Authoress' Note: After finishing 'Seven Deadly Sins' I decided I want an angst fiction piece, because I've never really tried it. This one will eventually turn into one, but as of now it's rather light. It's so much fun to write, so expect pretty frequent updates. I would LOVE it if you could review me please, I know the site's screwed up but bear with me. I've also got another fic up: Trapped.
This fic deals with everyone a couple years after graduation, mainly focusing around Ginny and sometimes Hermione. You'll soon get the gist.
Disclaimer: I own the plot and nothing else. How depressing.
Thanks: to Jenn, who helped me with some ideas and encouragement. Go read her fic if you have time, her pen name is casper, and her story Love Me is a Draco/Hermione one.
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"Oh my God," Ginny mumbled as she swung her legs over the edge of her bed. The sun was shining in through the curtain so brightly that she thought she would faint from the headache she was developing. "Why won't the bloody curtain block out the sun like it's supposed to?" Groaning, she walked over to the curtain. "Nocturnalis!" The curtains formed a rigid wall between the sun and Ginny's room, leaving it blessedly dark. She crossed over to the mirror above her dresser and looked at her reflection. "Oh God, I look like living death!" The circles under her eyes were apparent, so Ginny reached for her concealer. Dabbing under her eyes she yelled, "Come on Hermione, time to wake up!" The moan from the next room made Ginny grin.
Hermione Granger came to the door and leaned against it sleepily. Her bushy hair was even frizzier than usual in the morning, and her neatly matched pyjamas were rumpled up like pyjamas are in the morning. "Why do we have to wake up at seven in the morning? It's bloody cruel!" She sighed and came to sit on Ginny's bed while Ginny blended the concealer in.
"It's called 'work' Hermione dear," Ginny replied, sitting next to her wearily. "I did mine last night and the Ministry calls for you to be there at nine. Besides, I thought you loved work?"
Hermione grinned. "Oh I do! But God, couldn't they wait a little?"
"No way. You know they need you!!" Ginny countered, laughing a little. Hermione hit her with a pillow to change the subject; she was always horribly modest.
"How was the shift last night?" Hermione asked, flipping over to lie on her stomach and putting her head on her propped up hands. Ginny made a face.
"I hate that fucking restaurant, I really do. I mean, all these snobby rich people come in and just…snub you! And why on earth is it called the 'Dancing Duck?' I must've asked Geoff a thousand times, but he won't tell me…" by now, Ginny was up and at her closet, rifling desperately through her clothes on the closet rack. Hermione watched while she answered.
"You should just quit then Ginny! Look, I'll cover rent while you find another job, you should be waitressing tables for snobs when you know you could do so much more!" Hermione's concerned tone annoyed Ginny. She whirled around, holding a white sundress in her hands.
"You sound just like my mother," she said quietly. Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Come on Ginny, you know she's right on this!"
"Maybe, but maybe right now I just want to…oh I don't know, it'll figure itself out." Hermione looked like she wanted to say something else, but she shut her mouth and rolled off of the bed, going to her own room to get dressed. Ginny watched as she went and then closed the door so she could put the sundress on. It was one of her favorites, white with a small rose by the neck. She slipped on some red sandals, very strappy, very sexy, and perched some tortoise shell sunglasses on top of her head. Quickly applying some red lipstick, she heard a crash from Hermione's room. Ginny dropped the lipstick and ran as fast as her sandals would let her to Hermione's room.
"What is it?? Are you all right?" Ginny's concerned tone made Hermione look up from the huge pile of books that had fallen onto the floor. Hermione laughed.
"I'm fine, but these books might not be. Trauma upon impact and all that." Ginny sighed and bent down, with difficulty, to help her with them. Once done, Ginny was left standing with a Hogwarts Yearbook in her hands.
"Which year is this?" Ginny asked, turning it over to try and find a date. Hermione shrugged.
"Search me…look on the inside cover, I'll bet there's one there." Ginny did so and smiled fondly. "Your seventh year. God, that was a fab year." She flipped through the pages to a full page spread of Hermione, Harry and Ron, laughing in Hogsmeade. "You guys were so cute, going around like three peas in a pod!" Hermione blushed.
"Oh shut up…that was years ago. Now we keep at least an eight inch distance from each other," she replied, trying to snatch the book away.
"Not you and my brother though, you seemed to have decreased the distance by at least a couple inches over the last few years…" Ginny said mischievously, holding the book out of Hermione's reach (which wasn't hard seeing as Hermione was 5'4" to Ginny's 5'7") and turned the page. A pair of rebellious gray eyes stared out resentfully at the two giggly girls and they both made a face.
"Draco Malfoy. Haven't seen him since graduation, but I heard he's on a Quidditch team somewhere…He really gave us hell, didn't he?" Hermione remarked. Ginny nodded.
"You three hated him with a fiery passion, and I wasn't too fond of him myself. Wasn't he the one who told Harry back in my first year about the singing valentine?" Ginny asked, disgust at the culprit evident in her voice. Hermione looked like she was about to laugh.
"Oh yes, the singing dwarf."
Ginny scowled. "Shut up you! I was a bad poet, albeit, but I tried."
"'Aint that the truth," Hermione muttered, and got a playful punch on the shoulder for her comments.
"Did I ask you for your opinion? Now get dressed so we can Apparate already!"
Hermione ran to her dresser and frantically went through the clothes. "Can I borrow something of yours, Gin? You know I'm useless with clothes!" Ginny grinned despite her mood and shut the yearbook, placing it on Hermione's desk.
"Of course. Come on, I have a green top that would look wicked on you." Hermione smiled gratefully, and they both went back into Ginny's small room. It was painted a darkish green, one of Ginny's spontaneous "projects" from the summer. Ginny casually plucked the hanger with the top off of the closet rack and handed it to Hermione. "Here you are. Remember the rules: no spills, no stains, no rips, no stealing?" Hermione rolled her eyes.
"You're as bad as me when it comes to your clothes," she said, running back into her room to put it on. Ginny grinned. She always had a bit of a blind spot when fashion was concerned: people used to come to her in Hogwarts for fashion advice, from her fourth year on mainly. As she waited for Hermione, she grabbed her cell phone (a useful Muggle tool) and some hair chopsticks, which she placed in her mouth as she arranged her hair in a messy bun. By the time she had finished, she had brought herself into their small living room/kitchen. Ginny's job was to take care of the living room, which she frequently neglected, and Hermione's was the kitchen; it, of course, was immaculate. Hermione wouldn't tolerate messing up her cooking space, as she loved cooking. As Ginny was thinking about all this, Hermione came out looking gorgeous in Ginny's green peasant top and dark jeans. Ginny grinned.
"Fab 'Mione, now let's go?" Hermione laughed and nodded, picking up her briefcase and sunglasses. She gave her hair one last brush through, which was now magically straightened, and walked over to Ginny.
"I'm ready!"
"It's about time!" Ginny replied in mock annoyance, and they both popped out of their London flat into the bustling Ministry of Magic.
---
"Sign in here please." The chubby receptionist ordered as soon as Ginny and Hermione had popped into the office. Hermione looked at Ginny who nodded.
"I'll stay for a bit, and then I'm out for a coffee," she explained. Hermione grinned.
"Oh good. I was hoping you'd stay for a bit," she said while writing 'V. Weasley, Granger' on the notepad. The receptionist looked at the names, and then down at the pictures forming next to their names on the paper.
"They correspond. All right, go on then." Hermione and Ginny nodded and walked through the metal barrier. There was a whoosh! And they were standing in a normal looking office, slightly busier than most. Ginny looked around at all of the people and watched as multiple people came up to greet Hermione.
"Miss Granger, we need these papers to go out as soon as possible- "
"Do you want some coffee Miss Granger?"
"Hermione! Good to see you."
"-please Miss Granger, if these papers don't go out…"
Hermione waved them all away. "If you have something to say, make a memo and give it to my secretary." Everyone nodded and went back to their work. Ginny made a face like what-to-do-now? And tapped her nails on her black handbag. Hermione turned around at the sound. "Oh Ginny…what would you like to do while you're here?"
Ginny shrugged. "I'll just look around, per usual. Go on, you have work to do." Hermione nodded and sat down at her desk, her mailbox full to the brim with memos, the black plaque emblazoned with 'Hermione M. Granger, Foreign Magic Correspondent'. Ginny turned to walk around the office.
It was one of her things she liked to do on occasion. She'd Apparate in with Hermione and either split off to roam the streets or say hello to all of her Ministry friends. Ginny grabbed a bagel, an American thing the Ministry decided to adopt, and proceeded to pick it apart as she walked around. It was a busy place, the Ministry; a place she knew well. She'd visit with her father on Father's Day sometimes, as it always fell on a Sunday, and she couldn't count the times she'd been there to visit one of her brothers. Her mother had been hoping for her to go into the Ministry, but after a month in the mail room she quit. It was then that she was walking past the Dancing Duck and saw the 'Help Wanted' sign in the chic window. She'd thought of it as a perfect opportunity, but a year later she was still a waitress who didn't know what she wanted to do.
She stopped outside an important looking door, with the name 'Harry Potter, Head of Auror Division'. Her hand went up to trace the letters when the door was flung open. Ginny jumped, startled, and waited as she watched Harry show out a pudgy looking man.
"Thanks for the update Neville, I'd been getting worried about where Bulstrode had gotten to," Harry was saying.
"No trouble at all Harry, no trouble," Neville replied, tipping his hat and then turning to walk out. He saw Ginny and went a magnificent mauve color. Ginny smiled.
"Hello Neville. How are things?"
Neville fought not to stammer. "Good, good, busy as always."
"Glad to hear it," Ginny replied. Neville tipped his hat again and then walked past her to the breakfast cart that was just leaving to restock. Ginny looked up at Harry, who grinned down at her.
Harry was grown. A lot. Ginny hated to admit it, but his improved appearance did nothing to quell her lingering feelings for him. Having gotten contacts and a muscular build, he was tall and threatening when he wanted to be. It came in handy for his ever dangerous job of Head Auror (to understand the full impact of this title, one must know that Madeye Moody himself held the same one years before) when he needed to intimidate the enemy. Now, he beamed down at Ginny, the little sister he never had, and gave her a warm hug.
"Gin! What a nice surprise!" He said, setting her back down on her feet. Ginny laughed.
"I figured I'd come in before my incredibly busy schedule of sitting on my arse all day," she said and he chuckled.
"It's good to have you here." Harry shut his office door behind him and they stood outside the office for a second before Ginny spoke.
"Well, I was actually going now, I have a dire need for coffee," she said, turning to leave. Harry raised an eyebrow.
"We have coffee here last time I checked," he said, looking around and successfully locating the coffee cart going around. Ginny shrugged.
"Actually, I've developed a rather unhealthy obsession with Muggle coffee...I don't know how they do it. It's just around the corner from here, I'm a regular." She grinned sheepishly and Harry laughed; his laugh was one of those that filled a room and made other people want to laugh with him.
"All right, I'll let you go then. Maybe you could bring me one back someday; I've got to taste this coffee that's got my Ginny hooked." He grinned and Ginny felt her stomach ache as though it had been punched.
"Sure…bye Harry." She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and then quickly turned and walked through the metal barrier, past the receptionist, and onto the Muggle streets of Kensington, London.
---
She slid the sunglasses over her forehead and they covered her brown eyes with ease. Searching around for a coffee shop, she found nothing to satisfy the empty stomach giving her hell. Scowling, Ginny rummaged through her purse to find her emergency wad of Muggle cash. Ginny had always admired the Muggle paper money, so pretty with its colors and picture of the Muggle King William. Besides, he wasn't such a bad looking bloke to have on paper money anyway.
Zipping the purse shut again, she looked across the street and her face lit up; there, in front of her very eyes, was an Accessorize. Those closest to Ginny knew that this was her favorite Muggle store ever. "How come I never noticed this one?" she mumbled excitedly as the light changed and she was permitted to cross the street. She strode over the black and white striped street with ease and a brilliant smile lit her face as she pushed open the door and the bell tinkled merrily overhead.
The girl at the cash register looked up with a desperate SAVE ME look on. Ginny looked at her curiously before tuning in to listen to the rant her customer was on.
"Not even real silk, I ask you, what is this?? A mind game?!?" The customer had a shrill voice that was familiar to Ginny, so she began to listen more closely. "The price is outrageous, never mind the quality of the product, and I need something to wear tonight that's…fitting!" The woman was practically screaming now in her towering fury. Ginny winced for the poor cash register girl; no one should have to deal with someone as disagreeable as this woman.
"Excuse me," Ginny cut in politely. The woman turned around at the interruption, her face pink with distress. Ginny looked at her closely; blonde hair (dyed), tight clothes, excessive lipstick. It was puzzling how familiar she looked. "I couldn't help overhearing your conversation, and I was wondering if maybe you want some help deciding what to wear? I could help you know." The woman looked curious.
"How?"
"Well, I know quite a bit about clothes and such, and I happen to help many of my friends how to dress," she explained. The woman looked doubtful, but it must have been a very perplexing matter for her because she accepted the help.
"I could use the help," she agreed reluctantly. "All right, let's do this then." Ginny sighed with relief. The cash register girl looked completely relieved, so Ginny smiled, winked, and took the woman by the arm.
"So what is it you're looking for?" she inquired. The woman sighed miserably.
"Oh God I'm so useless at this…well, my boyfriend and I are going out for dinner tonight, and I think he might propose." The woman's otherwise unattractive face brightened up and Ginny grinned.
"That's wonderful! So is he taking you out to a fancy place or somewhere casual?"
"Fancy I suppose…" the woman trailed off. "You know, you look awfully familiar." Ginny stopped mid-thought about the shades of blue that'd fit the woman.
"You do too," Ginny answered, looking at her curiously.
"Well, what's your name?" The woman asked. Ginny answered with her middle name, common practice for witches and wizards in the Muggle realm.
"Eve. How about you?" The woman seemed to be racking her brains, but came up with nothing.
"Violet. So, are we going to go shopping or what?"
---
Violet and Ginny stood in Kristen's Formalwear shop two hours later. Ginny's feet were killing her in the strappy sandals and she was hungry to boot. Violet was trying on a purple dress in the changing rooms while Ginny waited patiently outside, flipping through a Hello! Magazine. Violet came out and Ginny looked up. Thank the Lord, she thought to herself. The dress looked stunning, which meant that their hunt was over.
"Perfect Violet, that's the one," Ginny said, dropping the magazine on the rack where it came from. Violet beamed.
"You really think so?" she said, turning to look at herself in the full length mirror. Ginny smiled.
"I know so. Come on, let's pay." Violet went back in to quickly change and they paid within ten minutes. Outside Kristen's, Violet extended a friendly hand.
"Thank you so much for your help." Ginny took it, looking at her watch as she did so.
"It was no trouble. Hope to see you again soon!" Violet nodded.
"Bye Eve."
"Bye Violet."
Violet turned around and walked towards the telephone booth on the corner of the street, Kristen's carrier bag clutched in her hand. According to Ginny's watch, it was time for lunch. She looked both ways and then ran across the street, ignoring the angry honks and annoying catcalls of the nearby construction workers. The automatic doors slid open for herm, with 'Marks & Spencer' painted on them. Ginny walked briskly to the food section and grabbed a Chicken and Cress sandwich along with an orange juice. Turning around rather too quickly, she slammed into someone very tall and very broad. The sandwich and juice fell onto the floor, and the cap fell off of the juice making it pour on the floor like and orange tidal wave. Ginny looked up sheepishly and almost had a heart attack when she saw the platinum blond hair and gray eyes.
"Do I know you?" Ginny asked curiously as she bent down to pick up her sandwich and clean up the juice. The man bent down as well and took out a linen handkerchief with a Liberty tag to mop up the juice. Ginny looked at the stitching to see if it had initials, but the man's hand was over it so that she couldn't see one letter.
"I don't believe so," he replied, looking at his now orange sodden handkerchief and casually throwing it in the wastebin. Ginny tried hard not to gape at his throwing out a Liberty handkerchief; those things are expensive! This man was obviously loaded.
"Oh. Well, you look familiar," Ginny said, hearing the sentence for the second time that day. The man stopped and looked at her closely. The scrutiny made her uncomfortable, almost like he was undressing her with her eyes. However, she defiantly stood it out, staring him straight in the face.
The man stopped soon enough though. "Well, I'll be going now. Sorry about your juice." He didn't sound sorry at all. He strode away whistling, and Ginny looked after him with narrowed eyes.
"What an insufferable prat!" she mumbled. As she proceeded to the cash register to pay for her sandwich, she stopped dead. "In fact…he's just like Draco Malfoy!" The thought was horrifying, puzzling and wonderful at the same time. On the one hand, this is Draco Malfoy we're talking about- sarcastic, mean spirited boy who had Ginny in tears countless nights back at Hogwarts. On the other side, why on earth was he in the Muggle world? And thirdly- he hadn't pinned her as a Weasley.
Ginny handed over a five pound note to the girl, grabbed her sandwich and left "Marks and Sparks" as she had heard it be called, mulling this over in her mind. He hadn't seen her red hair and freckles and thought "Weasley!" In fact, he hadn't thought anything at all from the indifferent look on his (perfectly sculpted) face. And that was the way Ginny liked it best.
In fact, that's why she loved the Muggle realm so much. In it, she was just another girl shopping or eating. In the wizarding world however, she was immediately recognized as Ginny Weasley, Arthur's daughter, Ron's little sister. Ginny couldn't go fifteen minutes without a "How's your brother?" from a complete stranger in the streets. It even happened at work; people would either try to strike up an amicable conversation or they would give her a pitying gaze (are they that desperate to pay the bills?). It was maddening. Sometimes Ginny wanted to just run away from what she grew up with to live with the Muggles; they're not that bad really. The only things that kept her from doing so were Hermione and Harry. Hermione, her best friend ever, who she shared a flat and countless secrets with. Harry, easily the most confusing but gratifying person in her life; he was on the brink of either being a love fetish like he was in school or the big brother without freckles she never had.
Ginny checked her watch. 3:13. Astounded at how quickly the time went by, Ginny turned a corner and into an alley to Apparate back to her apartment to change for work. She roughly shoved some sandwich into her mouth and threw the rest out as she popped out of the Muggle world into her own.
