With you in my Arms

68. "Elope with me."

Dear KerrydaQueen this chapter is for you! I hope you enjoy it as much as all the others.

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Boxing day saw the Grangers, Malfoys, the Weasley clan, James Mulligan and Teddy Lupin all assembled in the Burrow for a family diner. The house seemed to be as busy as it ever had been. Little Teddy was keeping Fleur occupied while Charlie, Bill, George and Ron were trying not to hit anybody with the Fanged Frisbee that was zooming through the rooms. Little groups had formed where sometimes a rather odd assortment of people would chat, play chess, compare spells and generally have a good time. Only Ginny was sitting on her own in her father's shed amongst his plug collection. It was here that Hermione finally found her.

"Ginny? Why are you sitting here all on your own?"

A mournful glance was all the answer that was given.

"What's happened?" the voice of the older witch was filled with dread. Something truly horrible must have happened to get her friend this down. Though Harry had seemed as cheerful as ever, "You want to tell me?"

There was a lengthy pause before the only Weasley girl finally answered.

"Have you ever done something you would have never thought yourself capable of doing?"

Hermione didn't even have to think about it. She had let Draco talk to her at the Graduation Party and what had happened afterwards was so way beyond the reasonable that this had to be it.

"You know I have. I've got together with Draco."

"What was it like, I mean, when he kissed you for the first time?"

Was there a point to these questions?

"He was very... gentle. A bit hesitant and really sweet. Nothing what I would have expected him to be like." she let her thoughts drift back to that night. It had been strange but breathtaking. "He was everything I would have never thought him capable of being. Kind, considerate, even shy."

A loud sigh could be heard. Hermione turned to face her friend.

"Why?"

"That is how it felt for me as well." Ginny whispered.

"When Harry kissed you for the first time?"

"No." Was she going to admit what she had done? She had to. If anybody would understand her, it had to be her friend. "I have kissed Blaise."

"Blaise? As in Blaise Zabini?"

"Yes."

Shocked silence engulfed the girls for a while.

"Why? Why did you kiss him?" Hold on! Something didn't add up here. "We're talking about him kissing you at the wedding, don't we? When you slapped him afterwards."

"No." came the rather quiet answer.

"No?"

"No. he got a hold of me in Diagon Alley when I wanted to get some more potions ingredients yesterday. He said, he just wanted one kiss and then... I would never see him again, but when he actually kissed me I couldn't help it and... kissed him back."

"Touching lips only?"

"Merlin, no! I snogged him for all he was worth."

Hermione clapped her hands over her mouth. Her brain would go into meltdown any moment now.

"I kissed him like I only ever have kissed Harry. It was me who had her tongue in his mouth first, for pity's sake. I totally, seriously lost it with him."

She buried her face in her hands.

"He tasted of tea and biscuits and smelled... just wonderful."

Was there anything Hermione could possibly say to this? No. There wasn't. She had done exactly the same thing. Snogged a Slytherin while technically still having a boyfriend. Well, in her case the break-up had been only a matter of formally calling it quits, but Ginny... Ginny was engaged to be married. She had committed herself to Harry of her own free will and now she... She what? Wanted to hit it of with Blaise instead? It would kill her fiancé. It most certainly would kill him.

"What were you thinking, Ginny?"

"I don't know. I stopped thinking the moment he pulled me into his arms. Something just clicked and everything seemed so clear in that moment. There was him and there was me and we two just... connected."

This was the worst kind of déjà vu imaginable. How could it be that she knew exactly what Ginny had been feeling while kissing Blaise? She knew, because she had felt it too, when she kissed Draco. He had been warm and had opened his soul for her to touch, if she so desired. She had. She had touched his mind, his soul,... his body. A red tinge coloured her cheeks. She had never before touched or been touched by a guy, but he had made it all seem so easy. Was the girl she had thought of as becoming the wife of her best friend on a similar route she had found herself on?

She had never thought twice about not staying the night with her Slytherin. She hadn't doubted her decision to trust him for a single moment. Did Ginny doubt her decision to kiss him? But maybe she didn't decide to kiss him, maybe she acted on impulse. Was there anything she could do to help her friend? Probably not. If fate had chosen its ruling over her there was nothing anybody could do any longer. What ever was supposed to happen, would happen.

"Hermione?"

"Yes?"

"Do you hate me now?"

A rather perplexed looking face was barely visible in the dim moonlight illuminating the shed.

"Why should I hate you?"

"For hurting Harry, for kissing Blaise, for doubting my future, for... everything."

The young witch felt the comforting arms of her friend around her a moment later.

"No, I don't hate you. I have been where you're right now. I've felt the warm and seductive body of a Slytherin myself, but I wasn't as committed to another guy like you are."

"Ron was your boyfriend."

"Yes, officially he was still my boyfriend, but to be honest, the spark had died months earlier. We wouldn't have made it. Me meeting Draco that night only accelerated what would have happened anyway."

"So, what shall I do? Give Blaise a chance and break Harry's heart? Or stay with Harry and... I don't even know, if it's all just a game for Blaise or if he really feels anything for me. He probably hates me."

"Why would he hate you?"

"I hit him. He's probably got a black eye because of me."

"A black eye?"

Ginny nodded and Hermione remembered having seen the wizard they were discussing in her living room yesterday. His left eyes had looked strange and now she knew why. He must have come to speak to Draco more or less straight after having kissed the redhead.

'What a mess!'

"Hermione?" it was Draco's voice calling for her.

"Go." Ginny whispered.

Hermione slipped out off the shed and met her husband in the courtyard. He hugged her tightly against his body, smiling into her hair.

"What are you doing out here? Star gazing? Hoping for a shooting star to make a wish?"

She leant back and smiled at him. She was happy. Everything had worked out for her, but would it for Ginny? Her gaze drifted towards his bow tie. Her hands lay on his chest, feeling the soft rise as he breathed. Sensing her absent mindedness he wrapped his cloak around her, cradling her against his body.

"A Knut for your thoughts?"

"What has Blaise been telling you yesterday?"

It was a direct question. A question he didn't expect. Trying to gauge her reasons for asking it he took his time to gaze into her eyes. She was deeply troubled.

"What is this about, Lea?" he whispered.

She took a deep breath before answering.

"I've been talking to Ginny. She is... confused, unsure, distraught and also probably totally elated by the kiss she shared with your friend."

"Oh." his voice let her know how surprised he was.

"She is questioning everything in her life right now, including being engaged to Harry."

There was a small pause before Draco answered.

"Blaise has asked me, how I did it. How it did managed to convince you to be with me and not Weasley. I told him, that in a lion pride it's the females that call the shots. It was your decision to be with me. If you had decided I wasn't worth your time, I wouldn't have stood a chance."

"You think it was my decision?"

He kissed her forehead.

"Yes, yes it was. It was your decision to talk to me, your decision to forgive me..."

"I had done that months earlier. When you came back to school with us, I saw that you had changed. You had suffered just as much as we had during the war. It was the beginning of a new area. Everybody deserves a second chance."

"Even me, after all I had done to you?"

She smiled.

"Even you, my dragon."

He held her tightly to his body, inhaling the sweet scent of her hair. He got his second chance with this wonderful witch, but deep down he knew that his best mate possibly wouldn't be so lucky. How ever the Griffindor girls did it, they seemed to be able to get under a Slytherin's skin in a way that was lethal.

"Will she be all right?" Draco asked after silence had been comfortably surrounding them for quite a while.

"Probably. Will he be okay?"

"Don't know. Maybe."

'If the girl is willing to be with him, they're going to be married before our son is born.'

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The following days Hermione tried her best not to think about Ginny and her possibly leaving Harry to be with Blaise Zabini. She could see that Draco was also thinking about his friend and what might happen.

They had been invited to her parents for Hogmanay, as New Year's Eve was called in Scotland. Both hoped it would take their minds of the possible troubles that lay ahead. How could it be that the suave, untouchable Blaise had been caught by a less than willing Ginny. Then again, was she really unwilling? It had been her kissing him. She seemed to have let go of her rationality as she did though, but he had been just as reckless by instigating their first intimate intermezzo not three weeks earlier.

It was only a matter of time until Harry would notice that something was seriously off. He might not be the most experienced wizard when it came to girlfriends, but he knew Ginny well enough to know when something was bothering her and her encounter with the dark skinned wizard bothered her immensely.

It was shortly before midnight as Draco and Hermione stood on the patio, holding each other.

"Everything okay, Lea? You seemed to be lost in though for most of the evening."

"Sorry. I'm just concerned about Ginny and Harry."

She raised her face to be able to see into his eyes.

"How is it that you Slytherins can be so desirable when you want to? But are total prats all other times?"

He grinned.

"We just know how to woo our girls."

"Like Blaise does with Ginny? Nobody else would have been able to get her to question her relationship with Harry. Nothing could have enticed her to even think about kissing another guy, but Blaise... He's got her all dreamy and torn up. She wants to kiss him again, I know she does, and at the same time she doesn't want to loose the one she has been in love with since she first lay eyes on him."

His lips caressed her hair.

"It seems that Griffindor girls have their own kind of magic. A kind of magic that makes us Slytherins want to snog you senseless any chance we get."

"If she would choose him, would he be... true to her? Would he be faithful or would she just be one of many in his life?"

Draco's finger gently lifted her chin so that he could look at her.

"If she chose him, he wouldn't look at another girl ever again. They would probably be married before our son is born."

Surprise flashed over her face.

"Seriously?"

"Yes. Three weeks ago it was just a game to him, he just wanted to mess about with her a bit, but something has happened and now he's not messing about any longer. After the incident in the apothecary he's fallen for her. There's no way out for him any longer. Even if he wanted to go back to where they were before the wedding, it wouldn't be possible for him, not any more I'm afraid."

"Oh, Merlin, what a mess this is."

"Don't worry your about it, Lea. They will need to find a solution for it, not you."

"But she's my friend..."

"And he's my best mate. That doesn't mean I don't feel for him, but it's them two that have to work something out." he kissed her gently, "Give them a chance to find a solution themselves, please."

She nodded.

A few moments the church bells were ringing in the new year. What it would bring for them all...

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"Elope with me."

His head shot up from the tea he had been about to drink.

"Excuse me?"

"Elope with me. Today, now."

Her voice was insistent. He frowned.

"Any particular reason?"

"I love you. Isn't that reason enough?"

"Sure," he hesitated, "but what about..."

"My brothers? Friends? School? Tradition? McGonagall?" she cut in, "I don't care. Just marry me."

He was on the verge of doing something unforgivable and he knew it.

"Is there something I should know about?" he ventured carefully.

Silence. He looked at her, properly. She was dressed for a formal occasion. It was the dress she had been wearing for Hermione's wedding. The green dress... Which could only mean one thing, she was going to get married. No matter what.

"Is that a no?"

"No! I mean, yes. Oh, for Merlin's sake! You want to get married right now? Fine. We'll get married. Is it okay, if I get my dress robes on before we go to where ever it is you want to do it?"

"You have five minutes."

True to her word she apparated them to Gretna Green exactly five minutes later, while he was buttoning up his trousers, his bow tie was hanging loosely around his neck and most of his shirt was still undone.