She looked down at her wrist wishing that she would see the small silver bracelet that Draco had given her years ago, but it was no longer around her wrist and she sighed.
The silence was broken by a piercing cry, and she rushed to the other side of the room where a toddler had just woken from her nap. "Emma, shh, I am here, don't be scared!"
The little bushy haired redhead grinned up at her, "Ninny!"
"Well, Ginny, but close enough." Ninny! I sound like someone's pet rabbit! Poor thing is too adorable for words, and with that, Ginny scooped her up and took her out of the dimly lit room to the back of the apartment where she had toys galore.
Before she made it very far, though, she heard a shriek come from the room and stopped. "Emma, you go play and Auntie Ginny will be there in just a minute," she said as she turned back into the room.
The wailing had gotten a chorus by the time Ginny finally got to the makeshift crib. "Oh now honestly boys, what am I going to do with you? You know you don't want to scream at me! I feed you and change your diapers and give you kisses," and she promptly kissed each of the pink-faced screaming boys, "so you should save the screaming for your daddy." She carefully picked up the infants who stopped crying instantly, one in each arm, and made her way back to where Emma was already playing.
She had barely sunken into a chair when she heard the crack of apparation in the living room. "Dwaco!" Emma called out without looking up from her dolls.
"No honey, it is not Draco," Ginny replied softly.
She looked down at the boys and said, "You too are awfully lucky that I have so much energy, or I wouldn't be able to handle all of this up and down and in and out stuff." She sighed and stood to make her way back into the living room.
The sight of Hermione rushing in cut her off. "Oh my goodness, I am so sorry! I got caught talking to your mother, you know how she is, and I thought I would never get to leave, so finally I just left Ron there and got back here as quickly as I could. Were they too much trouble?"
"Whoa, Hermione. Breathe. Of course they weren't. Like my little nephews could ever be trouble! Except maybe when little Charlie here started hitting on a girl at the store. I thought that he might just start snogging her senseless. Then run off into a dark corner and make lots of illegitimate children what with the Weasley genes and all. And Harry! Well, he snuck some Fire Whiskey into his bottle this afternoon, and I tell you, the inappropriate words that come out of his mouth…"
Hermione made a face at Ginny and removed her sons from her, "Well, if you think so poorly of them I will just have to take them away!"
"No, I don't think poorly of them! I mean, Harry said some really flattering things about me when he was drunk, so you know, I don't mind," she finished with a grin.
"You are giving them all sorts of ideas you know. If they turn out like Fred and George I will hang you."
Emma finally came barreling out of the room her arms laden with dolls. "Mommy, mommy! Wook at Janie!" She gestured to her doll, which appeared to have had an unpleasant encounter with a red marker.
"Oh yes, she is lovely, come on dear, we need to get home. Your daddy can't wait to see you!" Hermione ushered the little girl toward the fireplace, and with a flash of green light, the four had disappeared, leaving Ginny alone in a huge apartment.
She wandered into the kitchen pondering cooking dinner, but it wasn't much fun to cook for one, so she grabbed a banana and plopped down onto the window seat that looked out over the park.
The apartment was too quiet and lonely for her to feel relaxed at all, so she thought about going out to Diagon Alley for some shopping, just to keep her occupied.
She walked over to the fireplace and grabbed a handful of Floo Powder from the bowl on the mantle. He eyes glanced upon pictures of her and Draco over the previous years during Healer Training. Her eyes fell, and she sighed before throwing the powder into the fire and shouting, "Diagon Alley."
Minutes later she was window-shopping down the alley amidst the holiday crowd. Christmas was just around the corner, but she wasn't feeling in much of the holiday spirit. She decided that she should probably go ahead and do some shopping while she was out though.
Her first stop was Flourish and Blotts, where she picked up an elegantly crafted quill that she had seen Hermione eying during their last shopping trip. As she made her way through the shops, she picked up gifts here and there, but at the end of the street she saw something that made her stop. She stared through the window display of a small shop at a brilliant green cashmere jumper with a tiny red lion embroidered on the chest. Ginny eyed it a moment to long, and a saleswoman rushed out to greet her.
"Oh my dear, you must come in! Isn't it lovely! We just got it in today. Are you looking for a gift for that special someone?"
"No, I-" but she couldn't deny that it was just the sort of thing that Draco would like. And the little red lion. She knew that there was no reason for her to buy the gift, but the woman pressured her into it, so she relented and spent far more than she ought have for a gift that no one would receive on Christmas Day.
Finally, with all of her shopping done and arms laden with packages, Ginny returned to her darkened apartment. As soon as she got out of the Floo, she dropped her packages and plopped onto the floor without bothering to turn on the light. She was not a fan of shopping and it had been a long day with the kids.
She had just sprawled out on her back when a voice spoke from the darkness. "Are you just going to lay here in the dark? Honestly woman, I know that you have electricity."
Ginny shot straight up and said, "Lumos."
There, standing a few feet away from her was the tall blonde that she hadn't stopped thinking about in weeks. It seemed ages since she had last seen him, and she jumped to her feet.
"Draco! You're back early! I wasn't expecting you until after the New Year!" she rushed to him and crushed him in a hug.
"Yes, well, I pulled some strings and convinced them to let me leave early."
"You are a saint!" and her lips crashed onto his. Their embrace heated up quickly, and Draco finally had to push her away so that he didn't lose control of his mental capacity; he had things he wanted to tell her.
"I missed you," he said, and she nodded her head fervently.
"You can never, ever, go away again like that. Three weeks? Honestly, I thought I was going to die. I've been going crazy in this place all by myself."
"Trust me, at least you weren't stuck with a bunch of smelly old potions experts trying to give a seminar on antidotes. It was awful. I thought about you every second of the day, and decided that there was absolutely no way that they were keeping me away from you for a moment longer."
Ginny nodded and harrumphed. "Too right you are. If you every leave again, I'll be forced to do something drastic. Like put a permanent sticking charm on myself so that I am forever stuck to you."
"Mmm, yes, that would be effective. Or you could just tell me to stay. You know I'd stay if you told me to."
"I know, but this was a good experience for you."
"Yeah, it gave me a lot of time to think about things."
"Things like what?"
"Things like how I promised you that I would get your bracelet fixed."
"Oh, did you? I've been going mad without it. You know that I am constantly touching that thing."
"Indeed, my inscription was completely gone, so I thought that I would redo it for you."
"You did? Oh, you are amazing!" and she kissed him again.
"Enough of that or you'll never get your present."
"Fine. Where is it? I really want it."
Draco smiled and pulled a bracelet box out of his pocket. He opened it, pulled out her little silver bracelet, and fastened it to her arm. "It's too dark in here. I can't see the inscription," and she moved toward the light switch. She flipped the lights on and looked down at her bracelet.
Immediately she gasped, then whirled around and looked down at it again. Instead of its original inscription, "For my friend," it said, "Will you marry me?" She looked up and saw that Draco had come to her side and dropped down to his knee. Her breath stopped.
"Ginny, for the last four years, you have been all that I could think about. I have loved every minute that I have spent with you during these long years, and I cannot imagine anyone that I would rather spend my life with. You are beautiful, smart, witty, and caring. You are everything to me. You are my best friend. Will you do me the honor of also being my wife?"
Ginny tried unsuccessfully to hide the tears flowing from her eyes as she threw herself down at him. She kissed him with all of the love she had in her. She finally pulled away panting slightly, and he brushed the tears from her cheeks.
"Is that a yes?"
"Yes! Of course it is a yes!" she threw her arms around him and kissed him again.
"Well, in that case, I have something else that I need to give you," and he pulled another small box from him pocket. She craned to see what was in it, but he hid it from sight as he slid it over her left ring finger. Finally, he revealed it, and she let out a sob of happiness. It was a platinum band with a diamond solitaire in the center, with a ruby on one side and an emerald on the other.
"Thank you," she whispered in awe. She held it up to her bracelet, which it matched perfectly. She looked up at him and said, "I love you so much!"
"I love you, too," he replied and kissed her on the cheek. "But I also love food, and I had a long day of traveling, so shall we go out for a nice dinner?"
Ginny grinned happily at him. "We shall."
To get to the fireplace, they had to wade through a sea of packages. Draco glimpsed a mound of green that caught his eye, and he opened the package. Ginny turned around, but it was too late. He was already examining the jumper.
"Hasn't anyone ever told you that it is rude to peek at your Christmas presents?"
He grinned cheekily at her, "You tell me every year. This is for me? Even though I wasn't going to be home in time?"
"Well the lady guilted me into it. I figured that maybe I would send it by owl."
"Ginny! This amazing! I love it. It had a little red lion. Like you, my little lion." Ginny rolled her eyes. "Can I wear it now?"
"No! It is for Christmas!"
Five minutes later, Draco emerged from their bedroom looking like an angel with his new green sweater. Ginny's jaw dropped, and she stared unabashedly at him.
"That good looking?" he smirked at her. "And here you wanted me to wait."
But Ginny knew that there was no way she would ever not let him do what he wanted. She always cracked under the pressure of his fluttering eyelashes and breath-taking eyes. She decided that it wasn't fair, but that she didn't mind because she loved him. He had come along when she needed him the most. He was her best friend.
AN: Thanks for reading, and please leave a review to let me know what you think!