Prologue

Draco heaved his suitcase into the hall of Malfoy Manor and stopped to take a breath. His parents had been busy that morning, and so his father had sent one of his junior Ministry assistants to collect him from the Hogwarts Express. The assistant had been decidedly unhelpful- he'd waited in the car park (in a car that Draco did not recognise, how was he supposed to find it?) and continued to sit in the car, smirking as he watched Draco struggling with his bags. Draco felt a surge of gladness as soon as he could see his home from across the hill- even the familiar wrath of his father was a welcome thought.

As soon as he'd regained composure and prepared to attempt to take his suitcase upstairs, he heard someone coming down the stairs.

'Hello, Mr Malfoy. I'm Erica Berry, your new housekeeper. I assume your parents told you about me?'

Lucius and Narcissa had indeed informed Draco of their appointment of a housekeeper; they had decided they were unable to cope without a house elf. He also knew that she was living with them, in the annexe at the back of the house. But nothing had prepared Draco for the woman now standing in front of him. When he had heard the word 'housekeeper', he'd imagined a 60-something year old woman, with flyaway grey hair and an assortment of patterned shawls. This woman, this Erica Berry, couldn't have been older than 25. She had wavy black hair that fell to just beneath her shoulders, and warm brown eyes that he got lost in for a moment…

'I'll take your bag for you, if you want. Magic's much easier than manual labour,' she winked, pulling her wand out of her pocket, and he suddenly felt embarrassed at his youth, and the fact that he couldn't have used magic even if he had wanted to.

With a flick of her wand, she had the bag upstairs in a few seconds, and Draco was relieved; blisters were beginning to form on his hands, and he really needed a glass of water.

'Do you want anything?' Erica smiled and winked, pointing in the direction of the kitchen.

'Uh, I guess I could do with a drink,' Draco mumbled, and added, 'but I can get it myself.'

'No worries,' she grinned, and seconds later a glass of water came flying out of the kitchen. This woman was good. Could she read his mind? He almost didn't care if she could, until he realised that if she could, he'd have to get the inappropriate thoughts out of his head pretty soon. He was usually pretty good at distracting himself from his physical desires; living in a dorm with seven other guys meant that five minutes in the shower was all he ever got to himself. But now, now that he was alone with a pretty girl who seemed like she might be willing, he was having difficulty thinking clearly. The more he tried not to think about it, the more desperate he felt.

He excused himself and ran up the stairs two at a time; if she had any grasp of legilimency, he was already making a complete fool of himself and he'd only met her two minutes ago. He'd have to talk to her at some point, but he'd make sure he was totally in control of his thoughts by then. She didn't want him to think he was a lunatic sex-obsessed teenager. He really wanted to impress her; yes, she was older than him, but if he could convince her to like him back… what was he thinking? He'd only just met her. He had no idea how she felt about him. He didn't even know how he felt about her, so it was stupid, he thought, to assume anything now. Just get through the summer and get back to school, where he had a whole selection of girls his own age (though not if Pansy Parkinson had anything to do with it, unfortunately. She was determined. They'd lost their virginity to each other, and now Pansy wanted to continue their relationship because of their 'connection'. Draco felt that having a 'connection' was probably a 'girl thing' and didn't question it, but it could get quite frustrating, being followed around by her).

Anxious about embarrassing himself again, Draco locked himself in the bathroom for an hour until his parents returned home and told Erica that she could have the rest of the afternoon off. Relieved, Draco came downstairs to spend the evening with his parents. It seemed this summer was going to be a lot more interesting than he'd imagined.