Secrets

CHAPER 15

Somehow, Ginny made it through the rest of May and into June, and took her O.W.L.S feeling like she had managed to do alright on them. They had exactly one week left at Hogwarts; seven days before the Summer holidays officially began.

"I have a proposition for you," Draco informed Ginny as they rested in the grass by the lake, trying to enjoy what was left of their fragile peace.

"What?" she asked, shifting uncomfortably as the baby seemed to summersault inside her stomach.

"Come home with me. My parents can afford a nanny and you can finish your school."

Ginny stared at him. Again, her battling emotions surfaced. The Ginny who loved to be reminded how deliciously sexy Draco was, was trying to suppress the wary, cautious Ginny. The first Ginny liked to recall how his hair fell into his eyes when he leaned into to kiss her, and the way he whispered 'I love you' so lightly his warm breath tickled her ear, and the way his lips could skim the most sensitive parts of her neck. The latter Ginny was gasping out a warning that this was what Draco had wanted all along. He new the baby was Harry's and he was trying his hardest to get his hands on it. "But you know what Dumbledore said. If He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named found out . . ."

"No one's going to find out unless you tell," he said dismissively. "Obviously Harry isn't going to tell and if my parent's think it's my child, it won't matter."

Ginny found herself chewing nervously on her lower lip. "I don't know. They'll be so mad at you."

"Not for too long. My father will find someway to convince himself that this is a good thing."

"I just don't know."

Draco shrugged as if he really didn't care. "I just figured you wouldn't want to be stuck at St. Agithay's."

"I don't."

"How did your parents afford it?" he demanded, his tone betraying the fact that Ginny had deflated him.

"What do you mean?"

"That place costs thousands of Galleons each month."

"It does?" Her parents could never, ever afford that. She could never even get a subscription to Teen Witch Weekly for her birthdays, and now she was being sent to a school that would cost thousands. It didn't make sense.

Draco nodded.

"How do you know?"

"I looked it up," he answered simply.

Ginny frowned for a moment, then it dawned on her. "Harry."

"What?"

"It had to be. He has money. It makes sense."

"No it doesn't. Why would he care if you go to St. Agithay's or not?"

"Because," she explained, the realization washing over her, "if I'm there, that means I'm giving the baby up. And if I'm giving it up, you have no part what so ever in the baby's life."

Slowly, Draco nodded. "Right." Then he let out a string of curse words.

"I'll be right back. I'm going to speak with him." She stood up, dusted off the back of her robes, and strode across the grounds toward the stone path that led to Hagrid's hut. She moved as fast as her legs would carry her, filled with fury that was growing stronger every second. She found Harry where she knew he would be: sitting between a cluster of stones on the edge of a hill. To her surprise, Hermione and Ron were with him. Ron glanced up at her and quickly looked away, and Hermione forced a small smile. "Could I talk to you for a minute?" she asked Harry through gritted teeth.

Without looking at her, he stood up. "Sure."

They walked in silence until they were alone, standing on the bridge that connected the school to the grounds. "Did you send my parents money?" Ginny asked when they stopped.

Harry nodded. "Yeah."

"Why?" she demanded.

"I thought you wanted to give the baby up. I heard that was a good place."

"Did you tell them who the money was from?"

"No."

"Could you have even asked me what I wanted?"

"No. You're always with Malfoy."

"Well he knows! It's not like it's a big secret!"

"I'm not going to talk around him," Harry said stubbornly.

"I want to keep the baby."

"Really?" Harry glanced up, looking at her for the first time since they had started the conversation.

"Yeah. I do."

"What are you going to do?"

"I don't know," Ginny snapped crossly. "My parents refuse to help me because they think Draco is the father!"

"They're not required to help you."

"They're not going to. They've already made that clear."

"So what?" he said rudely. "Are you and Draco going to raise my baby?"

"You know, all you did was help with the creation process," she informed him selfishly. "Draco, unlike some people, has been there for me."

Harry shook his head. "Don't even try that. I wanted to be there for you. You wouldn't let me."

"Call me crazy, but somehow I would have imagined that the person who wants to be there for me would have admitted it to me. Or to my parents. Or at least would have said something to me after I announced it to my whole family!"

"I was scared," Harry yelled back at her. "I'm sorry. I was scared. I'm supposed to be saving the whole entire wizarding world and I find out I knocked up the first girl I bloody slept with. I'm sorry!"

Ginny sighed. "You know you don't love me. I don't love you. You don't even like me in a way that someday could be love. There was no point into forcing both of us into a miserable relationship."

"Do you know what it is?"

"What what is?" she asked.

"The baby."

"Oh. Oh. No, not yet. Madam Pomfrey said she could tell me, but I didn't want to know. At the time, I thought I wanted to give it up."

"I think it's a girl."

"So does Draco." She regretted the words even as they left her mouth.

"Does she move?"

Ginny nodded. "A lot." She glanced around. "You can feel."

Harry placed his hand lightly against her stomach and closed his eyes. As if the baby knew someone important was there, she began to twist and turn, putting on a show just for Harry. "That's amazing," he said finally. "Have you thought of any names?"

She shook her head. "Not really."

"If you're going to keep the baby, I want to be in her life."

"You can be. But you have to tell my parents. It's going to take some explaining."

"I'll make sure you have everything you need," he told her wearily. "A nanny, clothes, whatever, so you can finish Hogwarts."

Ginny nodded slowly.

"You can move into Grimmauld Place. The nanny can stay there."

Grimmauld Place was the one location Ginny never cared to return to.

"But no Draco."

"What?"

"He can't be part of her life. I'll make sure you have everything, but no Draco."

Ginny stared at him, her mouth unhinged. "Forget it."

"What are you going to do Ginny?" he demanded. "Run back to Draco? Is that what you want? You want Mr. Malfoy to find out and have your child killed? Just like my parents? You of all people should know what they are capable of."

Unable to find anything to say, Ginny turned and walked off the bridge, leaving him standing alone.

CHAPTER 16

"Look, she has our nose, don't you think?" Narcissa's voice filled the large room.

Mr. Malfoy nodded and reached out to smooth the baby's shock of red Weasley hair. Ginny was curled up on the leather couch next to Draco, watching the Malfoy's touch her baby, wondering exactly how much money Mr. Malfoy had spend to buy his way out of Azkaban.

The baby's nose was rather thin and pointy like the Malfoy's, but Ginny knew that someone in Harry's family must have that nose. The baby had shocking red hair, but her eyes were the exact shape and color of Harry's. Ginny secretly though any fool could look at her and see that it was Harry's baby. But Draco had told his parents that he was the father, and they believed him.

"And she has the pale Malfoy skin," Narcissa was adding. "Don't you think?"

Ginny nodded, secretly thinking that if you took away the Weasley's freckles, they would be just as pale. She felt horribly out of place in the Malfoy's large, formal den and knew that no matter how much time she spent here, it would never feel like home. She had gone into labor two days ago, and the pain was horrific, despite the anti pain charms. She hadn't wanted Draco in the room, in fact, she had cried for her mother, but Narcissa insisted, saying that he needed to know.

"Maybe you will be more careful next time," she said afterwards her tone cool and uncaring, commanding the Healer to give Ginny a potion for birth control.

Ginny didn't know why she needed it. The labor was so fresh in her mind, she doubted she would need it for a long time.

"But where did she get these eyes?" Lucius wondered, glancing at Ginny.

"I've heard my great grandmother had green eyes," she answered with a shrug. "But the rest of us all had these brown eyes."

Mr. Malfoy nodded. "Malfoy's eyes have generally been blue or gray. What about the Black's?" he asked his wife.

"Brown, I suppose," she answered, scooping the baby up. "Have you thought of a name?"

Ginny shook her head. "I really don't know."

"The Black's have always been named for those forces greater than they are," Narcissa announced importantly. "I see no reason to break the tradition."

"I like Andromeda," Ginny said quietly.

The room grew silent for a moment.

"Lovely," Draco's father told her with a smile. "Excellent choice."

"Hopefully, she will not turn out to be like our former relative with the same name. A disgrace to the family, she was," Narcissa sniffed.

Ginny had been here a month and a half, and she knew it would never feel like home. The Malfoy's mansion was beautiful, but it was so big and empty it left Ginny feeling desolate, especially at night, when she was missing her family. Draco couldn't understand why she missed them at all.

"They practically abandoned you," he had reminded her as they lay in the great bed, feeling the baby flop inside her stomach.

But Draco didn't have parents like hers; parents who had loved her so intensely and protectively. Parents who had always wanted what was best for her, but were willing to let her make her own mistakes - or at least, they had been until now. Draco's parents were formal, usually leaving Draco to fend for himself, and indisposed to accept any mistakes. She missed her brothers even more. Charlie sent owls when he could, but Fred and George were still furious, convinced that Draco was the father, Bill wanted to ignore the whole situation, and Percy informed her that she now had to live with her won mistakes.

The Malfoy's had been surprisingly receptive of Ginny though. The day she arrived, Mr. Malfoy had sat them down in his office and looked at them with his icy stare. "It seems," he told her, "that the time has come for our families to put aside those differences. At least, for you and me."

Draco was squeezing Ginny's hand, and she had never felt more ridiculously unwanted than that day as she watched Mr. Malfoy's eyes contradict his words.

"You want to finish your education, I assume?" he asked her, fixing her with a stern look.

"Yes sir, I would like to."

"Good, good. A good education is a valuable tool for moving up in this world, although I would imagine you will not have to work if Draco does as well on his N.E.W.T.S. as I expect him to. We will provide the care and nanny required of our grandchild, but we will have to require that the two of you be married."

"Married?" Ginny repeated nervously, glancing at Draco. Draco didn't seem surprised; he just held his father's stern gaze and kept hold of Ginny's hand.

So Ginny had spent a month in their great home, her life changing once again, as she found herself suddenly Mrs. Draco Malfoy. She wondered what Ron would think when the teachers called her Ms. Malfoy instead of Ms. Weasley. She wondered what Harry would think. And then she went into labor. Minutes after the baby arrived, an owl from Dumbledore arrived, but she couldn't bring herself to read it. Instead she tucked it away in a drawer, for another day.

She had expected to take care of little Ani, but instead, she found herself being dismissed from rooms as the new nanny watched over the baby.

"Go out with Draco," Narcissa would instruct her. "You can't neglect him. He needs you too. The baby is fine."

Ginny didn't feel like she was neglecting Draco; she felt like she was neglecting her new baby. But it didn't take long before she let herself get spoiled. Ani became more like a toy, and less like her own child. When she and Draco arose each morning, they would go visit her, eat their breakfast, get ready to go out, and tell Ani goodbye. They spent the days in the Malfoy's enormous pool, or playing games of one on one Quidditch, or in the fields riding the horses. They even went to London to shop.

Narcissa loved shopping and for the first time, Ginny was allowed to gather as much of whatever she wanted with absolutely no concern for the prices. She knew she was changing; she knew she wasn't the person she used to be, but she shallowly consoled herself by reminding her shrinking conscience that now she was a Malfoy, and they expected her to be part of the family.

"What do you think of this?" Draco demanded, standing in front of a tall rack of infant clothing. "I want to get it." He was holding up a tiny purple dress.

A smile unfolded on her lips. "I like it. Maybe we should get a bigger size though. She's going to outgrow all of these before she gets to ever wear them."

"So it was a girl?" A cold voice penetrated the air behind them.