Ginger Malfoy

Their Nightmares

In a place far away from the children at Hogwarts, Hermione Weasley was sick.  She was lying on her couch with a bowl of chocolate ice cream and a Muggle magazine, feeling miserable and disgusting.

"Damn you, Ronald," she muttered to no one but herself.  "Just had to knock me up, didn't you?"

She decided to call Ginny.  They had had Muggle telephones installed in their houses so that they could contact one another, and this seemed like just the time to do so.

Hermione dragged herself up off the couch and began to walk towards the phone mounted on the wall in the kitchen.  As she passed by the large window in her living room, she admired the melting snowscape.  Sunshine glistened off the watery snow, and Hermione felt the warm happiness of coming spring.

It was mid-February already, and Hermione sorely missed her daughter.  Ron was at work too often, leaving Hermione alone with the weight of the world in her stomach.

Hermione could not wait for her next child to be born.  Then he or she would have to stay with her for eleven years, never leaving her side until they were old enough to go to Hogwarts.

Hermione finally made it to the phone and picked it up.  She dialed the Malfoy's number and sighed when a drawling voice answered the phone.

"Is that you, Granger?" Malfoy asked.

"What would you have done if I weren't?" Hermione responded, choosing to ignore that Malfoy had called her by her maiden name.

"You're the only one who calls this number," Draco said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Whatever," Hermione said.  "Let me talk to Ginny."

"Gin," Draco called.  "Beaver wants to talk to you."

Hermione rolled her eyes and waited for Ginny to pick up.

"Hello?" a sweet voice chirped a few moments later.

"Sometimes I don't know why you married that ferret," Hermione said, with obvious distaste at the nickname Draco had called her.

"You know he's only joking," Ginevra said, as if that solved everything.  "What were you calling about?"

"Oh, I just needed someone to talk to," Hermione replied.  "I feel really sick, and without Ron and Rose around, I don't have anyone to complain to."

"Well, what are friends for?" Ginny asked.  "Complain away."

Hermione could hear Draco in the backround saying something about hormonal women, and she asked Ginny to call him an insufferable git for her.

"That I will do," Ginny laughed.  "Hear that, babe?  You're an insufferable git!"

Malfoy laughed loudly and said, "That's all I strive for!"

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About an hour later, Ginny had hung up the phone and was cuddled in Draco's lap, as she seemed to always be.  He had the night shift at the hospital, so they usually just lounged around the house together in the daytime.

They always talked about the weirdest possible things.  Today Draco was listing the boys he didn't want his daughter dating.  Ginny found this incredibly entertaining.

"Seamus Finnigan never had a son, right?  Good.  And Neville didn't either, thank God.    There is no way in hell that my daughter will be a Longbottom.  Who else of you Gryffindors are extemely stupid?    The Patil twin that was in Gryffindor, how about her?  And if Granger's kid is a boy-"

"It's Weasley." Ginny said, as her husband shrugged his shoulders dismissively.

"And even if he was a boy, he would be eleven years younger than her!"  Ginny said, appalled.  "Isn't that kind of, I don't know, really messed up?"

"Whatever," Draco said.  "Just not him, either."

Ginny rolled her eyes at him.  "What about Albus or James Potter?"

Draco raised his eyebrows.  "Dear God, am I actually considering consenting to that?" he asked.

"I don't know," Ginny said.  "But if we move aside from that, I heard from my old school friend Katie Bell that her son has got a huge crush on Ginger.  I find it rather laughable."

"Katie Bell.." Malfoy thought.  "She probably wouldn't want me in her family," he said, his grey eyes turning stormy and dark with the curse of his past.

"That was a long time ago," Ginny whispered soothingly.  "And I think you'd be interested to know that Katie's husband is a Slytherin, too.  Theodore Nott."

"Theo?  He hated me.  He was the only Slytherin who wasn't scared of me.  Or my father.  Or my power.  He had the eyes to see that I was just a bully, and that the only person who truly liked me was Parkinson.  Or maybe she just wanted my money.  I don't even know anymore."

Ginny began to say something, but he put a finger to her lips.

"Until I met you," he continued, "no one had ever cared.  No one had ever bothered to ask what was wrong, or why I acted like that, or why I didn't have real friends.  They pretended to love me, I suppose, but they really only feared me.  That's no way to grow up.  My parents.. they made me like that.  It's miserable."

Ginny was deep in thought.  "Your parents still live in the Manor, right?"

Draco nodded, his usually impenetrable eyes watering over.  "Yeah," he said, "Why?"

"I think," she said.  "I think we should go and see them.  Have we even talked to them since the wedding?"

"No," Draco said regrettably.  "I do love them, you know.  I suppose it would be nice."

Ginny nodded, understanding.  Only she could understand why he loved the parents that had raised him so wrong and had made him a Death-eater for the honor and glory of it, if not to save their own skins.  They were his parents.  He had idolized his father from a young age, and his mother had always been there for him, even as she spun the lies of his supremacy.  He loved them, despite it all.

Ginny looked him in the eyes.  "Should we let them know we're coming first?"

"No," Draco said plainly.  "I bet they were expecting me to turn up sooner or later."

Ginny nodded again and grabbed his coat and shoes.  When they were ready to leave, she took his hand and laced their fingers together.  With the blink of an eye, they had Apparated to the place that haunted the Golden Trio's nightmares.

Malfoy Manor.

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A/N: So.. what'd you think?  What will Draco have to say to his parents?  And will they be upset that they have never met their granddaughter?  Also, do you find it ironic that Hermione taught her daughter not to curse but she does just that when she's alone?  Haha. (:

If you liked this chapter, vote!  (:  i love it when you do!  Comment your thoughts! (:

This chapter is dedicated to Pascy1997 for being one of the Wattpaders who inspired me to write fanfiction and for writing such a great one herself. (: