Chapter 7—Good Backsides,
The kids were particularly difficult to put to bed that night, largely due to the fact that they'd had Merlin knows how many cookies while at Grandma Weasley's house that day. In time, though, the exhaustion in their little systems overcame the sugar, and they drifted off to sleep one-by-one. Ginny waited long enough to make sure they were all deep in slumber then made her way to her own bedroom. She slowly changed out of the jeans and turtleneck she'd worn to her parents' house, pulling on a pair of white silk pajamas in their place. She shrugged into a robe as she walked to Draco's office.
Looking to occupy both her worrying mind and her fidgeting hands, Ginny slid the book of memories out of its hiding place and opened it to the first page she hadn't seen. From an artistic standpoint, it was a bit of letdown after the colorful scarf from the previous page. However, the simple receipt for an order of potions ingredients made Ginny smile.
"I hear you and Blaise had to improvise the other day to maintain your cover."
Ginny groaned and popped the last bit of biscuit into her mouth. It was a cool March day, and she was currently at Hogwarts enjoying tea with the headmistress, a job which happened to belong to one Hermione Granger-soon-to-be-Weasley. "How much did he tell you?"
"Enough that I was and am still completely scandalized, though not as scandalized as your brother was when Harry was telling us." Hermione visibly struggled to control her critical expression as she finished setting out the tea trappings; she almost succeeded. "I expect there's more of a story than what he told me?"
"It was horrid. All we needed to do was throw in a few embarrassingly loud moans, the odd crashing sound, and we would've been fine. But no, I wanted to have this sexy, elaborate plan to 'give them a show,' and Blaise went along with it because I happen to be terribly convincing."
Hermione stifled a tsk and tried to be reassuring. "That's not so bad—a bit risqué perhaps, but based on your track record it's certainly not anything that warrants a fuss."
Ginny frowned. "I'm letting that comment go for the moment only because I'm absolutely bursting to tell someone the whole story. So we had this elaborate set-up for the next person who walked in to see—hair mussed, clothing ruffled, me stretched out on the desk—and it just so happened that the next person to walk in was the great bouncing ferret himself."
Hermione choked on her tea. "Draco Malfoy walked in on you in your state of pretend shagging and semi-undress?"
"The one and only." Ginny was glad to see that Hermione seemed to be grasping the full implications of the situation. "He walks in in all of his ferret-y, pureblooded glory, takes one look, and starts talking to Blaise in one of those dangerous, passive-aggressive type voices."
"One of those 'I'm not technically doing anything wrong right now but I'm leaving you with no possible doubt that I want to murder you and actually might do it at a later date' type voices?" Hermione nodded in understanding. "Ron is on the receiving end of that voice often."
"Precisely. So he turns and stalks away in his aristocratic, ridiculously intimidating way, and he hasn't said a word to Blaise since."
"That's a very first year way for him to behave." A knock interrupted Hermione. She stood and walked to the door, frowning slightly. "I'm really not expecting anyone but you today. Unexpected callers generally precede detention distributions."
Ginny opened her mouth to submit a guess as to who was at the door and what their crime had been, but she was cut off before she could voice it. It was all well and good anyway, as she suddenly became too embarrassed to speak as Draco The-Aristocratic-Ferret himself walked in. Ginny quickly closed her mouth, hoping against hope he wouldn't look over and see the signature Weasley color climbing into her face.
"Mr. Malfoy." Hermione offered her hand after the tiniest of awkward pauses, a slight tinge of pink in her cheeks the only indication that anything was amiss.
"Professor Granger." Draco's voice was mild as his eyes swept the room, taking in Ginny's bright red face and Hermione's pink cheeks in one fell swoop. He briefly grasped Hermione's hand. "Pardon my intrusion. I wasn't aware you had company."
"Not at all. Have a seat, please." Hermione gestured toward the chair she'd recently vacated and moved in the direction of her personal cabinet. "Can I offer you something—Butterbeer, Ogden's?"
Draco declined with a slight shake of his head, pulling a scroll from his robes and unfurling it. "No, thank you. I just need your signature for the order of potions supplies, and I'll be on my way."
"Of course." Hermione obligingly took the scroll and the eagle-feather quill he offered her and scanned down the list. She paused almost immediately, eyes narrowing on one particular item. "Paragraph 12, subsection 3 of the Restricted Substances Act made Idelione illegal in the possession of minors."
"Except in cases of supervision and controlled distribution by a certified witch or wizard, as specified in Paragraph 13, subsection 5." Draco produced a copy of said paragraph and presented it to Hermione for perusal with no sign of his usual smirk. "I verified Professor Slughorn's credentials before I came; he recertified last year as required and so is qualified to be the responsible adult."
Hermione made the tiniest of grimaces at being found wrong and corrected, but she recovered quickly and continued down the rest of the list. Finding nothing amiss, she signed her name and handed the parchment back. "I didn't realize your company sent the boss to deliver the orders."
Draco accepted the parchment with a noncommittal shrug and tucked it back inside his cloak. "I handle the most sensitive ingredients personally. Thank you for your business, Professor Granger."
If Hermione was surprised by the sudden end to the conversation, she didn't show it. "Not at all, Mr. Malfoy. I'll be in contact if we need anything else."
"Of course." Draco tugged lightly on his cloak, making sure it was impeccable before opening the door to leave. "Good day, Professor."
Ginny silently watched the door close, and neither she nor Hermione spoke in the immediate minutes after Draco left. Other than the occasional snore from a portrait, there was nothing but silence in the room.
Eventually, Hermione cleared her throat. "Well, I suppose I ought to get back to work…" It was enough.
"Thanks for the tea, Hermione." Ginny was already halfway to the door. "I'll floo you later."
It was amazing to Ginny how quickly Draco Malfoy could move. It had only been a few minutes, yet by the time Ginny found him he was already halfway across the grounds. She spotted him as she ran out of the front doors; her shout halted his progress towards the gate.
"Malfoy, wait!"
He gallantly waited until she drew even with him, face devoid of its usual smirk. "Miss Weasley."
"What you saw… nothing happened, I swear it."
Draco raised an eyebrow in an oh-so-condescending way and glanced toward the tower they had both just vacated. "You are free to have tea with whomever you wish. While I might question your taste in hot beverage, I have long since given up hope that your family will ever have good taste in company."
"I'm going to let that comment slide for the moment because it's not the most important issue at hand, though I will log it away for later discussion. I'm not talking about tea with Hermione, and you know it."
Draco sighed, straightening the cuffs of the sleeves just visible at the end of his robes. "I haven't the foggiest idea what you're talking about, and I'm frankly not in a mood for riddles today."
"Just listen to me for a second." Ginny watched the shutters slam shut in his grey eyes and grabbed his arm, anticipating his move away from her. "Draco. Please."
He looked for a moment like he was going to refuse but seemed to change his mind at the last second. "You have one minute. Convince me."
Ginny sent up a quick prayer of thanks to anyone who was listening and started talking; she knew better than to assume Draco would listen for even a milli-second longer than the minute he'd allotted. "I do some consultant work on the side for Blaise's office. I report to him, so we meet to discuss my work. What you think you saw… it's just for fun, something we do for laughs and to give the secretaries something to gossip about. We're not actually shagging in his office every week."
"And Blaise wouldn't have told me this because…?" Draco's expression showed no signs of softening but, then again, it was hard to tell with him.
"What I do… it's sensitive. No one is supposed to know that I'm working for him… actually, I had just finished telling him not to tell you when you walked in. You simultaneously have impeccable and horrible timing." Ginny sighed, running a hand through her thick hair, which was currently being blown up and around her head like flames around a fireplace log. Really knotty flames around a heavily freckled log. "When you were there the other day, we were in the process of trying to quell suspicions that I was there for a reason other than a quickie with my boyfriend. I know it looked awful, but you need to believe me when I say nothing happened. I shouldn't even be telling you this now, but it's not worth ruining your friendship with Blaise."
Draco snorted and straightened his already-straight gloves. The tiniest of smirks worked its way across his mouth. "You overestimate your influence, Weaslette. You've gotten much more attractive since school, I grant you, but I'd hardly abandon my best friend over you; he would have brought me brandy and something expensive and all would've been forgotten. Wonderful show, though. I can see you're not telling me the truth, but you obviously put some effort into it."
Ginny just looked at him. Then she adjusted her jumper to keep from reaching for her wand and throwing several painful hexes in his general direction. "God, I hate Slytherins."
"We hate you, too." Draco's signature snarky smirk was back, full-blown. "Though Blaise has mentioned that ass of yours a few times, and I'll admit that that much of you is growing on us."
"Lovely." Ginny rolled her eyes and turned back toward the castle. "I'll be going, then."
"Weaslette." Draco didn't let her get more than five steps away. "Oh, don't turn back around; I'm enjoying the view from here. I just wanted to tell you something."
The feminist movement would require she be offended, but Ginny couldn't quite work up any outrage. All she could do was grin, obligingly leaving her backside facing her companion. "What, Ferret, you need to comment on my ass again?"
"You do have a good ass, but I was going to tell you something else."
"I'm dying of anticipation."
"We should go on a date."
Ginny slowly turned, eyebrows raised. "Excuse me?"
"I believe you heard me, Weaselette."
"You know, your date propositions might be more well-received if you didn't liken the recipient to large rodents while propositioning them."
"Your point is well taken." Draco glanced at the giant clock on the main tower of Hogwarts then at the gate. "I have to be on my way. Since you haven't answered, I assume I'll be hearing from you soon?"
Ginny smirked slightly. "Technically speaking, you never asked anything for me to submit an answer to. However, I will treat your earlier statement as an invitation and respond accordingly soon."
"Charming."
The kids were particularly difficult to put to bed that night, largely due to the fact that they'd had Merlin knows how many cookies while at Grandma Weasley's house that day. In time, though, the exhaustion in their little systems overcame the sugar, and they drifted off to sleep one-by-one. Ginny waited long enough to make sure they were all deep in slumber then made her way to her own bedroom. She slowly changed out of the jeans and turtleneck she'd worn to her parents' house, pulling on a pair of white silk pajamas in their place. She shrugged into a robe as she walked to Draco's office.
Looking to occupy both her worrying mind and her fidgeting hands, Ginny slid the book of memories out of its hiding place and opened it to the first page she hadn't seen. From an artistic standpoint, it was a bit of letdown after the colorful scarf from the previous page. However, the simple receipt for an order of potions ingredients made Ginny smile.
"I hear you and Blaise had to improvise the other day to maintain your cover."
Ginny groaned and popped the last bit of biscuit into her mouth. It was a cool March day, and she was currently at Hogwarts enjoying tea with the headmistress, a job which happened to belong to one Hermione Granger-soon-to-be-Weasley. "How much did he tell you?"
"Enough that I was and am still completely scandalized, though not as scandalized as your brother was when Harry was telling us." Hermione visibly struggled to control her critical expression as she finished setting out the tea trappings; she almost succeeded. "I expect there's more of a story than what he told me?"
"It was horrid. All we needed to do was throw in a few embarrassingly loud moans, the odd crashing sound, and we would've been fine. But no, I wanted to have this sexy, elaborate plan to 'give them a show,' and Blaise went along with it because I happen to be terribly convincing."
Hermione stifled a tsk and tried to be reassuring. "That's not so bad—a bit risqué perhaps, but based on your track record it's certainly not anything that warrants a fuss."
Ginny frowned. "I'm letting that comment go for the moment only because I'm absolutely bursting to tell someone the whole story. So we had this elaborate set-up for the next person who walked in to see—hair mussed, clothing ruffled, me stretched out on the desk—and it just so happened that the next person to walk in was the great bouncing ferret himself."
Hermione choked on her tea. "Draco Malfoy walked in on you in your state of pretend shagging and semi-undress?"
"The one and only." Ginny was glad to see that Hermione seemed to be grasping the full implications of the situation. "He walks in in all of his ferret-y, pureblooded glory, takes one look, and starts talking to Blaise in one of those dangerous, passive-aggressive type voices."
"One of those 'I'm not technically doing anything wrong right now but I'm leaving you with no possible doubt that I want to murder you and actually might do it at a later date' type voices?" Hermione nodded in understanding. "Ron is on the receiving end of that voice often."
"Precisely. So he turns and stalks away in his aristocratic, ridiculously intimidating way, and he hasn't said a word to Blaise since."
"That's a very first year way for him to behave." A knock interrupted Hermione. She stood and walked to the door, frowning slightly. "I'm really not expecting anyone but you today. Unexpected callers generally precede detention distributions."
Ginny opened her mouth to submit a guess as to who was at the door and what their crime had been, but she was cut off before she could voice it. It was all well and good anyway, as she suddenly became too embarrassed to speak as Draco The-Aristocratic-Ferret himself walked in. Ginny quickly closed her mouth, hoping against hope he wouldn't look over and see the signature Weasley color climbing into her face.
"Mr. Malfoy." Hermione offered her hand after the tiniest of awkward pauses, a slight tinge of pink in her cheeks the only indication that anything was amiss.
"Professor Granger." Draco's voice was mild as his eyes swept the room, taking in Ginny's bright red face and Hermione's pink cheeks in one fell swoop. He briefly grasped Hermione's hand. "Pardon my intrusion. I wasn't aware you had company."
"Not at all. Have a seat, please." Hermione gestured toward the chair she'd recently vacated and moved in the direction of her personal cabinet. "Can I offer you something—Butterbeer, Ogden's?"
Draco declined with a slight shake of his head, pulling a scroll from his robes and unfurling it. "No, thank you. I just need your signature for the order of potions supplies, and I'll be on my way."
"Of course." Hermione obligingly took the scroll and the eagle-feather quill he offered her and scanned down the list. She paused almost immediately, eyes narrowing on one particular item. "Paragraph 12, subsection 3 of the Restricted Substances Act made Idelione illegal in the possession of minors."
"Except in cases of supervision and controlled distribution by a certified witch or wizard, as specified in Paragraph 13, subsection 5." Draco produced a copy of said paragraph and presented it to Hermione for perusal with no sign of his usual smirk. "I verified Professor Slughorn's credentials before I came; he recertified last year as required and so is qualified to be the responsible adult."
Hermione made the tiniest of grimaces at being found wrong and corrected, but she recovered quickly and continued down the rest of the list. Finding nothing amiss, she signed her name and handed the parchment back. "I didn't realize your company sent the boss to deliver the orders."
Draco accepted the parchment with a noncommittal shrug and tucked it back inside his cloak. "I handle the most sensitive ingredients personally. Thank you for your business, Professor Granger."
If Hermione was surprised by the sudden end to the conversation, she didn't show it. "Not at all, Mr. Malfoy. I'll be in contact if we need anything else."
"Of course." Draco tugged lightly on his cloak, making sure it was impeccable before opening the door to leave. "Good day, Professor."
Ginny silently watched the door close, and neither she nor Hermione spoke in the immediate minutes after Draco left. Other than the occasional snore from a portrait, there was nothing but silence in the room.
Eventually, Hermione cleared her throat. "Well, I suppose I ought to get back to work…" It was enough.
"Thanks for the tea, Hermione." Ginny was already halfway to the door. "I'll floo you later."
It was amazing to Ginny how quickly Draco Malfoy could move. It had only been a few minutes, yet by the time Ginny found him he was already halfway across the grounds. She spotted him as she ran out of the front doors; her shout halted his progress towards the gate.
"Malfoy, wait!"
He gallantly waited until she drew even with him, face devoid of its usual smirk. "Miss Weasley."
"What you saw… nothing happened, I swear it."
Draco raised an eyebrow in an oh-so-condescending way and glanced toward the tower they had both just vacated. "You are free to have tea with whomever you wish. While I might question your taste in hot beverage, I have long since given up hope that your family will ever have good taste in company."
"I'm going to let that comment slide for the moment because it's not the most important issue at hand, though I will log it away for later discussion. I'm not talking about tea with Hermione, and you know it."
Draco sighed, straightening the cuffs of the sleeves just visible at the end of his robes. "I haven't the foggiest idea what you're talking about, and I'm frankly not in a mood for riddles today."
"Just listen to me for a second." Ginny watched the shutters slam shut in his grey eyes and grabbed his arm, anticipating his move away from her. "Draco. Please."
He looked for a moment like he was going to refuse but seemed to change his mind at the last second. "You have one minute. Convince me."
Ginny sent up a quick prayer of thanks to anyone who was listening and started talking; she knew better than to assume Draco would listen for even a milli-second longer than the minute he'd allotted. "I do some consultant work on the side for Blaise's office. I report to him, so we meet to discuss my work. What you think you saw… it's just for fun, something we do for laughs and to give the secretaries something to gossip about. We're not actually shagging in his office every week."
"And Blaise wouldn't have told me this because…?" Draco's expression showed no signs of softening but, then again, it was hard to tell with him.
"What I do… it's sensitive. No one is supposed to know that I'm working for him… actually, I had just finished telling him not to tell you when you walked in. You simultaneously have impeccable and horrible timing." Ginny sighed, running a hand through her thick hair, which was currently being blown up and around her head like flames around a fireplace log. Really knotty flames around a heavily freckled log. "When you were there the other day, we were in the process of trying to quell suspicions that I was there for a reason other than a quickie with my boyfriend. I know it looked awful, but you need to believe me when I say nothing happened. I shouldn't even be telling you this now, but it's not worth ruining your friendship with Blaise."
Draco snorted and straightened his already-straight gloves. The tiniest of smirks worked its way across his mouth. "You overestimate your influence, Weaslette. You've gotten much more attractive since school, I grant you, but I'd hardly abandon my best friend over you; he would have brought me brandy and something expensive and all would've been forgotten. Wonderful show, though. I can see you're not telling me the truth, but you obviously put some effort into it."
Ginny just looked at him. Then she adjusted her jumper to keep from reaching for her wand and throwing several painful hexes in his general direction. "God, I hate Slytherins."
"We hate you, too." Draco's signature snarky smirk was back, full-blown. "Though Blaise has mentioned that ass of yours a few times, and I'll admit that that much of you is growing on us."
"Lovely." Ginny rolled her eyes and turned back toward the castle. "I'll be going, then."
"Weaslette." Draco didn't let her get more than five steps away. "Oh, don't turn back around; I'm enjoying the view from here. I just wanted to tell you something."
The feminist movement would require she be offended, but Ginny couldn't quite work up any outrage. All she could do was grin, obligingly leaving her backside facing her companion. "What, Ferret, you need to comment on my ass again?"
"You do have a good ass, but I was going to tell you something else."
"I'm dying of anticipation."
"We should go on a date."
Ginny slowly turned, eyebrows raised. "Excuse me?"
"I believe you heard me, Weaselette."
"You know, your date propositions might be more well-received if you didn't liken the recipient to large rodents while propositioning them."
"Your point is well taken." Draco glanced at the giant clock on the main tower of Hogwarts then at the gate. "I have to be on my way. Since you haven't answered, I assume I'll be hearing from you soon?"
Ginny smirked slightly. "Technically speaking, you never asked anything for me to submit an answer to. However, I will treat your earlier statement as an invitation and respond accordingly soon."
"Charming."
Author notes: To anyone who reviewed the last chapter and only just received a response, a thousand apologies! I've been very bad lately at keeping up with stuff :( I'm in the wrong here; I suck (10 million bonus points to anyone who knows what that quote is from).
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