Chapter Twenty-Seven:
The openly excited and hopeful air that infused Draco’s letters as the year wore on imparted an almost jealous optimism in the seventeen year-old that was hard for her to hide. Especially around someone as observant as Hermione Granger. While the former Horcrux hunter hadn’t really patched up her previous friendship with the other witch, the Muggleborn had been the only one Ginny had known well enough to ask permission to use her telephone during the interminable Christmas break. So the redhead had swallowed her discomfort and requested the favor when the curly-haired witch had said she was going to visit her parents for the holiday.
She could only assume that it was curiosity more than anything else that had led Hermione to agree, and at the time she had been so desperate to escape the Burrow and speak with her boyfriend that she hadn’t cared. While they had been communicating by owl all term at school, she knew that her post was being censored by her parents while she was at home and so curiosity was a small price to pay. However, as she hung up the phone with a wide smile and wistful sigh only to meet the brunette’s determined gaze, Ginny considered revising that opinion.
“Exactly what apartment are you going to see? And what is Malfoy doing renting an office in London? And why on earth are you talking about brochures and advertising budgets? You’re not thinking of selling your brothers’ stuff to Muggles under the table are you? That’s illegal you know.” The list of questions was delivered in a scolding tone that caused the younger witch to sigh in an entirely different manner than she had before.
Knowing that she had no hope of dissuading or redirecting Hermione’s curiosity once it was piqued, Ginny simply gave in and answered the questions in the hope that doing so would prevent a more extensive inquisition.
“Draco moved into an apartment with his mates last month and I obviously haven’t had a chance to see it yet so he was telling me a bit of what they’ve done to the place. The office will potentially be for the company they’re starting and he wanted my opinion on the pictures he’d sent me of it and the other space they had been looking at last week. As for the marketing plans, I’ve been going over several versions with Aaron for months and he wanted to know if I would be able to do any more research on the latest plan I’ve been putting together while I’m in London.” The ‘not that it’s any of your business’ on the end was left unsaid but based on the narrowing of the second set of brown eyes, it was heard all the same.
“What kind of business,” the witch put a decidedly suspicious note on the word, “is Malfoy starting, who are these mates,” the same tone dripped from that word too as she went on, “and what are you doing designing a marketing plan for them?”
With another, even longer sigh, Ginny took a seat on the Grangers’ sofa and began to explain The Rush. So much for sidestepping the inquisition. It took quite a bit of convincing on the redhead’s part but eventually Hermione believed her that Draco Malfoy, of all people, not only had several close Muggle friends, but that he was opening a company with them to offer outings and vacations for adrenaline junkies with money to burn. Or use to jump out of an airplane, as the case may be.
The Smartest Witch of Her Age was hardly a fan of the types of activities the company would be offering but she wasn’t one to discount the idea of research, especially in an area she knew little about. Which was how the youngest Weasley ended up spending a good part of her Christmas break in a public library with Hermione Granger researching small business marketing and discussing her time with the Tonkses and Draco.
By the time she returned to Hogwarts to finish her final year, the younger witch had forged a tentative friendship with her brother’s girlfriend based on something other than the fact that she was Ron’s sister and Harry’s love interest. When Ginny confided that she had every intention of going to work for The Rush after graduation, she was almost surprised that the other girl wasn’t too disapproving. The brunette, after all, knew exactly what it was like to discover a foreign world in which she was more at home than the one she’d been raised in, despite a complete lack of understanding by her family. Understanding was not the only thing that the Weasleys lacked when it came to Ginny’s choice of career upon leaving Hogwarts. Any hint of tolerance, let alone approval, was also completely absent. No argument she made had any effect.
Ginny gripped the edge of the table with one hand and her shrunken luggage with the other as she tried one final time to make her parents understand that she was making a sound decision about her future not just running away to be with the boyfriend they didn’t approve of. “Arithmancy can be applied very successfully to Muggle business, especially to predict marketing strategies. And since it doesn’t actually use magic directly on any component of what is being sold to Muggles it is completely legal. As far as any of them are concerned it’s just another type of maths that uses statistical models to predict probabilities.”
The explanation made absolutely no impact on the expressions of the witch and wizard across from her. Closing her eyes, the redhead finally gave up and listened passively to another round of scolding guilt trips about her horrible and foolish decision, which was sure to bring shame and embarrassment upon the entire Weasley family. When the two had finally run out of ways to tell her she was making a mistake and demanding she settle back into her room where she belonged, the young witch offered a token wave goodbye and Apparated. She let out a sigh of relief at the sight of the familiar alley near the Tonks home. She had arranged to rent a room from Coral and Garald until she had earned enough at the fledgling enterprise to afford her own flat and she set off for her destination with mounting enthusiasm.
The Tonkses as a whole were welcoming and encouraging to the young redhead. Even Andromeda, Nymphadora – call me Tonks, I don’t care if I’m married now – and Remus Lupin were tentatively but genuinely optimistic about her growing relationship with Draco and her new job at The Rush. The blond wizard, through Coral, had been steadily making overtures to his maternal aunt and cousin even before Ginny had announced in her final letter home from school what she intended to do after graduation. So when Molly had appealed to Andromeda to check in with her late husband’s relatives and keep an eye on Ginny for her, the former Black sister was happy to do so.
Soon enough Andromeda, as well as Tonks, Lupin and little Teddy, were a common sight in Hampstead. Andromeda was often to be found sitting with Coral doing anything from baking to gossiping. She was there on a weekly basis, including the two weeks that Ginny spent on vacation with Draco, Aaron, Blake, and Carren. The redhead wasn’t entirely sure if that was, however, because of how much Andromeda enjoyed the other woman’s company or if it was in an effort to disguise the fact that Ginny was in fact, not currently at the Tonks’ house.
Based merely on the fact that the former Gryffindor had not received multiple howlers upon her return, it was obvious that the vacation itself had been conveniently left out of whatever information Andromeda and Tonks were passing along to the Weasley matriarch. She could only assume that other smaller pieces of information were also not making their way to her mother as the frequency and length of her almost daily visits to the warehouse apartment that Draco shared with his business partners would have almost been equally likely to have resulted in numerous howlers over the course of the previous months.
The witches were, of course, passing on a fair amount of intel in what Ginny could only assume was an attempt to alleviate some of Molly’s concerns. Based on the recent lectures that she had received from her parents and brothers, her family was at least aware of the former Slytherin’s living arrangements, if nothing else. Ginny knew that Andromeda, Tonks, and Remus were all personally reassured by what they had learned in regards to the redhead’s situation. The first visit that Tonks had made with her to Draco’s flat had gone even better than the younger witch had hoped for at the time.
Not that she had thought it would go badly, the four teens weren’t living in squalor, but the large open-plan flat converted from an old warehouse was obviously a bachelor pad. Any young mother Ginny could imagine would have been at least partly dismayed by the half dozen motorbikes parked between the fully stocked bar and the pool table. The sheer apoplectic fit that Molly Weasley would have thrown at the sight, special mats to collect any oil not withstanding, would have echoed off the marble floor and high ceilings for hours after her hasty departure. Yet Tonks simply eyed the high-end racing bikes with a raised brow an exasperated utterance of “priorities?” that made all the guys laugh loudly.
The amusement had stretched for most of the visit as Draco and the others sifted back and forth between flirting with the pink-haired Auror and conducting a serious discussion amongst themselves about the company’s next scheduled outing. Tonks had found the entire day more than enlightening. The metamorphmagus had known, of course, that her cousin felt comfortable in the Muggle world, he obviously preferred it enough to make the move permanent, but it wasn’t until seeing him in his new element that she had truly understood how at home he was there.
Tonks and the others had found his living arrangements and the time that Ginny spent there to be evidence of the couple’s maturity and genuine relationship. The impression had also been further reinforced when each of the older individuals had visited Ginny at work. Remus in particular found the business to be intriguing, though he had shown no real interest in actually participating in the services that The Rush offered. His wife on the other hand, seemed as if she might enjoy going on one of the outings, though so far she had only accompanied Ginny who, for the most part, worked out of the offices.
The offices themselves had been one of the first non-advertising tasks which had benefited from the redhead’s skills. She had used arithmantic equations to evaluate the three locations they had considered, calculating each one’s potential for its proximity to the owners’ flat, possible clients, ease of access, and associated locations such as other shops or attractions that might house their target audience or expose them to advertising opportunities like music festivals or martial arts exhibitions. Ginny had also, as the company got up and running, helped to determine which types of services to offer at which point, when to switch them out, how much equipment to have on hand or to order, and many other things besides.
Despite all these tasks, the witch also found time to occasionally go on some of the events, especially when there were multiple excursions occurring simultaneously and another pair of hands would be needed. When possible she would also tag along if she wasn’t needed at the office, just for the opportunity to brush up on her skills, which she found to be markedly more enjoyable when she didn’t have a life or death mission hanging in the balance. They also found that having her there when there were female clients sometimes made them feel a little more at ease.
All of these factors were in play one day about two months after she had officially started full time. The number of clients that had attended the outing, some of whom had been female, had made her presence welcome but wasn’t so great as to leave her with no time to enjoy herself as well. It had been a very productive day all around. The status of the client – a large company who’s executives had wanted a day of high-dollar, high-risk fun masquerading as a pusedo-trust-building exercise – was a coup for The Rush if only for the exposure it would gain them through word of mouth and possible referrals. But for Ginny personally, the adrenaline packed day had done wonders for her mood. Her attitude for the last two days had been less than stellar following a visit to the Burrow.
It had been something that couldn’t easily be avoided: the announcement of Fleur’s second pregnancy. Despite the tense relationship she now shared with her parents and several brothers, Bill remained one of the more understanding and supportive of her family members and she had wanted to be there for him. Though in hindsight, it might have been better for her to simply have sent a gift and visited the happy couple another time.
It hadn’t started out terrible. It had, in fact, been nice to see Bill, Fleur, little Victorie, and even Charlie, who had also made the effort to attend. Visiting with the majority of the rest of her family had been much less of a highlight, seeing as both of her parents, Ron and Percy, had spent hours peppering in derogatory comments referring to Draco, Ginny, their relationship, and her choice of job. It had ranged from subtle innuendo to blatant insults and accusations, the worst of which had resulted in a yelling match between the two youngest Weasleys and their mother.
“And you’re dressed to work there are you? What are you wearing? It’s hardly professional, though it’s not as if you work at a real job at the Ministry like a respectable witch. How could you, letting yourself be sullied by a horrible boy like that? You should be ashamed of yourself, young lady. Ashamed!”
The shrieking condemnation of Draco and her relationship with him had lost neither volume nor vehemence by the time their recent cohabitation had been brought to the field, so to say, with a red-faced exclamation of “Inappropriate to say the least! How can you shame your family with such a disgraceful arrangement? I can hardly show my face…”
Ron had soon joined in, as had Percy, with a recitation of the embarrassment they had suffered because their sister had dared to not only associate, but live with, a known Death Eater. And unmarried. “Bad enough you’ve shacked up with that ferret, but to be his- his scarlet woman; how could you?” Her youngest brother’s two best friends had refrained from adding to the shouts but had certainly said and did nothing to disagree or even calm the third member of the Golden Trio.
By the time the word disgraceful had made its sixth appearance in the conversation, the only female offspring of Molly and Arthur Weasley had jumped to her feet and screamed, “Fine! If it’s so disgraceful to live together unmarried maybe we should just get married then!” The uproar that resulted had only been cut off by the loud crack of her Apparating away.
Needless to say, the redhead had had quite a bit of pent-up energy to release and the cliff jumping had been just the ticket to help her unwind. Even with her nerves no longer frayed, however, she wasn’t her normal talkative self as the group returned to the offices to put away the last of the equipment. The blond kept himself from saying anything about it, trying his best to give her space to deal with the fallout but as the others headed back to their flat to get ready for the working dinner they’d all scheduled that night, he finally broke down and asked.
“What was it this time, your job, the company itself, me, or the fact that we actually dared to move in together?”
She let out a humorless laugh followed by a deep sigh and a smile that was as much a grimace as anything else. “All of the above?”
He gave a sigh of his own as he gathered her close and listened to her rehash the worst of the day, only placing the occasional kiss silently to her head, neck, or shoulder as she got it all off her chest. “I’m sorry, Gin,” he finally whispered into her hair once she’d finished.
She drew back just far enough to meet grey eyes with brown. “It’s hardly unexpected, we both know they’ll never really get comfortable with the idea of us. I think it would probably be best if I kept my distance for a while, have Tonks or Andromeda keep an eye out for at least one of them pulling their head out of their bum before I try to talk to them again.”
Draco’s chuckle was only marginally lighter than the sound she had made at the start of the conversation and he gently brushed the hair away from her face to hold it steady as he examined her face in detail. “Are you sure? I don’t want to-”
She cut him off with a long kiss. “You’re not,” she assured him. “They are the ones forcing the issue. Now, let’s just let it all go and get ready for dinner. If we’re late Aaron will never let us hear the end of it.”
The former wizard laughed with actual humor then. “He’s hardly one to talk, after last week. He and what’s her name were almost an hour late, and by the look of them, it was hardly rocket science to guess why.”
The couple entertained themselves with a biting, if lighthearted, commentary on their friends’ various girlfriends as they showered and changed. Both were still laughing when they arrived at the restaurant two minutes after the reservation time to find most of the others already ensconced at a secluded table with drinks in hand. Well, except for Carren, who was instead holding a stack of photographs.
“Ohh,” the redhead said excitedly as they sat down. “Are those from vacation?”
The taciturn young man nodded and handed over the prints that had been made from the various helmet cameras they had all worn on their recent white-water rafting trip. “Some of them are a bit blurry and such, but there are some really good ones. I’m not sure which cameras they’re from though.”
Ginny exchanged a quick glance with her boyfriend, the couple having a pretty good idea which cameras had managed, almost by magic, to catch clear steady shots from atop helmets of daredevils in canoes rushing through white water. Instead of commenting on that, she and Draco sifted through the images, ohhing, ahhing, and laughing more than a little as they examined the various shots. “I think this one is my favorite,” she said as Aaron finally joined his co-owners at the table and the waiter came to take the group’s order.
Once orders were placed and everyone had a glass of wine, the pictures were once more the topic of conversation as each of them pointed out the ones they liked best. The shot Ginny had singled out proved to be the overall winner and they placed it in the middle of the table, admiring the way the view from the last canoe had caught the line of others in front of it as the group made their way down a steep series of rapids that wrapped around a narrow bend in the river.
“It’s a great action shot,” Draco agreed. The witch chimed in immediately, pointing with her fork to emphasize her point.
“It would be perfect on one of the new pamphlets, or up on the wall in the office.”
As conversation evolved from there into future activities that they should get pictures of for the next round of advertising, the redhead leaned back and surveyed the table of friends and coworkers laughing their way through a wonderful meal that happened to also be a business meeting. Nearly her entire family might think that she had made a terrible series of decisions about her life since the war, but in that moment she was positive she had done exactly the right thing. Aaron interrupted that self satisfied train of thought with a smirking comment that reminded her of a conversation they’d had when she was first learning to jump out of an airplane without having a complete panic attack.
“See,” he stated confidently, “I knew you were one of us.”
She laughed brightly, drawing Draco’s attention as she responded with a nod and a roll of her eyes. When the ice-blond met her gaze, however, she had to admit with complete honesty that Aaron had in fact been right. She was one of them, and because of more than just the fact that she had come to thrive on the adrenaline and near stupidity that was so often featured in everything this group of young men did. She fit here, with this Pureblood former wizard and his snobby, reckless group of friends.
“Enjoying yourself?” The question was whispered in her ear as Draco pulled her chair closer to his and offered her a bite of his meal. She took the bite with a smile, chewing and swallowing the delicious food before responding just as quietly as the laughter around them only grew.
“I am,” the redhead assured him, not missing the shadow of concern in his grey eyes. “I am exactly where I want to be.”
He held her gaze for a long heartbeat, then leaned forward to cover her lips with his. The kiss was deep, and sweeter than the dessert that was even then being placed before them. It was short lived, however, as Blake interrupted with an overly dramatic groan.
“Seriously, guys? We’re trying to eat here.” Neither witch nor wizard, as they pulled away from each other, was the least bit repentant.
End Chapter Twenty-Seven
End Story
The openly excited and hopeful air that infused Draco’s letters as the year wore on imparted an almost jealous optimism in the seventeen year-old that was hard for her to hide. Especially around someone as observant as Hermione Granger. While the former Horcrux hunter hadn’t really patched up her previous friendship with the other witch, the Muggleborn had been the only one Ginny had known well enough to ask permission to use her telephone during the interminable Christmas break. So the redhead had swallowed her discomfort and requested the favor when the curly-haired witch had said she was going to visit her parents for the holiday.
She could only assume that it was curiosity more than anything else that had led Hermione to agree, and at the time she had been so desperate to escape the Burrow and speak with her boyfriend that she hadn’t cared. While they had been communicating by owl all term at school, she knew that her post was being censored by her parents while she was at home and so curiosity was a small price to pay. However, as she hung up the phone with a wide smile and wistful sigh only to meet the brunette’s determined gaze, Ginny considered revising that opinion.
“Exactly what apartment are you going to see? And what is Malfoy doing renting an office in London? And why on earth are you talking about brochures and advertising budgets? You’re not thinking of selling your brothers’ stuff to Muggles under the table are you? That’s illegal you know.” The list of questions was delivered in a scolding tone that caused the younger witch to sigh in an entirely different manner than she had before.
Knowing that she had no hope of dissuading or redirecting Hermione’s curiosity once it was piqued, Ginny simply gave in and answered the questions in the hope that doing so would prevent a more extensive inquisition.
“Draco moved into an apartment with his mates last month and I obviously haven’t had a chance to see it yet so he was telling me a bit of what they’ve done to the place. The office will potentially be for the company they’re starting and he wanted my opinion on the pictures he’d sent me of it and the other space they had been looking at last week. As for the marketing plans, I’ve been going over several versions with Aaron for months and he wanted to know if I would be able to do any more research on the latest plan I’ve been putting together while I’m in London.” The ‘not that it’s any of your business’ on the end was left unsaid but based on the narrowing of the second set of brown eyes, it was heard all the same.
“What kind of business,” the witch put a decidedly suspicious note on the word, “is Malfoy starting, who are these mates,” the same tone dripped from that word too as she went on, “and what are you doing designing a marketing plan for them?”
With another, even longer sigh, Ginny took a seat on the Grangers’ sofa and began to explain The Rush. So much for sidestepping the inquisition. It took quite a bit of convincing on the redhead’s part but eventually Hermione believed her that Draco Malfoy, of all people, not only had several close Muggle friends, but that he was opening a company with them to offer outings and vacations for adrenaline junkies with money to burn. Or use to jump out of an airplane, as the case may be.
The Smartest Witch of Her Age was hardly a fan of the types of activities the company would be offering but she wasn’t one to discount the idea of research, especially in an area she knew little about. Which was how the youngest Weasley ended up spending a good part of her Christmas break in a public library with Hermione Granger researching small business marketing and discussing her time with the Tonkses and Draco.
By the time she returned to Hogwarts to finish her final year, the younger witch had forged a tentative friendship with her brother’s girlfriend based on something other than the fact that she was Ron’s sister and Harry’s love interest. When Ginny confided that she had every intention of going to work for The Rush after graduation, she was almost surprised that the other girl wasn’t too disapproving. The brunette, after all, knew exactly what it was like to discover a foreign world in which she was more at home than the one she’d been raised in, despite a complete lack of understanding by her family. Understanding was not the only thing that the Weasleys lacked when it came to Ginny’s choice of career upon leaving Hogwarts. Any hint of tolerance, let alone approval, was also completely absent. No argument she made had any effect.
Ginny gripped the edge of the table with one hand and her shrunken luggage with the other as she tried one final time to make her parents understand that she was making a sound decision about her future not just running away to be with the boyfriend they didn’t approve of. “Arithmancy can be applied very successfully to Muggle business, especially to predict marketing strategies. And since it doesn’t actually use magic directly on any component of what is being sold to Muggles it is completely legal. As far as any of them are concerned it’s just another type of maths that uses statistical models to predict probabilities.”
The explanation made absolutely no impact on the expressions of the witch and wizard across from her. Closing her eyes, the redhead finally gave up and listened passively to another round of scolding guilt trips about her horrible and foolish decision, which was sure to bring shame and embarrassment upon the entire Weasley family. When the two had finally run out of ways to tell her she was making a mistake and demanding she settle back into her room where she belonged, the young witch offered a token wave goodbye and Apparated. She let out a sigh of relief at the sight of the familiar alley near the Tonks home. She had arranged to rent a room from Coral and Garald until she had earned enough at the fledgling enterprise to afford her own flat and she set off for her destination with mounting enthusiasm.
The Tonkses as a whole were welcoming and encouraging to the young redhead. Even Andromeda, Nymphadora – call me Tonks, I don’t care if I’m married now – and Remus Lupin were tentatively but genuinely optimistic about her growing relationship with Draco and her new job at The Rush. The blond wizard, through Coral, had been steadily making overtures to his maternal aunt and cousin even before Ginny had announced in her final letter home from school what she intended to do after graduation. So when Molly had appealed to Andromeda to check in with her late husband’s relatives and keep an eye on Ginny for her, the former Black sister was happy to do so.
Soon enough Andromeda, as well as Tonks, Lupin and little Teddy, were a common sight in Hampstead. Andromeda was often to be found sitting with Coral doing anything from baking to gossiping. She was there on a weekly basis, including the two weeks that Ginny spent on vacation with Draco, Aaron, Blake, and Carren. The redhead wasn’t entirely sure if that was, however, because of how much Andromeda enjoyed the other woman’s company or if it was in an effort to disguise the fact that Ginny was in fact, not currently at the Tonks’ house.
Based merely on the fact that the former Gryffindor had not received multiple howlers upon her return, it was obvious that the vacation itself had been conveniently left out of whatever information Andromeda and Tonks were passing along to the Weasley matriarch. She could only assume that other smaller pieces of information were also not making their way to her mother as the frequency and length of her almost daily visits to the warehouse apartment that Draco shared with his business partners would have almost been equally likely to have resulted in numerous howlers over the course of the previous months.
The witches were, of course, passing on a fair amount of intel in what Ginny could only assume was an attempt to alleviate some of Molly’s concerns. Based on the recent lectures that she had received from her parents and brothers, her family was at least aware of the former Slytherin’s living arrangements, if nothing else. Ginny knew that Andromeda, Tonks, and Remus were all personally reassured by what they had learned in regards to the redhead’s situation. The first visit that Tonks had made with her to Draco’s flat had gone even better than the younger witch had hoped for at the time.
Not that she had thought it would go badly, the four teens weren’t living in squalor, but the large open-plan flat converted from an old warehouse was obviously a bachelor pad. Any young mother Ginny could imagine would have been at least partly dismayed by the half dozen motorbikes parked between the fully stocked bar and the pool table. The sheer apoplectic fit that Molly Weasley would have thrown at the sight, special mats to collect any oil not withstanding, would have echoed off the marble floor and high ceilings for hours after her hasty departure. Yet Tonks simply eyed the high-end racing bikes with a raised brow an exasperated utterance of “priorities?” that made all the guys laugh loudly.
The amusement had stretched for most of the visit as Draco and the others sifted back and forth between flirting with the pink-haired Auror and conducting a serious discussion amongst themselves about the company’s next scheduled outing. Tonks had found the entire day more than enlightening. The metamorphmagus had known, of course, that her cousin felt comfortable in the Muggle world, he obviously preferred it enough to make the move permanent, but it wasn’t until seeing him in his new element that she had truly understood how at home he was there.
Tonks and the others had found his living arrangements and the time that Ginny spent there to be evidence of the couple’s maturity and genuine relationship. The impression had also been further reinforced when each of the older individuals had visited Ginny at work. Remus in particular found the business to be intriguing, though he had shown no real interest in actually participating in the services that The Rush offered. His wife on the other hand, seemed as if she might enjoy going on one of the outings, though so far she had only accompanied Ginny who, for the most part, worked out of the offices.
The offices themselves had been one of the first non-advertising tasks which had benefited from the redhead’s skills. She had used arithmantic equations to evaluate the three locations they had considered, calculating each one’s potential for its proximity to the owners’ flat, possible clients, ease of access, and associated locations such as other shops or attractions that might house their target audience or expose them to advertising opportunities like music festivals or martial arts exhibitions. Ginny had also, as the company got up and running, helped to determine which types of services to offer at which point, when to switch them out, how much equipment to have on hand or to order, and many other things besides.
Despite all these tasks, the witch also found time to occasionally go on some of the events, especially when there were multiple excursions occurring simultaneously and another pair of hands would be needed. When possible she would also tag along if she wasn’t needed at the office, just for the opportunity to brush up on her skills, which she found to be markedly more enjoyable when she didn’t have a life or death mission hanging in the balance. They also found that having her there when there were female clients sometimes made them feel a little more at ease.
All of these factors were in play one day about two months after she had officially started full time. The number of clients that had attended the outing, some of whom had been female, had made her presence welcome but wasn’t so great as to leave her with no time to enjoy herself as well. It had been a very productive day all around. The status of the client – a large company who’s executives had wanted a day of high-dollar, high-risk fun masquerading as a pusedo-trust-building exercise – was a coup for The Rush if only for the exposure it would gain them through word of mouth and possible referrals. But for Ginny personally, the adrenaline packed day had done wonders for her mood. Her attitude for the last two days had been less than stellar following a visit to the Burrow.
It had been something that couldn’t easily be avoided: the announcement of Fleur’s second pregnancy. Despite the tense relationship she now shared with her parents and several brothers, Bill remained one of the more understanding and supportive of her family members and she had wanted to be there for him. Though in hindsight, it might have been better for her to simply have sent a gift and visited the happy couple another time.
It hadn’t started out terrible. It had, in fact, been nice to see Bill, Fleur, little Victorie, and even Charlie, who had also made the effort to attend. Visiting with the majority of the rest of her family had been much less of a highlight, seeing as both of her parents, Ron and Percy, had spent hours peppering in derogatory comments referring to Draco, Ginny, their relationship, and her choice of job. It had ranged from subtle innuendo to blatant insults and accusations, the worst of which had resulted in a yelling match between the two youngest Weasleys and their mother.
“And you’re dressed to work there are you? What are you wearing? It’s hardly professional, though it’s not as if you work at a real job at the Ministry like a respectable witch. How could you, letting yourself be sullied by a horrible boy like that? You should be ashamed of yourself, young lady. Ashamed!”
The shrieking condemnation of Draco and her relationship with him had lost neither volume nor vehemence by the time their recent cohabitation had been brought to the field, so to say, with a red-faced exclamation of “Inappropriate to say the least! How can you shame your family with such a disgraceful arrangement? I can hardly show my face…”
Ron had soon joined in, as had Percy, with a recitation of the embarrassment they had suffered because their sister had dared to not only associate, but live with, a known Death Eater. And unmarried. “Bad enough you’ve shacked up with that ferret, but to be his- his scarlet woman; how could you?” Her youngest brother’s two best friends had refrained from adding to the shouts but had certainly said and did nothing to disagree or even calm the third member of the Golden Trio.
By the time the word disgraceful had made its sixth appearance in the conversation, the only female offspring of Molly and Arthur Weasley had jumped to her feet and screamed, “Fine! If it’s so disgraceful to live together unmarried maybe we should just get married then!” The uproar that resulted had only been cut off by the loud crack of her Apparating away.
Needless to say, the redhead had had quite a bit of pent-up energy to release and the cliff jumping had been just the ticket to help her unwind. Even with her nerves no longer frayed, however, she wasn’t her normal talkative self as the group returned to the offices to put away the last of the equipment. The blond kept himself from saying anything about it, trying his best to give her space to deal with the fallout but as the others headed back to their flat to get ready for the working dinner they’d all scheduled that night, he finally broke down and asked.
“What was it this time, your job, the company itself, me, or the fact that we actually dared to move in together?”
She let out a humorless laugh followed by a deep sigh and a smile that was as much a grimace as anything else. “All of the above?”
He gave a sigh of his own as he gathered her close and listened to her rehash the worst of the day, only placing the occasional kiss silently to her head, neck, or shoulder as she got it all off her chest. “I’m sorry, Gin,” he finally whispered into her hair once she’d finished.
She drew back just far enough to meet grey eyes with brown. “It’s hardly unexpected, we both know they’ll never really get comfortable with the idea of us. I think it would probably be best if I kept my distance for a while, have Tonks or Andromeda keep an eye out for at least one of them pulling their head out of their bum before I try to talk to them again.”
Draco’s chuckle was only marginally lighter than the sound she had made at the start of the conversation and he gently brushed the hair away from her face to hold it steady as he examined her face in detail. “Are you sure? I don’t want to-”
She cut him off with a long kiss. “You’re not,” she assured him. “They are the ones forcing the issue. Now, let’s just let it all go and get ready for dinner. If we’re late Aaron will never let us hear the end of it.”
The former wizard laughed with actual humor then. “He’s hardly one to talk, after last week. He and what’s her name were almost an hour late, and by the look of them, it was hardly rocket science to guess why.”
The couple entertained themselves with a biting, if lighthearted, commentary on their friends’ various girlfriends as they showered and changed. Both were still laughing when they arrived at the restaurant two minutes after the reservation time to find most of the others already ensconced at a secluded table with drinks in hand. Well, except for Carren, who was instead holding a stack of photographs.
“Ohh,” the redhead said excitedly as they sat down. “Are those from vacation?”
The taciturn young man nodded and handed over the prints that had been made from the various helmet cameras they had all worn on their recent white-water rafting trip. “Some of them are a bit blurry and such, but there are some really good ones. I’m not sure which cameras they’re from though.”
Ginny exchanged a quick glance with her boyfriend, the couple having a pretty good idea which cameras had managed, almost by magic, to catch clear steady shots from atop helmets of daredevils in canoes rushing through white water. Instead of commenting on that, she and Draco sifted through the images, ohhing, ahhing, and laughing more than a little as they examined the various shots. “I think this one is my favorite,” she said as Aaron finally joined his co-owners at the table and the waiter came to take the group’s order.
Once orders were placed and everyone had a glass of wine, the pictures were once more the topic of conversation as each of them pointed out the ones they liked best. The shot Ginny had singled out proved to be the overall winner and they placed it in the middle of the table, admiring the way the view from the last canoe had caught the line of others in front of it as the group made their way down a steep series of rapids that wrapped around a narrow bend in the river.
“It’s a great action shot,” Draco agreed. The witch chimed in immediately, pointing with her fork to emphasize her point.
“It would be perfect on one of the new pamphlets, or up on the wall in the office.”
As conversation evolved from there into future activities that they should get pictures of for the next round of advertising, the redhead leaned back and surveyed the table of friends and coworkers laughing their way through a wonderful meal that happened to also be a business meeting. Nearly her entire family might think that she had made a terrible series of decisions about her life since the war, but in that moment she was positive she had done exactly the right thing. Aaron interrupted that self satisfied train of thought with a smirking comment that reminded her of a conversation they’d had when she was first learning to jump out of an airplane without having a complete panic attack.
“See,” he stated confidently, “I knew you were one of us.”
She laughed brightly, drawing Draco’s attention as she responded with a nod and a roll of her eyes. When the ice-blond met her gaze, however, she had to admit with complete honesty that Aaron had in fact been right. She was one of them, and because of more than just the fact that she had come to thrive on the adrenaline and near stupidity that was so often featured in everything this group of young men did. She fit here, with this Pureblood former wizard and his snobby, reckless group of friends.
“Enjoying yourself?” The question was whispered in her ear as Draco pulled her chair closer to his and offered her a bite of his meal. She took the bite with a smile, chewing and swallowing the delicious food before responding just as quietly as the laughter around them only grew.
“I am,” the redhead assured him, not missing the shadow of concern in his grey eyes. “I am exactly where I want to be.”
He held her gaze for a long heartbeat, then leaned forward to cover her lips with his. The kiss was deep, and sweeter than the dessert that was even then being placed before them. It was short lived, however, as Blake interrupted with an overly dramatic groan.
“Seriously, guys? We’re trying to eat here.” Neither witch nor wizard, as they pulled away from each other, was the least bit repentant.
End Chapter Twenty-Seven
End Story
Author notes: I want to thank everyone who came back to read the conclusion of this story, it's been a long time coming, and between monumental writer's block, several deleted files, and a stolen computer that hadn't been properly backed up in the cloud, it's been quite an adventure on this end. I hope you all enjoyed the ride, please disembark in an orderly fashion and don't forget to leave a review on the way out!
The End.
Sunfire is the author of 3 other stories.
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