Newlyweds

Author's Chapter Notes:
First of all, thanks to ALL those who reviewed! It really gives me a kick to see that somebody gives a damn. Though, let me just clarify the general problem everybody might've had.

~I am not very clear on what was going on in Chapter one. ~ I think most of you might be confused as you are trying to link between the Prologue with the first chapter. What I suggest is that you just forget about the prologue and read the first chapter as a new story, as you reach the fourth to fifth chapter and proceed forward, think of the Prologue and try to think what is happening, that will help.

I have put little footnotes at the end of the story, just to help.

CHAPTER-2

POP!

"Stupefy!"

BANG. "Bad aim, Weasley!"

"Ho -how did you break my wards?"

"A very simple anti-jinx."

Curbing the depressing notion of a simple curse breaking the wards which took her days to set up, Ginny still ploughed on. "Without checking? What if I was still in shower? I don't lock my bathroom door, you know..."

Malfoy rolled his eyes. "Then I simply wouldn't have Apparated here."

Ginny consciously arranged her towel around her body again and turned her back to him. "That apparently didn't work. I am still only in my towel."

"I made the exception only for you being naked-not in towels or under-"

Ginny shot another curse at him without looking back and winced as he again dodged it, breaking her flower vase. But Malfoy took the cue. "I'll wait outside. Make it fast -Malfoys aren't accustomed to wait."

Ginny knew that too well. She quickly donned a kimono and went out of her room to find Draco munching on the sandwiches she had made for herself. "I see you have made yourself at home," she said dryly. In fact, she was shocked at his audacity of helping himself without asking her.

Draco swallowed the bite. "Here-your character details." He handed her a paper as he wiped his mouth neatly with the napkin lying on the table.

Ginny picked up the other sandwich and read her sketch while eating. "Hmm... interesting! We 'an away. And-blime'! You a' an or'han."

Draco made a disgusting face. "It's horrendous to talk while eating, Weasley. At least learn some etiquette before impersonating to be my wife."

Ginny smirked at him and continued, paying no heed to his complaint. "I 'm a 'ouse wi'fe." She took a sip of her coffee and offered Draco another cup absent mindedly, which he refused politely. She looked at him mockingly. "Tsk tsk tsk. You are jobless; but have a specialty in marketing and entrepreneurship."

"They are trying to get me into with your brothers in their branch at Hogsmeade," Draco replied quietly, looking terrified at the thought. Ginny snickered.

Just then a tiny raven owl flew through the window to her. She dropped the letter on the table and flew back, but not before affectionately nibbling Ginny's finger.

She glanced at Draco's stoic face and smirked. "Yes Malfoy, it's Poppins - Harry's second owl. Isn't it nice of him to leave Poppins, his beloved owl after Hedwig died, along with his Invisibility Cloak to me?" she stated fondly, her eyes slightly misty.

But, fortunately for her, she mistook his expression, for he very well knew it was Poppins. It was the memory the bird brought with it that was responsible for his stoic expression. How well he still remembered THE (1) night four years ago...but Ginny didn't know that fact and waved him back to reality.

"Back to the grievous earth, Malfoy," Ginny said glibly as she waved her hands in front of his face.

"What are you talking about?" he asked, relieved that she was not a Legilimens.

"I don't want you having your lovely, vivacious dreams about your latest girlfriend in my flat."

Draco smirked, which slightly confused her. "How do you know I have one?"

Ginny bit her tongue at her slip, but it was late. Sure, she didn't know if he had one. Strangely, while all the magazines in the British wizarding tabloids consistently claimed Draco the most eligible bachelor every year, none of them could actually find anything about any of his sordid affairs.

Oh, Ginny was confident that he must have had loads of affairs and dates. Wasn't he the most handsome guy (that too with a wicked sense of humour) all the unmarried, and even happily married women like Susan and Lavender, asserted he was? Personally, Ginny agreed with the humour part, though she considered it just passable when compared with hers. But she was thoroughly appalled even at the thought of considering him as handsome. No doubt he looked a bit more responsible and manly in his ever present two-day blond stubble, but surely she did not find him attractive. He was still the most vile, conceited guy she ever had the ghastly providence to meet. And he still used a huge amount of hair charm to style up his blond hair. Even though he joined her in a few of the Order works before, the only reason they hadn't got any assignments together at the ministry (till this damned one, Ginny thought miserably) was because it was widely know that they could barely agree with each other, let alone work together.

"I swear I'll kill the donkey who thought of putting me together with him," she promised herself.

"Well, surely you'll have the opportunity to kill that donkey after we finish this off," said Draco dismissively as Ginny realised belatedly that she had spoken that aloud, "But till then we have some work to do.

"First of all, there are changes in our names. My name is no longer David, but Ashton Seaton. And you name is going to be Bryhoney in place of Genevieve. Second, no Polyjuice Potion is to be taken-"

"Wow," Ginny exclaimed sarcastically, smirking. "It's going be fun when we try to mix with them using our real faces!"

"Will you just keep your blubbering mouth shut and listen to me for a few seconds, Weasley?"

"I-I do not blubber!" Ginny said, spluttering.

"Your mouth does." Draco smirked. "It has come to my attention from my mole that Polyjuice Potion is easily deduced by people there. Of course, we do not want it to be construed, especially when there are smart people like Granger there. Also, it is a pain in the neck to drink that tasteless potion every hour-"

"You call that dreadful tasting potion tasteless?"

Draco pursed his lips, slightly smirking at her and continued without any comment on that. "So after the consent from Longbottom, I have decided that we will be using Muggle means of changing faces."

"Muggles can change faces?" Ginny asked in surprise.

Draco finally cursed under his breath and Ginny was immensely delighted to see that she was powerful enough to rile him up. "I sometimes wonder why you are an Auror, Weasley. Do you always have to take words at their face value?"

"I was a Hit Witch until a couple of cases before this one," she snapped, saccharine sugar dripping from her voice. "What are we going to do, then?"

"You will perform a slight Lengthening charm on yourself, to a height of about five-ten-;"

"Slight Lengthening charm for four inches!"

"And get your hair coloured; make it about waist-length and preferably curled. All of this work has to be done the Muggle way." He looked briefly at his watch. "We have to reach our new home in about six hours, so I guess I'll meet you in the beauty salon at the end of this lane in an hour, ready to go with only the Lengthening charm performed on yourself. And no luggage. Our initial clothing will already be provided there."

"Ew - Thanks."

Draco looked curiously at her. "Why don't you curse like your brothers? I thought you had plenty of reason to call a man a bastard, instead of something as stupid as donkey?"

Ginny shrugged. "I guess Mother wanted to have at least one child living without using profanity, so she stuffed into me all things like...blah blah blah!" She turned to him accusingly. "I don't have to tell you this!"

"Oh yes you do -your brothers will pick it up sooner than you'll recognize that you slipped!"

"But I do curse! I say damn and...darn and..." She fumbled for other words. "...and words like that," she finished lamely.

Draco smirked but patted her handed briefly. "You'll learn that." He abruptly stood up and went back to her room. She followed him curiously and he stopped at the point where he had Apparated. He looked at her mockingly and said, "I've placed a stronger anti-intrusion jinx which I'll detail you later when we meet. Do your obligations or whatever you need to do fast and meet me at the salon in an hour."

He Disapparated back before she could ask him more.

Ginny reached said salon on time, but as luck would have it, Malfoy was already there.

"Hmm, better," he merely commented and Ginny nodded, smothering her impulse to retort with a witty remark of her own.

And Draco tormented her in the parlour in the most atrocious ways he could. He got her hair changed (or coloured, as he said), in almost all the 'shades' the attendant had; Ginny was slightly grateful that he didn't try the blonde one at least. It was very tiring, sitting there with her hair all messily plastered and her head tilted back so uncomfortably. She preferred the convenient (though dreadful in taste) Polyjuice Potion to this thing. She knew she was acting childishly, unprofessionally even, but she couldn't help it, especially with Malfoy sitting there with that blasted smug face of his.

After the hair job was done, (they had settled on midnight blue-which looked sexy on her, if she conceded) Draco whispered quietly but quickly to the attendant, who nodded and smiled pleasantly at him. Ginny actually chuckled at the besotted expression on the woman's face - it was comical. But she had no time to press on it as the woman took her to another room and Draco himself went to another room.

"Now, ma'am, you lie down and go to sleep. When you'll wake up, you'll be more beautiful than you could never imagine," she said consolingly to Ginny, as if she was going to poke a needle into her.

Unwillingly, Ginny laid down on the bed in front of her and quickly went to sleep before the attendant even started to put the paste on her face.

***

She had to admit, she did look pretty - and utterly unrecognisable. It wasn't that she thought before that she wasn't pretty or ugly, but just that she felt a bit unsophisticated with her stout height and freckles on her face. Thus, she definitely liked the change in her appearance, which was surely for better. She now had her long hair with the free flowing rigid curls (for which she had been cautioned many times to be careful and delicate) with their brilliant shade. Draco hadn't changed her brown coloured eyes (Thank God, she thought, or I wouldn't have recognized myself). She was totally freckle-free, and had loads of ointments to take care of her face so that they wouldn't refurbish again. But when she looked at Draco she did a double take at his changed image.

He had removed his moustache and beard (she sniggered inwardly at it) and turned his hair to a shade of black. He too had curled his hair, though not as strongly as that of Ginny. However, he had changed his eye colour to a blue-grey and changed his complexion somehow. He was a bit more tanned. Not much, but enough to lose his original pallor. He had very nicely changed his looks with his rimless spectacles, which strongly reminded Ginny of that famous Indian Muggle movie actor ...what was his name...Hri...Roshan or something like that (2). Ginny had to admit, he had done admirable work on both of them, without using any tacky methods.

Except my hair coloring, Ginny thought again. Wow, I've started talking to myself so soon.

"Well, Honey-"

"WHAT?" Ginny screamed.

Draco smirked. "Well, your name is Bryhoney, and a husband doesn't call his wife by full name, does he?" he said mockingly. "So I'll call you Honey - you pick whatever name you wish for me; just tell me in advance."

Ginny, determined to pick just the most irksome endearment for him, just nodded.

"I forgot to give you this," he said, coming right next to her, his hands rummaging inside his pocket.

He took her hand and Ginny's heart skipped a few beats. He slipped something on her ring finger and Ginny gasped when she saw it.

It was a diamond ring that looked like a small boulder. The diamond was shaped as either a square or diamond depending on which way you looked at it. It sparkled and shimmered from every direction she looked at it. It also had two small diamonds on each side of it.

"What do you think?" Draco asked her.

"I must admit...it's breathtaking," she admitted grudgingly as she brought her hand closer to her so she could look at it.

"It's a fake," he said.

She sighed and said, "Thanks a lot."

He smirked. "It was something else, but I transfigured it."

"Thanks. It must have taken you so long to transfigure, didn't it?" she asked him sarcastically.

"A few hours and a lot of sweat," he said seriously. He looked over at her then, a strange look on his face. "It's the same style as my mother's was. I figured you two would have had similar tastes." He paused a moment. "I think she would have liked you," he said, his voice soft, and for a moment Ginny didn't know what to say.

Then Draco shrugged. "Yes, Mother always did have weird taste in friends," he said with a feigned condescending sigh, then strolled off. Shaking her head in exasperation and fighting back the impulse to scoff, Ginny rolled her eyes just as he offered his arm to her.

"Here, hold my hand, so that we reach our new home!"

"No, I'd prefer not to. I can Apparate myself."

With a pop, they landed at their new home in the wonderful Hogsmeade. Ginny took a deep breath, savouring the mollifying smell she hadn't smelled since she had left Hogwarts. Even Ron and Hermione had only come to meet her at her flat. She had never come to Hogsmeade to visit them.

Malfoy...Get a grip on yourself, Bryhoney Seaton, and start referring to him as your husband, Ashton, she thought angrily. Ash...Ah, I've got a name for him, Ginny thought again, gleefully this time. Well, back to the point. Ash brought her out of her reverie, and she concentrated on what he was saying.

"This is the building where we are now going to live. Our flat is on the ground floor," he said as he pointed it out to her. "Longbottom took special care of fixing us up near your youngest brother and sister-in-law," he stated, with some anticipation this time, she noted. "That way we would not have much problem integrating with the people." He took her hand and she shrugged them off hastily. He merely shook his head in amusement and started walking, leaving Ginny with no alternative but to follow him.

However, Draco stopped at the house behind theirs and knocked on the door.

"Coming!" came a female voice back. Draco quickly took Ginny's hand again, but this time she didn't have the time to remove it before the owner of the house came. "Yes, may I help you?" Hermione Weasley said as she looked at the two strangers.

Draco smiled at her charmingly. "Umm...Mrs. -" He made an act of looking at the name plate at the wall. "-Wealsey. Hi. My wife and I are new to this area. We have our home booked as Number Nine, Rowena's Crescent here at Hogsmeade..."

Hermione didn't give him chance to complete his sentence. "Oh - you must be Mr. and Mrs. Seaton! Pleasure to meet you," she said amiably as she shook both of their hands. Still, Draco didn't let go of Ginny's hand. "Why don't you have a coffee inside before you go to your house?" She looked around them. "Your luggage...?"

"Oh, our luggage was dropped by the transfer company," Ginny said, waving her hand. "We'd be delighted to have the coffee you offered," she said, smiling and led Draco into the house.

"Ron...Ron!" Hermione called into the lovely and cosy house.

"Momma...see, my new wand!" A young girl came running towards Hermione and Ginny had that urge to hug her niece.

"Yes, Hermione?" The young girl's father and Ginny's tall, lanky, youngest elder brother entered, looking slightly dishevelled.

"I told you not to give Lily gifts like that!" Hermione admonished her husband. "She and Rose are too young for them!"

"But we're not!" Lily wailed. "Rose and I are almost eight years old and can do many things like Papa -oops, sorry," she apologised as she saw Ginny and Draco.

Ron also looked enquiringly at Hermione so she smiled. "Ron, this is Mr. Ashton Seaton and Mrs. Bryhoney Seaton, our new back door neighbours, and this is my husband Ronald Weasley." Ron shook hands with both of them. "This is our darling daughter Lily Molly Weasley," she looked around and smiled as another girl shyly came through the door, standing hesitantly. "And that's her twin - Rose Hermione Weasley. Come, Rose, say hello," she waved the girl enthusiastically to come over.

But Rose just said a quickly muttered hello and giving Lily a signal that she would wait in the room, quickly ran back.

"Hello," Lily said as she moved forwards towards Ginny first. "Can I call you Aunt Honey?" she asked her and Draco laughed softly as Ginny pulled her on her lap.

"Of course you can," she said and smiled.

Now is the time to embarrass Draco! She said, "Look, ask Uncle Ash what he has for you and your sister!"

But to her dismay, Draco slid a hand behind him and pulled out a lovely chain with a gorgeous snake pendant for Lily, and one of butterfly, perched on a Rose.

Lily immediately jumped to Draco's lap. "Ooh, I love it. Nobody but Uncle Bill gives use jewellery and even he hasn't ever given me a snake pendant. And Rose doesn't have one with a rose! She'll love it," she exclaimed happily and then noticed the other box, conjured subtly by Ginny. "And chocolates too! I think we can be good friends, Ash..." she said happily and planted a noisy kiss on Draco's cheek. Draco just smirked at her and returned one to her.

"I'm glad," he merely stated and looked at Ginny, obvious victory gleaming in his eyes.

Hermione was blushing at that. "She's just a child, forgive her," she said abashedly. "Now Lily will go to her room, and finish that puzzle Uncle Charlie brought her from Romania with Rose, then we'll together buy a welcome gift for Teddy(3)!" she said to Lily and the little girl obediently departed, jumping happily the whole way.

"She's quite a chirpy girl," Draco commented.

Ron smiled. "She takes that from her aunt, my sister Ginny Weasley. Rose's a bit shy, just like my moth-(4)"

"And lovely eyes."

Ron looked at Hermione and she said, "I know. It's a bit of an odd shade, but such lovely one at that. My mother had that shade. I'm happy that she got those instead of my brown ones."

"I heard or read somewhere that you all Weasleys have such nice red hair," Draco said suddenly and Ron blushed slightly, while Ginny looked at him shocked, giving him the 'You-hate-Weasley-hair-so-why-ask-such-stupid-question?' look.

"Oh yeah," Ron merely said in reply.

"Do you have any children?" Hermione asked Ginny.

Ginny went absolutely white at that question. Kids with Malfoy???

A tremendously horrifying image of a dozen kids with pink hair (5) and face full of freckles running here and there and calling her MUM, Mum...came unbidden in her mind and she shuddered at the thought.

Hermione obviously noted it so she swiftly apologised, "Oh, I'm so sorry I've upset you. I didn't mean to. I mean, we're so happy with Teddy and the twins, I almost want to have more."

Ginny tried to give a suitable reply. "Oh no...it's just that -"

"-That we're so newly married," Draco replied for her. "We just returned from our honeymoon and obviously hadn't though about kids yet." He lovingly took Ginny's hand and she cringed from inside as he rubbed her palm softly, even though she knew it was for Ron and Hermione's view. "Have we, honey?"

She forced a smile, hoping it didn't look like a grimace. "Of course not."

And so they talked about various other topics like their background and their schooling (which Draco replied was from some school in California, even though they were British) and family, etc...etc.

"Now, we must leave," Draco said, adding a bit of apologetic tone in it, which Ginny thought was so misleading.

"Oh! Of course. You must be tired," Ron said, nodding.

"And your neighbours, at Number 10, the young couple Vic and Gazal Lorimer also arrived just a week earlier," Hermione stated happily. Ginny groaned.
Great, we'll have to chat up with them also.

They bid farewell and went to their house. Ginny was dismayed at the mediocre size of it.

"The Ministry is soo miserly!" she wailed. It was a one room house, with a separate kitchen and dining space, and one small servant quarters. "Harry was right all along. They are too darn measly to think of its employees' comforts."

Draco tutted behind her. "You Gryffindors always jump to conclusions. They provided us with this one because Hogsmeade is so crowded these days that the Ministry has started making smaller houses. Though I still need to talk to Longbottom about it, I see."

Paying no heed to his explanation, Ginny searched the rooms for any piece of furniture she could find, but she was disappointed. The house was plain and empty except for their luggage. Ginny growled in an extremely unlady-like manner.

"Can't the Ministry just give us the furniture?" she moaned miserably.

Draco smirked as he conjured some temporary chairs for them. "Well, they did offer to. But I denied them to-"

"WHAT?? ARE YOU CRAZY?" Ginny screamed in astonishment. But his smirk didn't shift a micrometer.

"You know, I have my specific choices. Which I won't break for their cheap ones," he said conceitedly. Ginny wanted to hit him.

"You're despicable." She looked at the place which she supposed was the kitchen. "And no food also, I presume?"

His smirked widened and he nodded. Ginny huffed in frustration and marched outside where she hit the neighbour's bell hard.

"Hello," a young girl (Ginny suspected she was Asian) of about twenty opened the gate.

"Hello," Ginny smiled and immediately lost some of her anger. Draco joined her. "Hi," she said as she extended her hand forward and shook it with the girl. "We are Ashton and Bryhoney Seaton, your next door neighbours. We just arrived, so we thought we should meet you."

She opened her door wider and let them in. "Glad to meet you. We were the first to occupy this section of houses and it was strange to living alone in a whole block," she said shyly. Her husband, also quite young, Ginny noticed, came forward.

"Hi- I'm Vic Lorimer, and this is my wife Gazal." He came and shook their hands.

"Aren't you a bit young to marry?" Draco commented and Ginny glared at him for such a prompt question.

But Vic just laughed. "Yes, I admit we are. I met Gazal on a trip to India, where she also came for a trip-"

"I am Indian you know, my father shifted to England five years back," Gazal added, smiling.

"We were together in Hogwarts but in different houses, so we never knew each other, but anyways, we met in India and fell in love. We tried to coax our families, but they wanted us to marry their choice immediately, so we ran off. We planned to marry after our daughter is born in six months but in the end married earlier than we planned, resulting in our banishment from our families," he said and smiled, as if he had no qualms for it.

"I've been to India," Ginny said and Gazal smiled, "It's really a nice place -I'm not surprised you fell in love there."

"Um, unfortunately," interjected Draco, "we don't have any food or anything other than our luggage. So why don't we- " he motioned at him and Ginny "- sponsor our dinner at Three Broomsticks tonight?"

Vic laughed again and looked at Gazal, who nodded. "Sure!"

They greeted Madam Rosmerta quickly and ordered for their dinner. Vic brought their dishes to them.

"So what do you do?" Ginny asked, setting her elbow on the table and making no effort of eating her food.

Vic replied first. "I am jobless at present, thinking of joining Storming Starlets as a Beater."

Gazal was quiet for a few seconds. "Our money situation is quite tight now, so I'll also have to look for a job. I want to open a tattoo shop, as I'm good in drawing. But I am afraid to, as I'm very new and inexperienced at that."

"I'll help?" Ginny offered before she even thought.

Draco smirked as he knew she didn't plan on it. But Gazal smiled eagerly. "Of course! I'll tell you the plan for the shop. In fact, my best friend is coming here to join me..." she started enthusiastically.

All through the dinner they talked, and by the end of it, Ginny was totally tired.

They had just paid and left the pub, walking to their apartments, when Gazal said abruptly, "Can I ask you something Mr. Seaton?"

Draco made pretence of thinking. "Um, okay."

She smiled hesitatingly. "You'll answer truthfully?"

"Hmm..."

"Aren't you Draco Malfoy? The one who studied with Harry Potter in Hogwarts and was in Slytherin? "

***

(1) The Prologue
(2) Its Hrithik Roshan, an Indian superstar (just like Brad Pitt in Hollywood -but Hrithik's hotter -with superb dance skills). He's just had his best release till now, Dhoom 2, and is currently a rage in India. Here are some pics for those who haven't heard of him even once (that's a shame).
pic1 pic2 pic3

This is how I have imagined Draco... Ashton
This might be my personal bias, but sometimes I feel that Tom Felton and Hrithik look very similar, but this is just my thought -no forcing of my opinions.

(3) Teddy is just away at Bill's right now, He'll be back soon, 'cause a boy can do wonder at the age of ten *wink wink*. He's back by the next two or three chapters.

(4) He meant mother-in-law.

(5) Those who didn't get the joke there :-] Ginny imagined a combination of White blonde hair with Weasley red hair, i.e. pink colour...so the image of children with pink hair came in her mind...just a pun, though I know that a combination of white and red hair is a very rare possibility.

Chapter End Notes:
TONS of kisses *muah* and hugs to my beta-reader May, you rock babe! And to those who are reading, please, leave a kind (or harsh) word about the chapter.