This story was written for Cbz's challenge in the DG forum.
Requirements-
Central pairing of Ginny and Draco.
Ginny taking etiquette lessons, due to a Christmas gathering.
Preferably Draco as teacher, or at least present during lessons.
May be married or engaged.
No tragedy!!!
Word Count-
1000 minimum. (Not including title or A/N's)
Deadline-
1st January 2010 12:00 Forum time.
A Lesson in Etiquette
"Dopey! Where is my mother?"
"The young master will find the mistress in the sitting room."
And with that information I headed for the sitting room.
I had been looking for my mom all afternoon. That was one difficult thing about living in such a large mansion. You could never find the things you needed. And right now I needed to ask my mom to convince father to let me have a pet snake.
From outside the sitting room I heard voices. I knew that I shouldn't ask my mother for something like a snake in front of her friends. I entered quietly and stayed by the door.
I was absolutely disgusted by who I saw my mother with.
It was the Weaslette. What was she doing here? And why was my mother giving her the time of day?
Someone, presumably my mother, had conjured up a small tea set on a small table in the middle of the room. My mom and the redhead were sitting across from each other at this table.
"Could I have some more tea, Marguerite?" Weasley asked.
Why did she just call my mother Marguerite?
"That's wrong," my mother said sounding slightly annoyed. She hates it when people forget her name. "It is, 'May I please have some more tea, Ms. Delacour?'"
Oh, so this was an etiquette lesson. Well that sucked for my mom because there was no way the youngest Weasley would be able to pull this off.
"May I please have some more tea, Miz. Delacour?" I almost laughed it was that bad. "That good?" she asked.
"First of all, you should have asked, 'Was that correct?' Second, I only emphasized certain words so that you would know which parts of the question you had to change. You weren't supposed to say it like that. You made it sound all strained and abnormal."
"Well that's because none of this is normal for me. I don't even drink tea. And Miz. Delacour told me to call her Marguerite."
"Do you think if any of this came normal to you we'd be here right now? And it isn't Miz. Delacour. It's Ms. Delacour."
"Okay, I'm gonna try it again," Weasley said.
"You are going to try it again. You are not 'gonna' do anything."
"Right. Sorry. I am going to try it again," she said slowly, clearly trying very hard not to slur her words. "May I please have some more tea, Ms. Delacour?"
"Why of course Ginevra," my mom said pouring a cup of tea.
Ginevra? What a name! I wasn't going to forget that one. It could come in handy once we go back to Hogwarts after the Christmas break.
Once my mom had finished pouring the tea, Weasley took it with her pinky up, which was admittedly quite impressive coming from her, and then proceeded, not to take a sip, but to drink the entire cup. Mind you, it was a small cup, but the tea was clearly hot because she opened her mouth in both pain and surprise causing tea to spill down her chin and her dress.
"Bloody hell! That tea is hot!" she cried grabbing some napkins to attempt to clean the mess she had made.
This time it was nearly impossible to keep from laughing out loud.
"That is not the language of a well-mannered young lady," my mother said. She pulled out her wand pointing it at the smaller girl and said, "Scourgify." And with that she was clean but her cheeks were flushed and I think she may have burned her tongue. "Gulping down tea is also very unladylike."
"I know, I just forgot. I was focusing on the whole pinky up part."
"You cannot just focus on being proper in one aspect and not in the others. You shouldn't have to focus on it at all. You need to make it come naturally. And really, aside from etiquette, downing a cup of hot tea isn't exactly the smartest thing to do."
"Well, I'm having a pretty difficult time making this all come naturally. And I thought the tea would be cold by now. I feel like we've been at this forever."
"I placed a spell on the tea to keep it warm. Do you really think I'd make you drink tea that has been sitting around for three hours?"
This time I couldn't help myself. I burst out laughing. They both turned and saw me standing there watching them. My mom looked both happy to see me and disappointed that I was laughing at her student. Weasley just blushed until her entire face was red.
"Draco," my mother said.
"I'm sorry, mother," I said pulling myself together. That wasn't very ladylike at all."
This made Weasley go an even deeper shade of red. It also made my mom give me a stern look.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's just, three hours? Really?"
My mom was getting angry. I realized that it was getting hard to be the perfect son of hers while also doing what I do best: making fun of Weasley's. My mom pointed to the couch and I went and sat down. Then she turned back to Weasley and said, "Ginevra, blushing is nowhere near ladylike. Your face looks like a tomato."
Upon hearing this Weasley's face went as red as I think it could possibly go, actually making her look like a tomato. I smirked at her and she just turned away and looked down at her empty tea cup.
"Well then," my mom said, "We'll come back to this later. Next we'll focus on ballroom dancing."
"Is that really a part of etiquette?" Weasley asked.
My mother smiled at her, "In my book it is. Now get up. You too Draco."
"What? Why?" I asked.
"Well she'll need a partner. Don't you want to help her become a well developed young lady?"
I took a look at Weasley. She looked pretty well developed to me. My mom saw where I was looking though and said so that only I could hear, "Eyes up, Draco."
"I actually was enjoying watching you teach her mother. She is quite an amusing young lady really."
"That's quite enough. Both of you, come here. Ginevra, place your hand on his shoulder. Draco, you know what to do."
"Of coarse, mother."
My mom and I showed Weasley the steps and when she decided that she'd be able to do them without stepping on my feet too many times she started the music and we began dancing. Thankfully, my mom stayed back and watched so we were able to talk freely.
"Enjoying your lesson, Ginevra?"
"Don't call me that. And I was until you showed up."
"But do you really know when that was, Miz. Marguerite?"
She looked annoyed. "Malfoy, I really don't care what you saw. I'm not doing this for you."
"Well, I figured that much. Who are you doing it for? Potter thinks his girl needs to learn some manners?"
"You know, not everything is about Harry," she said. She was looking down and when she looked back up she saw that I was still looking at her. "If you must know, my brother, Bill, and his wife, Fleur, are having a Christmas party and my mom thought I wasn't well mannered enough to dine with the French," she said sarcastically.
"I think your mom may be right. Like mine said, turning into a tomato is not good etiquette," I said smirking down at her.
"Because you're the most well-mannered person in the world right?"
"Maybe not in front of you Weaslette, but when it comes to people that matter I'm always polite."
"Oh yeah. You're a well coiffed bundle of joy."
"When I need to be, yes, I am. For example, unlike you, I always look presentable."
This seemed to get to her and she looked down at the dress that she was currently wearing. Some how I guessed that the hideous piece was one of her best.
Right then an elf came in and my mom stopped the music.
"There is an owl for you, mistress."
"I'm coming. You two wait here and behave."
When my mom was gone from the room I let go of Weasley and said, "I think I'm gonna have a biscuit."
"I don't look presentable?" Weasley asked.
"Now don't take that the wrong way," I said putting the biscuit down.
"Because you seemed to think I was pretty presentable when you were checking out my, what was it? Oh yeah, development?" This time she was the one smirking and I was the one who blushed. Well I didn't blush. Malfoy's don't blush. I just got a little hot.
"Are you okay, Malfoy? You look a little hot. Let me check your temperature," she said grinning. She placed her hand on my forehead, then my cheek, then my neck, then…under my shirt?
"What are you doing Weasley?"
"Sick isn't a good look on you. So I want to make sure you're okay by the time your mother gets back."
"Well, I'm pretty sure you're doing it wrong," I said grabbing both her hands, the second of which had somehow found itself rubbing a certain area that was starting to feel slightly uncomfortable.
"I disagree," she said freeing her hands and then pushing me up against the wall.
Then, going on her toes she reached up and kissed me. It wasn't a soft kiss or a shy one. She was aggressive, with her hands in my hair, and her body leaning up against mine, causing me to moan and her to grin.
She was good. It quickly became a very heated make-out session, with both people's hands roaming the other person's body. Yes, both. I was kissing the Weasley back. It's not like I disliked her any less, but I had to admit that I was enjoying myself.
In the process I learned that she had in fact burned her tongue with the tea, and had at some point in the last few days, received a bruise on her left hip, just below her waistline.
I was really enjoying myself when all of a sudden she stepped away from me and quickly brushed a hand through her hair so that it wasn't a mess.
Right then my mother came back into the room and Weasley smiled at her.
But my mom didn't see this because she was too busy staring at me. I was guessing that I didn't look my best at the moment. My shirt was not on properly, the button on my pants was undone, my hair was probably a mess and I definitely felt flushed.
"Draco! You look like a gaping idiot!"
"Excuse me, Ms. Malfoy," Weasley said, "I think I am going to step outside for a breath of fresh air. Hopefully that will give Draco here some time to make himself presentable and show a little etiquette like the well-mannered young man I'm sure he is."
And with that said she curtsied to both me and my mother, and did a rather good job of it, and then walked surprisingly gracefully out of the sitting room.
My mom and I just stared dumbstruck after her.
So, I hope you liked it! Please leave a review and tell me what you thought. :)
Thanks for reading!