reposting because i completely forgot i wrote this during covid for a wip chain game (those were fun).
bridgerton au ginny & draco:
“No one,” Malfoy drawled, “And I mean no one, would believe you and I are courting.”
Ginny smiled. “No one our age maybe, no, but the older warlocks breathing down my neck? The matchmaking mamas chasing you around the ballrooms and dinner halls? They will believe it.”
Malfoy looked down his nose at her, drumming his fingers along his crossed arms in consideration.
“Not to mention my Aunt Muriel. She keeps pushing me to dance with you at every opportunity, even after I told her what a total prat you are,” she muttered.
Malfoy sneered down his nose. “Weasley, you should be so lucky that I’d deign to show any interest whatsoever in you.” He narrowed his eyes, “And just to be clear, my mother forced me to dance with you at the Patil Ball. I certainly didn’t want to.”
Ginny rolled her eyes. “Whatever, Malfoy. Look, I think this would be a great opportunity for us to solve both our problems. Are you in or are you out?”
His eyes drilled into her. “We would pretend to court?” He took in the state of her with apparent distaste, lingering on her hem.
Ginny looked down at her ruined dress robes, sighing. They’d been so beautiful, not to mention expensive. She flicked her wand to vanish the mud, but the rips in the acromantula silk were another matter.
“Do you know any good mending spells?”
With an all-suffering sigh, Malfoy brandished his wand at her and drawled, “Sericum instaurabo.”
The fine fibers instantly re-threaded and before Ginny’s eyes her robes were restored to as good as new.
“Oh,” she lightly ran her hands along the silky material and raised an eyebrow at him, “Thank you, Malfoy.”
“Any witch of title would be familiar with that spell. I don’t know how you’re getting away with fooling the ton, Weasley.” He had the audacity to smirk at her.
She scoffed, “I’m not trying to fool anyone, Malfoy, just – “
“Just fool everyone into thinking we’re courting?”
“Y-yes,” she glared, “Exactly. I’ll finish my quidditch tryouts, you’ll escape the matchmakers for a season. It's a fair trade.”
Malfoy considered her a moment in silence.
Ginny swallowed. He was going to refuse, of course he was. And then he’d tell everyone that she suggested this sham just to embarrass her family. Oh Merlin, what would Bill say when he heard? Was Lady Whistledown delivered in France?
This was an idiotic idea. How stupid could she be?
Just as Ginny was about to back away and mutter 'forget it', Malfoy spoke before she could.
“Let’s say I agree. What exactly do you have in mind?”
Ginny froze with surprise that he might actually consider agreeing. "Isn't courting fairly straightforward?"
"I need specifics, Weasley."
“Well," Ginny shrugged, "We’d likely need to be seen talking and dancing at a few events to convince people right? And you should send flowers, of course.”
“A few events and flowers…?” Malfoy narrowed his eyes at her again, “Do you even know how titled witches and wizards court, Weasley? Especially someone of my pedigree?”
He took a step closer to her, indignant and offended, though about what she had no idea. She stared up at him in surprise.
“… no.” She jutted her chin up at him, refusing to be condescended to. “And I don’t know what pedigree you mean. We’re both purebloods.”
“If I were really courting you,” Malfoy drawled deeply and shifted closer to her, “You’d be so overcome by my attentions that you wouldn’t last a week.”
Ginny stared up at him in disbelief, turning slightly pink.
“Or maybe I'd just send a singing cupid over to your house? I seem to remember you having a liking for those back at school.”
Ginny turned bright red, remembering with embarrassment the singing valentine she’d sent Harry in her first year.
Ginny scowled, “Forget it, Malfoy.”
She turned away, marching swiftly back towards the manor and muttering insults about slimey ferrets under her breath.
Quite suddenly her feet locked to the ground and the rest of her momentum continued forward. Her upper half swayed and she fell, her hands landed on the muddy ground to brace the rest of her.
“Not so fast, Weasley. We weren’t done talking.”
Bloody hell. She was going to kill him, strangle him with her bare hands if need be! She pushed herself upright again and twisted her shoulders around with a snarl.
Malfoy stood behind her smirking, holding his wand aloft, looking very pleased with himself and on the verge of laughing.
Before he could blink, however, Ginny whipped out her wand.
"Expelliarmos!"
His wand tugged out of his grasp as he desperately tried to keep hold of it, but it yanked through his fingers and arched through the air in her direction.
It didn’t come straight to her hand and when she tried to reach out for the catch, her feet still frozen to the ground, she toppled over again and landed sideways in the mud.
Malfoy’s scowl morphed into a howl of laughter. “Sweet Salazar, Weasley, are you sure it’s safe for you to be out in society?”
The mud squelched around her hands and arms as she attempted to right herself again.
“Keep laughing, Malfoy,” she snarled at him, “You won’t think it’s so funny once I’ve hexed you. Do you also remember my preference for hexes?”
She cast the counter charm on her feet and rolled to her side, ready to cast the bat-bogey hex – only to find him quickly closing the distance between them. She gasped as he dove at her.
“Don’t you dare, Weasley,” he lunged, pink in the face and grabbing for her wand arm, “If you hex me, I swear to Salazar…”
She twisted away from him, tugging her arm out of his grip. “What, afraid to fight me Malfoy?”
He all but jumped on her wand, trying to hold her still, “Of course not.”
With the weight of his chest pressing her to the ground, she tried casting a hex only to have him point her wand arm away, directing her spell in the opposite direction.
They both watched as the yellow spell sparked across the garden lawn and hit a marble centaur statue. The gleaming white rock was suddenly covered in angry green bogies, diving angrily at the eyes of the centaur, growing more frantic as they bounced away from the rock.
Ginny snorted and leaned back against the mud, breathing heavily, gasping for air underneath Malfoy’s weight.
At her snort, his angry gaze swung from the bogeys back to her face. He looked royally pissed and Ginny couldn’t help the laughter that began bubbling out of her.
“Don’t be a spoil sport Malfoy, you hexed me first.”
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