The Christmas Surprise

The Christmas Surprise

By Cindale

Draco was acting strange.

The house was decorated beautifully for Christmas. It was a good thing they were now living at Twelve Grimmauld Place, a gift from Harry after the Burrow had been destroyed, because there was no way they would have all fit into the old house. It still seemed ready to burst with all the Weasleys, extended Weasleys, and assorted significant others.

Draco was acting strange.

He had never gotten along well with her family, but she had finally put her foot down and threatened to spend Christmas at Malfoy Manor if they wouldn't at least be civil. Her mother, of course, had come around first, trying to please Draco by finding out what his favourite foods were. Her brother Charlie, surprisingly, had been the second to accept Draco, but he had always been the most open-minded of the lot and was the one she felt closest to. Ron and Harry were still giving her boyfriend glares at every opportunity, but at least they hadn't hexed him yet. Hermione was trying to persuade them to smile at least, and Ginny was grateful for that.

Of course, Hermione actually had reason to be pleased with the arrangement, for when Ginny snuck out of the room they shared to be with Draco at night, Ron, in turn, snuck out of the room he shared with Harry and spent the night alone with his girlfriend. She seriously doubted Harry was spending his nights alone, either, since Harry's fiancée, Blaise, was staying with them as well. Ginny smiled a little as she thought about them all trying to keep the "musical rooms" from her mother, even though they were all adults.

But then her expression sobered as she thought of Draco, who was acting strange. Ever since he had arrived, he had acted subdued around everyone but her. She as actually beginning to miss his biting sarcasm. This morning, when Bill's and Fleur's twin girls had tackled him in the hallway, he had only smiled indulgently and patted their heads. And at lunch, when Fred and George had tricked him into eating that candy that had temporarily transfigured his clothes into a lacy pink dress, his face had flushed in anger, but he'd only said, "Good joke." The last straw had been when they had come across Ron and Hermione snogging in a dark corner, and Draco had only rolled his eyes and hurried her along. She couldn't figure out what he was on about.

Ironically, she had begged him to try to get along with her family during this holiday, and he had promised to be good. But he was being too good. At night, when they were alone, he reverted to his arrogant self and they exchanged sarcastic banter as always. But during the day, when they were around the others, he acted so ... submissive.

That night, after she had closed the door quietly behind her and set the locking and silencing charms, she confronted him. "What are you on about?"

"What do you mean?" He was lying on his bed clad only in black silk boxers, arms crossed casually behind his head.

"Th-the way you're acting around my family," she said, forcing herself to look away so she could concentrate on what she was saying.

"I'm being good," he said, managing to make the simple phrase sound seductive.

"You're being too good," she said in an impatient tone.

"I'll be even better if you'd come here," he said with an exaggerated waggle of his eyebrows.

"Don't try to distract me!" she said, stamping her foot and ignoring his smirk. "We need to talk about this!"

"Look," he said, sitting up and swinging his legs over the side of the bed, "you asked me to be civil to your family and I am. There's nothing you can criticize about the way I've been acting."

"That's absolutely true," she said in a sarcastic tone. "You're perfect. You never say anything sarcastic or arrogant, in fact, you barely say anything at all! You're acting like - I don't know what." She threw up her hands and turned away.

She sensed him coming up behind her, but she didn't move away. He snaked his arms around her waist and kissed her cheek, then the side of her neck. She found herself melting and leaned back against him.

"Ginny," he whispered in her ear, "I only want to make you happy. You know I adore you, and I'm trying so hard to be what you want. I - " He turned her around so he could look her in the eye. "I love you, Ginny."

Her eyes and mouth flew open to their largest possible diameter. He had never said that before. She forced her mouth to close and studied his expression. It was completely serious. "Oh my god," she whispered. "You mean that, don't you?"

He nodded, and she saw a flicker of doubt in his eyes. She wondered for a moment what that was about, and then realized she hadn't answered in kind. She put her hands behind his neck and whispered, "I love you, Draco Malfoy," before pressing her lips to his.

When they finally broke the kiss, he picked her up, carried her to the bed, and lay down beside her. He leaned over to kiss her again, but she put her hand on his chest to hold him back. "Draco, I love you. I don't want you to be someone else. You can be yourself around my family without being mean. You do it all the time with me. Please be yourself - I want my family to get to know and love the real you."

"Okay," he agreed, a mischievous glint in his eyes, "I'll try. But you know it's difficult to say anything to most of your brothers without it being an insult."

Without any warning, Ginny grabbed the pillow from under her and smashed it over Draco's head. He responded by tickling her sides and sending her into a fit of giggles, and it was a very long time before she was able to speak coherently again.

********************************************

The next morning, Ginny was already at the table when Draco sauntered into the kitchen and took his seat beside her. Hermione pushed the scones and sausages towards him, and he nodded his thanks as he served himself.

Ginny noticed her twin brothers look at Draco, grin evilly at each other, and then look at Draco again. Her heart sank; she wondered what would happen if they played another prank on him, especially after their discussion the previous night.

"Morning, Malfoy," said Fred. "Glad to see you're wearing more masculine clothes today."

Draco's eyes narrowed as he gave Fred an appraising look. "You know, you should have a piece of that candy. I think the pink dress would actually look beautiful with your hair."

Fred's face reddened in anger, but George burst out laughing. "No, Malfoy. I disagree. I think Fred should wear a pale peach, or perhaps a burgundy."

That caused most of the other occupants of the breakfast table to join in the laughter, including Draco, who looked relieved. Fred only frowned at his twin and said, "Shut it, you poof."

"Hey!" said George, elbowing Fred.

Any further arguing was averted by the sudden arrival of the other set of twins, who burst into the room yelling, "Presents now! No breakfast!"

"Bill has been filling their heads with stories of Father Christmas," Fleur complained as she dragged in behind them. "They only slept about two hours last night."

Bill came in even more slowly on his mismatched legs, the result of an injury during the war. He looked tired, but boyishly excited. "Christmas is more effective than sugar as a stimulant," he said, causing Fleur to glare at him. He gave her a peck on the forehead and grinned broadly, saying, "Happy Christmas, Love." Her expression changed to resigned affection as she touched his cheek and took off after the girls.

After a few minutes of listening to the girls whine, everyone gave up on eating and headed to the drawing room to open presents. The brightly coloured packages were piled up so high that the bottom of the Christmas tree was buried. Ginny dragged Draco over to a small divan so they could sit together without one of her interfering brothers trying to sit between them.

As soon as the gifts were distributed, the young girls tore into theirs. The adults watched them indulgently for a few minutes and then began opening their own at a more leisurely pace.

Draco had insisted Ginny leave his gift for last. By the time she picked it up, most of the others had finished and were admiring each other's loot. Draco's gift was in a rectangular box, just the right size for a blouse, or possibly a dress. He had bought her many new garments, saying he loved spoiling her with clothes and jewellery, but Ginny privately thought he was slowly trying to replace her entire wardrobe because he didn't like the way she dressed.

As Ginny tore the paper off the box, she recognized the name of a trendy lingerie shop. She quirked an eyebrow at Draco; surely he wouldn't buy her something that would be embarrassing to open in front of her parents. He only grinned and nodded pointedly, telling her silently to continue.

She opened the box to the most beautiful, silky, green material she had ever seen. She slowly pulled it out, rubbing it appreciatively between her fingertips. It would feel heavenly against her bare skin. She held it up in front of her by the spaghetti straps. The nightgown was sexy, but tasteful. It looked as though it would reach her ankles when she put it on. "It's beautiful, Draco. Thank you."

"What kind of gift is that?" shouted Ron. Ginny rushed to cram the nightgown back into the box when she realized every eye in the room was on her. "Malfoy," Ron continued, standing up, "you'd better not be shagging my sister."

"Of course I'm not," said Draco calmly. "Just like you're not shagging Granger."

That shut Ron up, and he sat back down next to Hermione with an audible 'plop', both of them blushing furiously. Ginny was sure her face matched theirs as she looked warily at her parents. Her father's expression was unreadable, but definitely not good, and her mother looked like she wanted to explode, but kept glancing at the young twins, as if not wanting to say anything in front of them. One of the girls looked up at Fleur and said, "What's 'shagging', Mama?"

Draco broke the uncomfortable silence by taking Ginny's hand and saying, "I want you to wear that on our honeymoon, Ginny." Her eyes grew wide as he quickly got down on one knee in front of her and drew a small box out of his pocket. He opened it and offered her the ring inside. "Marry me."

When she thought about it later, she would be shocked that he had asked her in front of everyone. But at that moment, it seemed as if it was only the two of them in the room. She threw her arms around his neck and whispered, "Yes," in his ear.

Fortunately, Draco hadn't forgotten about the others in the room, and he whispered, "We'll celebrate later," before she could press her lips to his. As he put the ring on her finger, the room exploded with a mixture of angry shouts and congratulations. But the voices stilled as Draco got up and walked over to Ginny's father.

"Mr. Weasley," he began, "do I have your permission to marry your daughter? You know I have the means to support her financially, but more importantly, I love her more than anything, and will do everything in my power to see that she is happy."

Tears came to Ginny's eyes as she listened to Draco's words. She looked at her parents; her mother's angry expression had faded into a dreamy one, but her father seemed to be having an internal struggle. Finally, he said, "You know, Mr. Malfoy, the kind of trouble you'll be in if you break her heart."

"I'm not stupid," Draco said, breaking into a grin. "Do you think I would ask a girl with six brothers to marry me if I wasn't sure?"

Ginny's father broke into a small smile. "I suppose not," he acknowledged.

*************************************

"What did you tell Ron?" Ginny asked Hermione that night as they were getting ready for bed.

"About what?"

"He didn't seem to know where I was spending my nights. Where did he think I was going?" Ginny smoothed the silky fabric of the gown she was wearing as she spoke. It was an opaque material, but still left little to the imagination since it clung to every curve.

"That looks amazing," said Hermione, "but I thought you were supposed to save it for you honeymoon."

"I couldn't resist," said Ginny, turning around to look in the mirror. "It feels amazing, too. I hate to cover it up with my dressing gown." She turned to reach for her robe and said, "So what did you tell Ron?"

"Oh - well - the truth, actually. I told him that you were sleeping in a different room this time - I just didn't say which room. He was so excited that we could be alone - I guess he didn't really think about it." Hermione quickly applied lipstick and said, "Speaking of which - are you leaving soon - because he'll be here any minute."

"Yeah," said Ginny, fluffing her hair. "I'm going now. Goodnight." She walked to the door and turned the handle to open it, but nothing happened. She tried again, pulling harder this time.

"What's wrong?" asked Hermione.

"The door won't open! Try your wand!"

****************************************

Molly Weasley chuckled quietly to herself as she listened to the doorknobs rattling, satisfied that the children would stay in their own rooms that night. She knew they were adults and had their own lives, but by Merlin, when they were under her roof, they were going to behave! Her smile grew as she hurried upstairs to join her husband in the very thing she was preventing the children from doing.

THE END