A/N: This is written for the Potions Classroom, prompts used: all. The task:You must be a fast little bugger to correctly collect these seeds, so this task will focus on speed, or rather, on tasks that require speed, such as a racing or a quidditch game. Your task is to write about someone having to do something fast, like going to Diagon Alley at last minute to get your supplies or oversleeping for something.
Also, this is for the Back to school event, prompts used:24.( action) Being given/giving a driving lesson.
28.(object) Quill and Ink
A huge thank you to Alice who betaed this for me!
xxx
Draco quickly parked his car in front of the front door, checking his wristwatch again.
"Weasley! Come one! We are going to be late! Come on!" he said again.
After what seemed an eternity, but in reality there were only five minutes, Ginny entered the entry hall.
"I'm coming, I'm coming! And what's the hurry? I'm sure we can apparate," Said the redhead nonchalantly.
He looked at the woman with wide eyes. He could feel a headache coming up.
"Apparate!? You think that we are going to apparate into a muggle area, where muggles are and could see us? And where there are no Apparition Points nearby?! You are out of your mind! We have to get there with muggle transport. We'll take my car and whilst it is fast, we still have to hurry."
Draco gripped the door knob , opening the door. Suddenly, he froze. Ginny's hands were empty.
"Where is the box I asked you to bring? I told you to take it, remember?"
"What box? I looked around and I didn't see one. And you started calling me, 'Come on! Hurry up! Faster! We'll be late!' I assumed it wasn't something important. So I stopped looking and come down instead."
Oh, he was definitely going to have a headache.
"The box had a pair of goggles! That is the present I got for my mate, Jason's birthday. He's the one who runs the driving school. I distinctly remember putting the box on the living room table..." Draco trailed off.
"And how was I supposed to know where the living room is? It's your house ,Malfoy! I'm sorry I didn't find it; I barely found the bathroom! I got lost." she finished with a giggle.
With a growl he pushed her aside, dashing to the stairs to take the goggles himself, all the while muttering "Lost! She got lost! How could have she gotten lost? " She had been to his house more than a dozen times for social gatherings and Ministry's parties, and the last one, not even a week ago, had been in the living room. So, how couldn't she find it? He knew that she didn't bother, just because he was not that important. He didn't think for a single second that she had chosen him to be her driving instructor apart from the reason that he was the only wizard who was a driving instructor. And not even this fact changed their view of him. He was still the ex- death eater, no matter that he was working, living as a muggle.
They were late, but he would be damned if they were going to be late. He had never in his life been late to work and he was not going to start now, no matter how fast he had to drive.
"Come one," he said when he entered the hall seconds later, grabbing her hand and pulling her towards the car. He hadn't stopped to close the door as he usually would, but since they were in such a hurry, he figured his house elves will take care of everything.
He got into the car and carefully put the box containing goggles behind. Once she got in too, he started the engine. He was driving at full speed, but in the speed limit of the law of course.
He asked her to put her belt on, it was enough they were going to be late if they didn't speed-drove the car, he didn't want them to be stopped by police. That would make them truly late. He felt his headache worsen; she didn't know how to put it, for Merlin's sake! He tried to help her, but she refused
"I can put it myself, thank you very much." She tried a few more times before she succeeded and all he could think of was 'Hurry up! Faster!'. But she didn't seem to mind at all.
When the road became totally clear, he sped off over the normal limit. If he didn't, he would be late for the first time in his life and since he was one of the instructors, he couldn't be late, school's policy.
As he drove he felt himself relax. Driving always relaxed him. After the war, driving had been a blessing, the best thing he had learned. His mother always worried about him, thinking that he would die on the road , but he was always gave her the same answer, "I feel the Need, the Need for Speed, mother, it relaxes me. It stops me to have nightmares. Don't worry, I won't let this need of mine for speed kill me. I didn't survive the war to be killed on the road." But that didn't reassure his mother, instead, she learned to accept this new him.
When he got out of the car, he was greeted by Jason who laughed and said,
"I thought you were going to be late, Malfoy! But you surprised me, as always."
"Late, me? Never! Happy birthday, Jay!" he said, handing him the box. Jason opened the box, his eyes twinkling in anticipation.
"Oh, you bought me that pair of goggles I had seen in the mall!" Jason exclaimed in happiness. "You sneaking serpent, so that's why you kept asking me about them! And here I was thinking you were interested in racing! The car over there is yours. Good luck for your first lesson of this year!"
Draco let out a sigh of relief he didn't knew he was holding. He took Ginny to the car Jason had pointed.
"Draco! Don't forget to gave her the papers to sign!"
"Right!" he shouted back getting in the car. "Listen, you got to sign these" he said turning to Ginny who had also gotten inside the car.
"Sure." And she proceeded to pull out from her bag, a quill and ink.
"What are you doing?" he hissed. "Put the quill and ink away before anybody sees."
"Why? You said to sign these. How else can I sign?"
"With a muggle pen! Not quill and ink. If he would have asked you to sign these there, you would have pulled out the quill and ink, right?"
With a sheepish smile, she nodded. He only grunted in response and started the car. He couldn't believe it. She wanted to sign in front of muggles with a quill and ink. How she didn't know that was beyond him, considering that Potter was raised by muggles.
"All right listen. The first thing I will teach you how the main controls of the car operate. Also, you will learn about the driving mirrors and their usefulness. With their help, you can see to your right, left and behind so you know how to move in traffic and how close or how far you are from other cars .
"And this is the seat-belt, you already know how to use it. You have to put it on every time you drive otherwise not only that you have the risk to be stopped by police, you also at a risk to be injured in case of an accident takes place. But, so you know, it is not guaranteed that...…"
With a sigh, he realized that she wasn't listening at all, but rather was drawing on a paper -thank Merlin- with a pencil.
"Weasley, why aren't you listening? I know it may sound unimportant and you would rather drive than listen, but this first lesson is important."
Ginny looked up from her paper and said with a smile
"I know Draco, I was drawing what you said, so I could remember better. I am sorry that I probably caused you a headache and behaved childishly."
Draco was looking at her like she had suddenly grown two heads and a mustache. Did she really call him by his first name? And she apologized.
"You're alright?"
"Yes, I am. Today I realized that Harry and Hermione had been right. You really have changed in a totally new man. You taught me a lesson today," and seeing his smirking face, she added, "And I am not referring to the driving lesson that you still hadn't finished, I annoyed you so many times today and you didn't call me names nor did you show any anger. You were patient and polite, which I have never been to you. You are a better person than you were in school, still stubborn, but you are not Draco Malfoy, the ex-death eater. You're just Draco. And I am sorry. I confess that I wanted to be late, to see if you were as patient as Harry made you sound. Could we start over? As friends? I don't want to hold grudges any longer. I think it's time for me to let it go. I've been trying to do so but today, at this moment, I'm ready for this change, should you agree."
Draco couldn't believe his ears. She was willingly asking to start over? And above all, she wanted to be friends? That was new, but he was not going to refuse her. He was ready to start anew as well. So, he nodded in response.
"Well then, I think we should continue our driving lesson, I really don't want to fail after all."
"Alright. But I'm telling you a fact, nobody has failed the driving test with me as a instructor and you won't be the first, Mrs. Potter."