The Shotgun Bride

Chapter One: Guess what!

***

It was deep in the woods. Trees loomed, roads snaked, and a car was parked on a dead end road well off the beaten path. The late sixties era muscle car had its engine turned off and was rocking slightly. The windows were fogged up, and the faintest hint of figures could be seen moving in the backseat.

"Oh, Draco," came a cry from inside the car.

***

Two months later:

"I'm not going in first!" Ginny Weasley exclaimed. "This is all your fault, anyway."

"My fault?" Draco Malfoy said incredulously. "So now this is my fault?"

"Yeah," replied Ginny.

The bickering teens were standing outside of Ginny's parent's home, which was a ramshackle wooden affair. It had started out as a shanty, then progressed to a shack, then been added onto until it was just an unnameable collection of wooden walls with a single ceiling protecting it.

"You were perfectly willing at the time, I remember," Draco said snidely. This was a position neither one had anticipated when they'd started seeing one another on the sly six months before. It had been a forbidden romance, of sorts. Neither one had thought very thoroughly about what they would do if their love affair ever came out into the open. Now, of course, they had to deal with that prospect.

Ginny turned up her nose at the blond boy beside her. "I obviously didn't think it through."

"Obviously, since you got knocked up."

"Hmph," Ginny flounced up to the door, but hesitated before letting herself in. She turned to Draco, looking uncertain. "Do you think that maybe I should break it to them before you go inside? I mean, my brothers aren't here, but Dad does have a bit of a temper, and he hates you, and I'm his little girl..."

Draco meandered up the cinder block front steps to join Ginny on the front porch in front of the front door. "Ginny, of course I'm going in with you. We're in this together."

Ginny smiled, and pecked Draco on the cheek. "Thank you."

"Thank me later," he said with a smirk, "preferably with chocolate. And strawberries. I like strawberries."

"Keep wishing, you never know," Ginny replied with a mischievous grin as she opened the door slowly. She liked strawberries too. She went inside the homey house, looking around the living room. There were twin red Laz-E-Boy recliners sitting across from the television, with matching red knitted afghans folded neatly across their backs. A couch sat along the wall, a yellow and red quilt laid across its back. Knickknacks in the shape of clowns and cute dogs adorned several shelves around the room, and there were many pictures of red-haired children of varying ages plastered across the walls. Other than that, the living room was empty.

"Mom? Dad?" she called. "Where are you?"

"I'm in here, dear," came Molly Weasley's voice. Ginny lead Draco to the kitchen, where they found Mrs. Weasley cheerfully baking cookies.

"You're home early," Mrs. Weasley said, not noticing the blond boy. "Is anything wrong?"

Ginny glanced nervously at Draco before answering her mother. "Well, wrong might not be exactly the right word for it."

Mrs. Weasley looked up from the counter, where she was rolling cookie dough. She noticed Draco, and glared at him. "What is he doing here?" she demanded.

Ginny fiddled her thumbs, praying for divine intervention so she didn't have to answer that question. Divine interveners, however, seemed otherwise occupied. Ginny was on her own. "Well, umm..." she began brilliantly. "You see..." Nothing came to her. She just sputtered on for a few more minutes while Draco began to look more and more uncomfortable.

Mrs. Weasley set down her rolling pin, and gave Draco a sharp glance. "What is it, Ginny?"

"Mom, I'm pregnant," Ginny said, deciding to just go straight for the kill. She immediately regretted it, and wished that she had gone for a more subtle route, but alas, what's done is done.

"What?" said Mrs. Weasley, shocked. "Ginny, if this is something Fred and George put you up to..."

Ginny gulped. "It's not, Mom."

Mrs. Weasley looked befuddled. "Surely, Ginbug, you wouldn't be that irresponsible, not to mention the fact that I raised you better than that!"

Ginny wanted to be eaten by a giant cockroach, to swim naked in a giant vat of piranhas, or be forced to eat cow snouts immediately after riding a bucking bronco. She wanted to be doing anything at all other than answering that comment from her mother. Her mother continued to look at her. Just stood there looking at her. Ginny shifted her weight from foot to foot. "Erm..." she finally said.

"Well?" Mrs. Weasley demanded.

"ItsnotajokeIreallyamthatstupid," Ginny said in a rush.

Mrs. Weasley slowly looked at her hands. "I see."

Ginny wanted to cry. I will be strong, she told herself. I will!

Mrs. Weasley turned her look on Draco. "And I'm assuming this is his fault?"

"Yeah," Ginny said.

Mrs. Weasley picked up the rolling pin, and pointed it at the boy threateningly. "If that miscreant has hurt you in any way..."

"No! Mom, he hasn't hurt me!" Ginny said. "We've been seeing each other for a while now..."

"You've gone behind our backs?" Mrs. Weasley was outraged. "I can't believe this. You know that we don't approve of that family! They're all philanderers and are involved in all sorts of illegal things..."

"Mom, you don't even know Draco," Ginny pleaded.

"And I don't have to!" Mrs. Weasley snapped. "One Malfoy's just like another! The whole family's rotten! You know that! Haven't you listened to anything your father and I have told you?"

"Apparently not," Draco muttered, glancing over at Ginny. "You never mentioned any of that to me."

"Erm, well," Ginny floundered for words yet again. However, lucky for her, she was interrupted by her mother's continuing rant, which had moved from the inherent evilness of anyone bearing the name Malfoy to pointing out the obvious.

"You're seventeen! What did you think you were doing?" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed. Ginny didn't have a chance to answer, which was probably a good thing. There were just too many ways she could have answered that particular question wrong.

"Molly?" Arthur Weasley could be heard calling from the living room. The tall redhead entered the room, greasy from his job as a mechanic. "What's going on?" he asked as he saw Draco.

"Tell him," Mrs. Weasley said tersely. "Go ahead and tell your father what you've just told me."

Ginny swallowed hard. Her father looked at her, confused. Ginny took Draco's hand, and he squeezed hers comfortingly.

"Dad, I'm pregnant."

***