Ginny stretched slightly, smiling as she felt an arm tighten around her.
"Good morning," Blaise said in a sleepy voice.
She rolled over to face him and nuzzled her nose against his. "Good morning."
He hummed happily and pulled her against him with a sigh. "Do you have to go to practice today?"
With a small laugh she said, "Yes, I do; today's a heavy practice."
"There's nothing I can do to convince you to stay in bed with me?"
"If I could, I would," She said, giving him a kiss before reluctantly sliding out from underneath his arms and heading towards the bedroom door. "I'm going to go put some coffee on."
He propped himself up on his elbow and sighed, smiling at her. "I still can't believe you're living with me."
She leaned against the door frame and smiled back at him. "I know. After all these years, I never imagined this would have actually happened."
"Really? I imagined it all the time."
Ginny laughed. "I mean I didn't know we'd actually be here. I hoped for it every day, and now it's surreal that it's actually happening. And it's been so easy too."
"Did you think it wouldn't be?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.
"No, but I just wasn't expecting it to be this easy," She said. "I mean, it took me forever to get used to living with Harry. Transitioning to living with you has been wonderful; it's like I've been doing it for years."
He smiled. "Hopefully you will be."
"Well I don't know about you, but I plan on staying for a little while," She laughed before turning around and leaving the room.
"Good, because I wasn't planning on letting you leave!"
She laughed again from down the hallway and he grinned to himself as he got out of the bed and made his way into the bathroom.
After taking a quick shower and putting on his clothes for the day, he made his way down the stairs towards the kitchen, adjusting his waistcoat.
"Sweetheart, did you put the coffee-"
He paused in the doorway when he saw her sitting at the table with her head in her hands. There was an open letter sitting in front of her and the Prophet on the table next to it, and while her face wasn't visible, he could see her shoulders shaking slightly.
"Ginny?" He took a few steps inside the kitchen and then quickened his pace when he heard her sniffling. "What's wrong?"
She didn't answer when he stopped next to her and put a hand on her back. Movement caught his eye and he looked down to see a picture of their dinner date from the night before, his skin growing cold at the sight of it. It was very obvious in the picture that they were together as she was clearly leaning against him and his arm was around her while they both laughed at something that Draco was saying. Draco and Hermione were holding hands as well, however Ginny and Blaise were definitely the focal point of the photo.
The headline didn't exactly help either:
June 19th, 2003
Newly Divorced Harpies Chaser Already Living with New Beau?!
"Mum read the article..." Ginny managed to say finally, wiping her cheeks and bringing her head up as she offered the letter to him.
He took it and his mouth formed a thin line as he read the handwriting.
Ginny,
I am very disappointed in you. Barely even a week after your divorce is finalized and you're already shacking up with another wizard?! And a pureblood elitist at that! I didn't raise you to be living unmarried with someone like him.
I'm sorry, but while you are with him, neither of you will be welcome in our home. I cannot condone this relationship, and I hope you come to your senses soon.
Mum
Blaise stared down at the letter before squatting down next to Ginny with a sigh. "We'll figure this out, I promise."
She sniffed again and avoided his eyes as she said quietly, "Mum's always been more traditional. She didn't even want me living with Harry until we were married. I just never thought she would do this..."
He rubbed her back slowly but didn't say anything. The guilt was twisting its way through his stomach as it sank in that he had caused this. He knew that her family meant so much to her, and he couldn't even imagine just how heartbreaking it was for this to happen.
An owl tapping on the window caught both of their attention, and he quickly stood up to open the window and let the animal in. The owl glided onto the table in front of Ginny and dropped the letter that it was holding, looking around for a treat.
"Who is that from?" Blaise asked as he gave the owl its treat.
Ginny looked it over, shaking her head as she opened it. "It doesn't say, but I'm pretty sure that's my dad's writing."
He went to stand behind her and read the letter over her shoulder.
Ginny dear,
I know your mother has already sent you a letter and I just wanted to let you know that you are always welcome back to our house. Give your mother some time; she wrote her letter out of anger and shock.
We do wish that you had told us that you were in a new relationship. You have a good head on your shoulders and I know that you wouldn't be with someone unless they were a good person. While I am a little skeptical about Mr. Zabini's intentions, I trust your judgement and I won't be interfering with your decisions.
Your mother and I both love you very dearly, and we just want you to be happy. Just give it a little time and everything will be alright. You can always owl me if you need anything.
Love, Dad
"At least he's more understanding," Ginny muttered before placing the new letter on top of the first one and rubbing her face.
Blaise frowned at the paper. "Do you want me to contact the reporters to get this fixed? I'm sure I can have them retract the article."
"No, there's no point now," Ginny said in a frustrated tone as she stood up and leaned against the table. "It's already out there. It would be even more damning if we tried to hush all of it."
He rubbed the back of his neck. "I suppose you're right..."
She chewed on the inside of her cheek as she stared at the wall, and then she let out a forced laugh. "At least now we don't have to worry about their reaction when we tell them."
The pain was very clear in her voice and he gave her a sad look before pulling her against him and wrapping his arms around her. She buried her face into his shoulder and hugged him tightly, trying to hold back more tears that were threatening to escape.
After a few moments he kissed the top of her head and quietly suggested, "How about you go take a long shower while I get the coffee ready?"
"Don't you have to go to work?" She asked, not moving.
"I own half the company, I think I can be a little late," He said.
She smiled at this and pulled away to look up at him, and he squeezed her hands. "Don't worry; everything will turn out alright."
"I know," She said quietly. "It just sucks that it happened like this. We should have waited to go out publicly..."
"But now we don't have to hide it," He said. "I can take you out to dinner all the time now, we can go on more dates with Hermione and Draco..."
After thinking about this for a moment, she smiled slightly. "You're right. And mum will come around eventually."
Her smile saddened at the thought of her mother's letter but he brought her out of her thoughts with another squeeze of her hands.
"Go take your shower, I'll leave when you leave for practice," He said gently.
She nodded and stepped up to give him a kiss before pulling away and leaving the kitchen.
"Oh, Merlin..."
Hermione glared down at the Prophet before putting her head in her hand and sighing. While the article wasn't written by Rita Skeeter, it was certainly not any less damning.
"I see you got the paper."
She looked up to see Draco leaning against her doorframe with a grim expression on his face. She nodded and pushed it to the corner of her desk before asking, "Isn't it a little early for you to pick me up for lunch?"
He shrugged and smiled slightly. "I missed your beautiful face."
With a laugh she said, "Blaise told me you framed the picture of our first date from the Prophet and put it on your desk, so you see my beautiful face every day already."
"True but the picture hardly does the real thing any justice," He countered with a large grin.
Her cheeks flushed and he stepped into the office, shutting the door behind him. "I'm also here because I wanted to run something by you."
"Okay," She said slowly as he sat down in front of her. "What would that something be?"
He took a deep breath as he gathered his words. "Well, Blaise informed me that Ginny received a letter from her parents this morning. Actually two letters, one from each of them."
"Uh oh," Hermione muttered.
"Yeah, apparently the one from her mother really got to her," He said. "I wasn't given details, but Ginny was very distraught from what Blaise said."
Hermione sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "I can only imagine what Molly said to her..."
"Blaise did say that her father made things a little better," Draco said. "But again, I wasn't given details."
"So what does this have to do with whatever you wanted to run by me?" She asked curiously.
"I was going to see if you wanted to go somewhere with Ginny for a weekend," He said. "Blaise and I can pay for the entire thing, and you two can go wherever you'd like. He wants her to get away and try to relax, get the entire situation off her mind, you know?"
She tilted her head back and forth while considering it. "That might help temporarily, yeah. I can run it by her and see how she feels about it. Why doesn't he just take her on a trip though?"
Draco shifted in his seat at this and frowned slightly. "Don't tell him or Ginny that I told you this, but he's blaming himself for how everything is turning out. I suspect something bad happened between her and her parents based on how Blaise is reacting to it, and so he's coping in his own way which is to give her whatever space she may need."
"Well she was definitely worried about them finding out, especially her mother," Hermione said. "I'll see if I can talk to her tonight about it; the weekend away should be just fine."
He nodded and then stood up, smiling slightly. "I'll see you at lunch, then?"
She returned the smile and said, "Just let me know where to meet you."
"Sounds good!" He leaned across the desk to give her a kiss and then walked towards the door. Before he left though, he paused and turned back around. "Hermione?"
"Yes?" She gave him a curious look after seeing that he was suddenly nervous.
"Um, I was wondering..." He ran a hand through his hair and adjusted his collar. "...Would you possibly like to spend this weekend with me?"
Excitement wriggled through her chest as she asked, "You mean, like sleep over at your manor?"
"You can have your guest room if you'd like," He said quickly. "And it's alright if you don't want to but I just thought that...you know, things have been going really well between us and-"
"I'd love to!" She interrupted with a smile.
He paused, almost in shock that she agreed. "Really? I mean, great! Just let me know when you want to come over!"
"Okay," She said, unable to stop smiling.
He grinned as well before giving her a wave and leaving her office, a mixture of excitement and nerves running through him.
A/N: I can see Molly jumping the gun on her anger sometimes and being a little unreasonable, while Arthur is more levelheaded and thinks things through before acting out. And onto happy things with Hermione and Draco :D Hope you all enjoy! <3