The Shotgun Bride

After finishing the second dinner for the night, Ginny bid Lucius and Narcissa goodnight as she headed out the door, followed closely by Draco.

"Well," she said after getting back into Draco's car, "That went much better than I expected."

"I know," Draco replied, glancing up at the trailer. "You know, we really need to talk about all this."

Ginny gave him a half-smile. "I know. Like all those things Mom brought up. Where are we going to live?"

Draco shrugged. "I don't know... I know we don't want to live here, or with your parents. That really doesn't leave all that many options. We could rent a place somewhere, and try to save up to buy somewhere to live."

"Yeah," Ginny said. "Or..."

"Or what?"

"My grandmother. You know, she lives in that big old house up on Diagon Drive."

"Yeah," Draco said. He remembered seeing the house. It was not the nicest house ever, but it was big, and in a relatively secluded area. Ginny had pointed it out to him a couple times when they'd driven in that area.

They lapsed into silence as Draco navigated the curving roads leading to the Weasley's house- er, shanty.

***

"Restrictor plates are ruining racing, I'm telling you boys," Arthur Weasley's voice filled the tiny living room.

"No way! Look at how close the race is!" Ron shot back.

"Exactly!" Arthur.

"Close races are more exciting!" Ron.

"But it isn't racing! There's no skill involved!" Arthur.

"I'd like to see you take that corner doing 180!"

"I could! It would be better if they were going 200 like they're supposed to!"

"You couldn't! And anyways, it's safer!"

"Who cares about safety? It ain't entertaining."

"But--" Ron knew he had lost. No one could out argue Arthur Weasley on subjects as important as racing.

Charlie, who had been watching the fierce battle of wits between father and son carefully, now spoke up. "Hey, Dad."

"Yeah?" asked Arthur, still engrossed in the race. His eyes followed the path of his favorite driver as the cars ducked and weaved across the track.

"What's up with Ginny?"

Arthur turned pale, and clenched his fists a little, but didn't speak.

"And why was Malfoy here?" spoke up Bill, who was watching Arthur carefully.

"Erm..."said Arthur. "I think I heard your mother calling."

"Mom went to the store, remember?" spoke up Fred.

"You asked for some Moon Pies and RC Cola," contributed George.

Arthur decided that he had to tell his sons about what had happened, even though Ginny probably wouldn't want them to know and Molly would probably like to be here. He wasn't sure that their initial reactions would be anything for the women Weasleys to hear anyway.

"You see, your sister..." he trailed off. Blunt or delicate? Blunt or delicate?

While he was stalling, Fred jokingly began to take bets. "Five on 'got a tattoo'."

"I'll put twenty on 'is becoming a groupie'," Bill said with a grin.

"Twenty on 'pregnant and engaged' for me," George said, laughing. The other Weasley brothers snickered at the preposterous statement.

"Um, actually..." Arthur said.

All laughter stopped. It was as if someone had pressed the pause button on a giant remote. Five mouths hung open, looks of mirth dissolved into disbelief, and Arthur just kind of hunkered down into the seat.

"What?" someone exclaimed. The five brothers just stared at their father. Another brother spoke. "Ginny's pregnant?"

"Yeah, she is." There was disappointment in Arthur's voice.

"Please tell me that it wasn't... that it's not, well..." Fred said.

"Was it Malfoy?" snapped Ron.

Arthur nodded. "They're going to be getting married soon. Probably before she starts to show..."

Ron looked like he wanted to throttle somebody. Probably somebody with blond hair and pointed features who drove a Chevelle and had a last name that began with the thirteenth letter of the alphabet.

"And you're okay with this?" said Bill, who didn't look quite as murderous as his youngest brother. Quite.

"Well, she is seventeen," replied Arthur. "She isn't a little girl anymore, as much as I hate to admit it."

He thought he was doing a wonderful job of keeping the peace. After all, nothing had been broken, and nobody was storming out of the house in fury. Ooh! Crash in the third turn! He watched with rapt attention as a race car careened into a wall and exploded into flames.

"Dad!" snapped one of his sons.

"What?" Instant replay. Looks like a piece of the car in front of the wrecked car had come loose, and thrown the car out of wack.

"How can you be so casual about this? Ginny's pregnant! That bastard Malfoy got our baby sister pregnant!" exclaimed Charlie. The other brothers nodded their agreement. They all wanted to do some nice, grievous injuries to the inbred little whelp.

Arthur shrugged. Truth be told, Molly had been only a few months older than Ginny was now when they'd gotten married. He considered pointing this out to his sons, but figured that they would come up with more objections about Ginny's choice of a beau.

He definitely did not approve of the Malfoys, he knew things about Lucius that would make his already indignant sons' hair curl. However, he hadn't heard about Draco participating in the same sort of activities as his father did. Plus, the boy seemed genuine enough in his affections. After all, it would probably have been much easier for him to have told Ginny to get lost instead of coming here and facing potentially violent family members.

His sons, however, didn't seem to have realized this.

He heard the rumble of a souped up engine from outside. Speak of the devil, Draco had brought Ginny home. Ron got up, and charged out the front door, banging the screen door behind him. The other Weasley brothers followed the youngest of their number.

God save the boy, he had just driven into the lion's den.