Muggle Ingenuity by Luvscharlie

Draco paced back and forth. His feet seemed to keep time with the racing of his heart as if one stopped the other might do so as well. Thus, he continued. Step-by-step, heartbeat-by-heartbeat, moving him forward when he would have preferred to dig in his heels and refuse to go any farther.

This was what was expected of him. He'd said it over and over again in an attempt to convince himself. With each new litany of words, he wanted more and more to put his feet into motion and run far and fast. It didn't matter where. It didn't matter how far. As long as it was away from here and a commitment that would last a lifetime. It wasn't the commitment that bothered him so much as who he was committing to.

Astoria Greengrass lacked red hair and a fiery temper to match. She lacked the infuriating ability to put him in his place, generally in the most public and embarrassing of ways. She lacked the beauty of a smile that lit up a room and sent shivers down his spine. Astoria did not make his blood boil. She did not make him want to do his best simply because she might be watching... or laughing… most often at him, rather than with him.

Astoria Greengrass was not Ginny Weasley. It was Ginny who prompted him to put his best foot forward, when he would have settled for far less than mediocre.

He lifted his wand and aimed a spell at the door, but just as he suspected it was useless. His father had taken all precautions to make sure he would go through with this marriage. There would be no running away if Lucius Malfoy had anything to say about it.

And then, most unexpectedly, there was a jiggling of the handle and hushed words outside the door. He leaned in and barely made out what was being said in low tones.

"Do you want to be the one to tell her we let him get married to someone else?"

"But seriously, George, Malfoy? What does she see in him?"

"You ask that like I might have some inkling of an idea, Fred? Does it matter? I can't stand to see her cry any— Voila!"

The door swung back and smacked Draco squarely in the forehead. He would have screamed his agony if two identical, freckled hands hadn't covered his mouth.

"Shhh!" said Fred.

He removed his hand from Draco's mouth.

"But how did you manage to get through the wards my father put up?"

Fred and George each held up a bobby pin. "That's the trouble with Slytherins," said George. "You don't have the proper respect for Muggle ingenuity."

"Now, are you going to stand here until your father forces you to marry or are you coming with us?" asked Fred.

One step closer to freedom.

One step closer to Ginny.

Draco stepped forward and never looked back.

Fin.