Draco drummed his fingers on the side of his glass, gazing around the room filled with Ministry officials in stuffy dress robes and their wives in pretentious gowns. The orchestra began another song, and he drained the remainder of his drink, spotting her through the end of his empty glass. He set the tumbler down and turned in his chair to get a better look at the beauty who had caught his eyes, the one who had him off his arse and striding across the room moments later, scanning around for her escort as he did so.
No escort.
Making his way to her side, he leaned up against the bar. “Weasley.”
She glanced over at him. “Malfoy.”
He motioned to the bartender, who poured another finger of single malt scotch for him. "What are you doing here?”
She took a sip of her blood-red wine. "I'm here with someone.”
“He’s a very lucky someone,” he replied, downing his scotch. She blushed a soft pink and took another drink to hide her smile.
Blaise Zabini appeared out of nowhere, wearing impeccably tailored dark dress robes, and shot Draco a nasty glare. “Ginny, love, dance with me,” he requested, taking her wine glass from her and handing it to a stunned Draco before escorting her onto the dance floor.
What did they think he was? A bloody house-elf? Draco tossed the wine glass aside on the bar and maneuvered his way through the crowd until he had an unobstructed view of the pair dancing like two banshees in heat. Should he transfigure a bucket of water to cool them off? And since when did the girl Weasel morph into that stunning beauty, and since when did Zabini steal her away from the rest of wizardkind? Or had he?
An hour later, Draco was too busy scheming to notice an empty-armed Blaise stomping across the room toward him. "She's not here anymore," Blaise roared, "so you can stop staring."
Draco glanced up. Sure enough, the thing of beauty had vanished.
One week later, after many discrete inquiries, Draco discovered that Blaise and Ginny were not a couple. They simply worked together. That afternoon, Draco sent Ginny an owl inviting her to dinner that Friday evening. To his delight, she accepted.
“Just order me something,” Ginny said six months later, laying down her menu. Draco was surprised that she even picked it up anymore. She had never ordered anything herself while out with him.
“You’ll like the Grenadin de Veau,” Draco said, looking at her over the top of his menu.
Blaise laughed. “Don’t get that, Gin. You won’t like it, it’s got apples in it.” He chuckled again as she wrinkled her face. “Why don’t you try the chicken in the rosemary white wine sauce? You ordered it when we had that job in Paris, remember?”
Draco scowled at Blaise, but before he could say anything, Ginny replied, “Oh, yes, that was wonderful. Order that.”
Draco sunk back into his chair, resigned. Blaise smirked at him knowingly, making Draco’s stomach clench.
“What drink should I order?” Ginny asked Blaise.
He didn’t even look up from his own menu. “You’re happy. Go with the Chàteau Des Rontets Pouilly-Fuissé.”
“And if I weren’t happy?” she asked, grinning a little too naughtily.
Blaise shrugged. “You know as well as I do that you love to drown your sorrows in a bottle.”
Ginny glared at him. “That one time in Venice does not constitute that I always drink my problems away.”
“Of course not.”
“Blaise!”
“What?”
“Bugger off!”
“I was merely recalling that other time at Miranda’s party-”
“Oh, that doesn’t count. It was a drinking game. I had to play!”
“Are you ready to order?” their waiter asked.
“Yes,” Draco sighed, tapping his glass with his spoon, causing Blaise and Ginny to look up from the bickering with startled faces, “I believe we’re ready.”
“Ginny?” Draco called, opening the door to her apartment hesitantly.
“Draco? Come on in! I’ll be out in a second. Say hello to Blaise.”
“Oh, Blaise is here, of course,” Draco muttered, closing the door behind him.
He removed his cloak and scarf and made his way through her kitchen. They were both soundless, an annoying quality of thieves, but he expected Blaise to be in the extra bedroom Ginny kept.
However, he didn’t expect to find his girlfriend’s partner dripping wet and clad in nothing but a fluffy white towel.
“Bloody hell!” Draco yelled, slapping a palm over his eyes.
Blaise laughed. “Ah, sorry mate. Forgot to close the door.”
“Ginny!” Draco yelled.
He heard her laugh bubbling somewhere. “Sorry, sweetheart. Just got back from assignment.”
“Oh, Draco, it’s beautiful!” Ginny squealed, leaping out of her chair and into his arms. She kissed him over and over, making his head swim.
“Let me put it on you,” he offered, and she turned around in his lap, handing him back the exquisite necklace. Emeralds and diamonds sparkled against her porcelain skin. “Happy birthday, love.”
A tiny bundle of fur suddenly wormed its way in between them. Startled, Draco lifted the puppy up with one hand, staring at it. “Where did you come from?”
Ginny giggled, taking the puppy from him and holding it to her chest. “This is Ollie.”
Draco regarded the tiny canine, which was now licking Ginny’s face. “He looks like a handful.”
“Oh, he’s adorable,” she cooed, holding him out to Draco’s face. Its little tongue was warm against his cheek. “Blaise just dropped him off this morning,” she added, plopping the wriggling pup down into Draco’s lap.
Draco froze. “Blaise?”
Ginny nodded happily, scratching Ollie behind a small ear. “He knows I’ve always wanted a pet.”
Of course he does.
“It’ll only be three weeks, Draco,” Ginny told him, bustling around her room looking for stray articles of clothing. “I’ve been gone that long before.”
“But not with Blaise,” he insisted, lying back on her bed and staring at the ceiling. Anything could happen in three weeks in the south of France.
She put her hands on her hips. “Blaise is my partner. Our job in Milan was two weeks long.”
He sat up, staring at her, a vision in her sapphire sundress and strappy sandals. “Ginny, don’t you know how he feels about you?”
She stopped her flurry of activity to stare back at him. “Draco, don’t do this. Not now.”
“I’m serious! Don’t you see the way he looks at you?” Draco exclaimed, boring into her with his turbulent gray eyes. Whether she chose to overlook or completely miss the prolonged, lustful stares of her partner, Draco couldn’t be sure. But he had seen them, and hell if he was going to let another wizard steal the fiery beauty that had danced her way into his life.
“Draco, you’re wrong. Blaise is like another one of my brothers,” she replied evenly, turning back to her suitcase.
“Maybe you see him that way, but he does not see you as a sister. And you already have six brothers, damn it. You don’t need another one!”
Ginny sighed long and impatiently, making him feel like a petulant child. “Draco, this is my job…”
“And this is our relationship. Don’t go, Ginny.” He was bordering on begging, but he didn’t care. Draco had a bad feeling about this trip, and he needed to make her understand and see that he was terrified of losing her. Didn’t she understand that he would beg for no one else?
“What are you saying?” she snapped, throwing a shirt down on the bed.
What was he saying? From the look on her face, he could tell that she did not see Blaise’s infatuation with her. Could he handle worrying about another wizard every time she stepped out of the house?
Draco inhaled shakily. He hadn’t meant for things to go this way. “It’s me or Blaise, Ginny. You have to choose.”
She stared at him, her mouth hanging open. “You can’t be serious,” she argued, eying him angrily. “I can’t deal with this right now, Draco. Owl me when you’re sane.”
Draco stood, blocking her from any further movement as his temper flared. “You can’t walk away from this the way you always walk away.”
“Move now,” she ordered. “I have a meeting in fifteen minutes.”
“Choose.”
“Blaise would never offer me such a ridiculous ultimatum,” Ginny scoffed.
Draco felt his heart sink. He couldn’t believe the words leaving his own mouth. “You’ll be very happy with him, then.”
He stepped aside, gazing down at her with a breaking heart. She gave him a last hard look and strode past without a backwards glance.
“I can’t believe he would do that!” Ginny exclaimed in a near whisper. She felt like it was all she had said for the past three weeks.
Blaise pressed a gloved finger to his lips, cocking his head and listening. But only silence surrounded them as they slipped further and further into the heavy darkness of the mansion.
Once they had crept around the corner, Blaise checked his watch for the next shift in the wards. “Two minutes. I know, Gin, but that’s Draco. He’s always been possessive and irrational. I told you from the start…”
“I know,” Ginny cut him off, waving her hand. “But you should have seen the look on his face.”
Blaise shushed her again, checking his watch and listening carefully. A soft pop sounded in the dark, Blaise grabbed Ginny’s hand and the two of them ran through the fallen ward.
They crouched low to the floor on the other side.
“Thirty seconds,” Blaise said, checking his watch again. He gave her a sideways look and Ginny smiled at him.
“What?”
“Draco doesn’t know what he’s giving up,” he answered in an earnest voice.
Ginny blushed. “Shut up, Blaise.”
But he just smiled and stood up, grabbing her hand and pulling her through the next ward.
When they were safely inside the next ring of security, Ginny removed a device from her belt and scanned for alarms or sensors.
“The map said that there weren’t any around here, Gin,” Blaise pointed out, glancing at his watch and leaning back against the wall.
“I know, I’m just double checking,” she replied, clipping the gadget back to her hip. She sighed. “This is such an easy job. How much longer?”
Blaise chuckled at her impatience. “One more ward and then the room is down the hall. The night guard must be sleeping or something. I haven’t heard him at all.”
Ginny nodded. “Ready?”
The final ward popped, and they raced through, their footfalls silent against the dark marble.
A mahogany door at the end of the hall solemnly guarded their bounty. Blaise stuck a molding key into the lock, and the door swung open without protest.
The room was small and dark. Tall bookcases lined the walls, and an imposing desk commanded the head of the room.
“And the safe is…?” Blaise asked, looking around.
“Behind the painting,” Ginny snorted. The clichés never got old.
Blaise crept across the room, pulled the painting off the wall and examined the small, steel grey safe. Pulling the decoder off his belt and attaching it to the lock, he got to work.
While Ginny stood watch, Blaise continued to work on the locking mechanism. “Ginny…” he began.
She turned, recognizing uneasiness in his voice. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” he blurted out. “I’m…sorry about Draco.”
“Don’t be. It’s not your fault.”
He gave a nervous laugh, still half focused on the lock. “I know. I hate to see you get hurt.”
“I should have chosen a better boyfriend.”
He turned around and regarded her with very serious eyes.
She took a step closer to him. “Blaise?”
He cocked his head to one side and gave her a small smile. “Maybe I could be that better boyfriend?”
Ginny felt her heart stop. Had she heard him correctly? Had her best friend just asked her out? Or had Draco made her paranoid?
Shite, could Draco have been right?
“What?” she whispered.
Blaise’s eyes turned dark as he pushed off the desk and took two steps to meet her. He leaned forward and kissed her. His lips were full and wet and nothing like Draco’s, and just kissing someone besides Draco made Ginny dizzy.
Ginny shrunk back from him, pushing against his chest gently.
“Blaise, what are you-” she began in a surprised voice.
“Stupefy!” A streak of light flashed and her partner crumpled to the floor. Horrified, Ginny looked up and saw Draco standing in the corner, wand raised and eyes blazing.
“Draco!” she screamed. “What are you doing here?”
But he paid her screams no mind as he strode across the room to the safe and unlocked it, yanking it open. He removed a small, black box, her target, and turned to face her.
The past three weeks had been a blur of Firewhiskey and hangovers. One week into it, he knew he couldn't live with out her. Hell, he couldn't even drag his sorry arse out of bed morning, noon or night if she wasn't going to be out there waiting for him.
Ginny stared at him, things falling into place. This was his house, another one of his houses.
She glanced down at Blaise, breathing peacefully on the floor, and her eyes widened. Blaise had been in love with her from the start. All this time, he had been competing for her affections while Ginny thought of him as a brother. Oh shite.
Draco took her hand, his eyes soft. “Ginny, my life has been hell since you walked out. I love you, and I don’t want to live a day without you. Will you marry me?”
How could she have been so unfair to Draco? And how could she have been so blind to Blaise's affection for her? Did she want to spend the rest of her life with a jealous, over-possessive, ultimatum-launching git?
“Yes!” she screamed, throwing herself at him.
Draco caught her in his arms, holding her close and twirling her around, deliberating stepping on the still fallen Blaise.
All that he had to do now was find a new partner for Blaise. The name Millicent Bulstrode came to mind…
The End.
Lunaeyes is the author of 3 other stories.
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