1Breaking the News

A Shotgun Bride ficlet.

AN: Takes place between the first and second scenes of the first chapter of The Shotgun Bride. This probably won't make much sense unless you've read that. Characters belong to JKR.

The irony was that, of course, the night had had a wonderful start.

Draco bought Ginny and himself slushies from the gas station, and they had ended up at their favorite secluded parking spot, making out in the backseat. Ginny was eager and willing, and Draco was happy about his prospects.

"Wait," Draco said, pulling away and fumbling for his wallet. "Have to get the--"

"Doesn't matter," Ginny said, kissing him again and wiggling persuasively. "Damage's already done."

Draco allowed himself to be distracted and worked on removing Ginny's skimpy tank top. Once he got it untangled from her hair and had started focusing on her baby blue bra, he froze as her words echoed through his head.

"What damage?"

The lacy edge of her bra with the swell of breasts pressing against it called for his attention, but he stilled his hands.

"Pregnant," said Ginny, panting. "Keep doing what you were doing, will you?"

His hands teased at her breasts even as his mind turned into a black hole of despair. "Did you just say you were pregnant?"

"Yes," gasped Ginny. Her skirt suddenly was much higher than it had been and she wiggled out of her panties, tossing them towards the front seat. "Come on."

Her hands were now doing things to his lower region that made his mind even blanker, and he pulled away from her. "You're pregnant."

He pulled away from her completely, reluctantly removing her hands from his body and scooting to the other side of the seat. He stared at her as she glared, tugged at her skirt and said, "Yes, dammit."

"Is it mine?"

Ginny nodded. "It happened the night we went and saw the Skynard tribute band, I think."

Mockingly, the guitar strains of "Freebird" drifted through his mind.

He didn't say a word, just sort of gaped senselessly at Ginny.

"Don't look at me like that!" Ginny snapped. "I didn't ask for this anymore than you did."

"How long have you known?" he asked. "And who else knows?"

"You know," Ginny said. "I know. No one else does. I thought you should know first." She bit her lip. "I found out five days ago. I bought a test a few towns over, so no one would recognize me."

"Oh," he said.

"I didn't want to think about it," Ginny said. "It's kind of a really big deal."

"Kind of," Draco said. Now everyone was going to know that his 'hot out-of-town girlfriend' was actually Ginny Weasley. He froze. Now Ginny's family would know that he had been banging their little girl.

Oh, why had he let himself be distracted? If he hadn't asked, he would be halfway to happy land right now, not sitting in a pit of despair and certain death at the hands of ungainly redheads.

Speaking of redheads, his baby was probably going to have red hair. He tried to imagine his mother clucking over a red haired baby and just couldn't manage it. He tried to imagine his father being in the same room as a baby and couldn't manage that. Maybe he could bleach its hair...

Though, really, he could bail now. No one would really believe that he had been this careless with a Weasley, of all people, and Ginny didn't have the best reputation in town. He could take her home right now, drop her off at the end of her driveway and go home and pretend tonight never happened. This didn't have to be his problem, even if the kid came out as blond as he was no one would think that a Weasley and a Malfoy would ever hook up. (Probably as much due to the fact that most Malfoy and Weasleys were male as that they feuded like the Hatfields and the McCoys.)

He looked at her then, with her hair all disarrayed and sexy around her face, with her short skirt scrunched high around her thighs, with her lacy bra and her uncertain eyes, and knew that he couldn't walk away.

"What am I going to do?" she asked.

She honestly thought that he was going to bail. To her credit, it wasn't like he had been an actual boyfriend to her. They'd gone out, and they had had a lot of fun, but no one knew about their relationship - he hadn't even told his best friends - and he was pretty sure that Ginny hadn't told anyone about him either.

"I guess we'll have to figure it out along the way," he offered.

"We?" she asked.

"We," he confirmed.

Ginny smiled at him. "So you're going to come with me when I tell my parents?"

Draco sputtered. "Well, no need to rush..."

She leaned across the seat, and pressed herself against him. "It would be a lot easier on me if you were there..."

"Don't you think you should break the news by yourself? It seems like a family matter," Draco said. She had half a dozen brothers that were known to hang their parent's house. Half a dozen. Plus her father. And her mother was nothing to scoff at either. He'd seen her before and she was built like a wrestler, a short, stout wrestler.

Her hair ticked his bare chest, and she lowered her mouth on his, stroking a hand down his arm. "I think you should be there, to show my father that you aren't a coward."

"Coward?"

"Slytherins aren't known for their bravery," she said. Her breath tickled him, and as she straddled him, skirt impossibly high on her thighs, he caught sight of the panties draped teasingly over the shifter.

"Fine, I'll go with you," he said. Ginny smiled prettily.

"This has gone much better than I thought it would," Ginny admitted.

"This is better?" he managed.

"I half thought you would take off, leave me standing at the end of my driveway and pretend not to know me."

"The thought didn't cross my mind," he lied.

"Oh, baby," Ginny said, "I'm lucky to have you."

His happiness at what she was doing dimmed slightly at the word baby, which was what he was going to have. He was going to be a father, and Ginny was going to be a mother. The idea boggled his mind, and he chose to shove it to the wayside in favor of more physical activities.

Might as well have some milk, as it seemed he'd inadvertently bought the cow.