weeks to get ready for this damn ball. He knew it was an important fund raiser for the hospital but Ginny had come home every single day absolutely exhausted, and a few times she had not come home at all but spent entire nights at the venue for the gala before heading straight back to work. She hardly ate anymore but yet never seemed to have an appetite. He really needed to talk to her about slowing down otherwise she would make herself extremely sick.

Despite Draco's soothing touch Ginny could not calm herself down. No, she could not and she definitely did not at all want to tell him about her dream because she had lied. That was no nightmare that she had just experienced… that was a memory, meticulously locked away deep in the recesses of her mind which her subconscious was apparently ready to let come out and play.

The next morning Draco watched Ginny like a hawk. He was searching for any sign in her demeanor that might betray some little clue of exactly what had caused his beautiful wife to wake in such hysteria the night before.

But Ginny, for her part, was more than aware that Draco was observing her and scrutinizing her every move, because of this she was a little extra careful to remain engaged in conversation with the family and act as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred.

They remained locked in this standoff all day long while they went about their various activities, Ginny in last minute preparation for the gala and Draco just going over various assorted paperwork for the gallery.

Finally, around five o'clock in the afternoon the pair decided it was time for them to begin preparations. The event started at eight that evening but Ginny wanted to floo over at seven just to be on the safe side.

So they put aside everything they had been working on and headed to the bathroom to get ready. After much convincing, Draco persuaded Ginny that they should conserve water and just shower together and, despite her better judgment, Ginny eventually agreed. He was just so cute standing there doing his very best to imitate an innocent face that she finally gave in even though she knew that because of some less than innocent activities it would mean losing valuable time.

After half an hour they finally emerged and Ginny quickly banished Draco to his own room to begin getting dressed otherwise she knew that she would never actually be able to get clothes on. He reluctantly obeyed.

Fifteen minutes later though he was back at the bathroom door and begging entrance into her room.

"Come in." she said exasperatedly.

He grinned his all too familiar cheeky grin at her and flopped down into one of the chairs. "Hi." He said gleefully.

"Hi." Ginny replied cautiously. Ever since they had gotten back together Ginny seemed to actually be less trusting of Draco, everything he did just seemed to scream 'I'm up to something.'

"How's it coming?"

"I'm working on my makeup as you can very well see."

"Very nice, very nice. So I don't want to go."

"Oh no! Don't you even start with me Draco Malfoy. How many of these damn events have I gone to for your family? You do not have a say in this matter."

"I know."

"Then why bring it up? Do you just want to get smacked?"

"Depends…," he said slowly with a cheeky grin. "Is that an offer or a promise?"

Ginny couldn't help but giggle at his response but she threw a pillow at him for good measure. "I'm not even going to dignify you with a response. I am just going to change the subject. You know, it will be so nice not to have to spend all night making sure I don't run into you. Avoiding you always got so exhausting."

"You avoided me?"

"Mhm, both year of the years I have planned it you have been the one to attend the St. Mungo's Benefit Gala for some reason and every year I made sure to zero in on you as soon as you arrive and then ensure that we managed to stay on opposite sides of the room the entire night.

Draco laughed. "That's funny because I always had a very similar routine for this particular gala."

"I can imagine." She smiled as she looked at him through the mirror. "I'm so glad I just get to be on your arm tonight rather that all that nonsense."

"Me too. Plus with me as your date it will be a significant improvement over that arse you had last year. What was his name? Michael? Matthew?"

"Mitchell. And hey! I liked that arse at the time, right up until he cheated on me. Besides it is customary to bring a date to events like that and since he was my boyfriend then I figured it would be a good idea to bring him unlike other people in this room who have insisted on attending stag and making a big entrance every single year."

"What can I say? I like being the center of attention."

"Really?" Ginny asked her face full of sarcastic shock. "I had never noticed."

"I know hard to believe. That's why you love me though, because I'm so shy and retiring." He leaned down over her and slunk in for a kiss.

Ginny obliged him but then took control of the situation. This had Draco avoidance technique written all over it and if she didn't do something quick they would most definitely end up being late. "Go finish getting dressed!" she urged her husband, pushing him playfully in the direction of his own room. "And don't come back until you are ready to apperate away."

Draco stuck out his tongue but followed Ginny's instructions.

As soon as he was safely in the other room Ginny's face fell and she gave in to the awful feeling that was ripping through her body. She swallowed back a familiar wave of nausea. What in the bloody hell was wrong with her? She had been asking herself that for two weeks and her healer's mind kept popping up with the same answer that Ginny was just unwilling to believe. If she were being honest with herself she would admit that she knew exactly what was wrong with her but she really had no time to think about things such as that.

Instead she simply opened up the top drawer of her vanity and downed yet another tiny vial of the potion to combat the nausea and then stood to finally get dressed and slip into her gown which she still had yet to see.

Ginny walked over to the bed and slowly unzipped the garment bag to reveal the most beautiful black silk dress. It was strapless with an understated sweetheart neckline and a jeweled broach adorning the A line waist as the only ornamentation. She was speechless. He had really out done himself with this gown.

She carefully lifted it from the bag and allowed herself to slip carefully into the dress and magically zipped it up. She fastened on her shoes and even with the 4 inch stiletto heels that she had bought for the occasion she noticed that the gown still elegantly pooled around her feet.

If it was possible to fall in love with an item of clothing then Ginny was definitely head over heels. It was the perfect gown and put all the others she had worn to shame, at least in her own mind.

Just as she finished admiring herself in her full length mirror she heard a soft knock on the door. She spun around smiling and allowed Draco entrance.

Despite being granted permission Draco could not move for several moments. He had seen Ginny in gowns a dozen times by now but for some reason it was all he could do to keep his mouth from dropping wide open in awe of his love's beauty. Why did this one affect him so? She always looked beautiful, he knew that. It was just something about the glow she had tonight, she was absolutely stunning.

She smiled at him and asked, "So what do you think sir?"

Draco quickly came back to his senses. "I think I am the best damn stylist you have ever had. You look amazing love."

Ginny giggled and beamed at him. "Conceit and complement, why am I not surprised?" She walked over and gave him a kiss. She then proceeded to blatantly look him up and down. "You don't look half bad yourself sir."

This of course Draco knew. He had on his perfectly tailored black dress robes with perfectly pressed white tuxedo shirt and slacks and topped off with a bowtie.

"I'm not sure how I feel about the bowtie though…"

Draco just smirked at her. "I don't know what you are talking about! Bowties are cool… and sexy."

"Maybe on you."

"That's all I care about. Now come on woman! Let's go or we are going to be late. Bloody hell you take forever to get ready!" he said cheekily as he moved away from her and quickly towards he door.

"I'm going to hit you."

He grinned at her and said: "You keep making promises but you never follow through…"

The evening went beautifully. All of Ginny's hard work paid off, they ended the evening with several new donors and all those who had given money before had renewed their vow of donation. She was beyond pleased.

The only thing that dampened the evening was that Ginny was acutely aware of how Draco's mood had slowly been failing the entire evening so that by the time they had returned home it had been nearly an hour since he had spoken.

Draco followed Ginny into the main door of her room. She could tell that he was fuming mad but had refused to say anything to her throughout the end of the event and the journey home. He had just sat there in his stone cold Malfoy silence with a blank expression on his aristocratic face. With every moment he stood there and pouted she could feel her own infamous Weasley temper flaring up despite the fact that she knew it would solve nothing. She had no clue what could possibly be the matter with him but now that they were home she was more than ready to find out.

"Alright," she said as she watched him attempting to escape back to his own room. "What in the bloody hell is the matter with you?"

"Whatever are you speaking of dear?" he said in a sarcastically patronizing tone.

Ginny felt herself bristling but she tried to contain it. She really did not want to fight with Draco but she knew that this could easily turn into a knock down drag out verbal brawl if she didn't at least attempt to steer it away from that. "I can tell you have been getting more and more upset as tonight went on. Please tell me what happened to make you so mad."

She looked and sounded so sweet that Draco very much wanted to let go of all the anger he had been storing up and just fold her into his arms like he knew he should but in the end the green monster of jealousy whom he had not even realized was controlling him won out. "You really want to know? I just got tired of watching you, the woman who claims to be in love with me, hang over other men all night."

Ginny was completely taken aback. What was he talking about? She had almost spent the entire night attached to his arm or dancing with him. The only times she had left his side was to be paraded around by the head of the hospital as their golden girl to try and get the donors to give even more money than they normally did. It was a tedious process that Ginny absolutely loathed but was necessary.

"You spent half of the night dancing with that one bloke! I barely saw you once he showed up."

"Mr. Norman? Is that who you are talking about? I danced with him three times Draco! That is hardly all night! He recently donated a huge sum of money to the St. Mungo's and Healer Hollingsworth asked me to make sure that I danced with him. You know just as well as I do that they have been trying to make me the face of the hospital for years."

"Oh I'm sure, well you all did look like you were having a bloody good time. Very cozy out there together."

Ginny was in shock, "What are you implying Malfoy?"

"That maybe you are trying to work your way up the social ladder Weasley. Malfoy name not good enough anymore for you? Or maybe we're not rich enough?"

All the anger drained from Ginny's body in that moment to be entirely replaced by cold, painful anguish. "I don't need or want your money or anyone else's. we both know that. I have never asked for your money. I can take care of myself without you."

"Yes but you do not seem to have any problems being paid by my family to make people think that we are sleeping together."

She was in shock at what he was implying. Ginny could physically feel her heart breaking. "Get out. Now."

"Oh now you're giving me orders? In my house?"

"GET OUT!" she screamed.

All he did was turn on his heel and stiffly walk back to his own room without another word.

Ginny fell onto the bed in absolute hysterics, despair and abandon consuming her soul. She managed to pull herself together just enough to find her want. She had to know right then and there the answer to the question that had been plaguing her for weeks. Wand in hand she recited a simple spell. She took held her breath and as a beam of white light shot out of the tip of her wand. She slowly moved it over her abdomen and watched through her still falling tears as the white became flooded with blue and she collapsed once again, this time in panic.

It was official: Ginny Weasley was pregnant with Draco Malfoy's child.

Yeaaaaah don't hate me please. I know I just got them together but it really was necessary to tear them apart again…. We'll see what happens.

So in other news, I'm going to dedicate this chapter to one of my bffls Kait who not only is one of my beloved readers but also who's habit of reading my mind (and vice versa) inspired the style of the Hallie/Ginny argument at the beginning of this chapter and that has been featured in several others as well.

Also I know some people will be annoyed in didn't describe the gala. It honestly is not important other than to give them a reason to fight so I chose not to describe it and distract from the couple.

I also had the opportunity to pay homage to my beloved 11th Doctor from Doctor Who. Bowties are cool and forever sexy.

Please read and review…. Tell me what you think. Yell at me (as I expect some of you will). I accept and love them all…

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