Under the Mistletoe
Chapter 2. Themes
Ginevra,
I'd be delighted if you could drop by this afternoon around 3. I would like to discuss the themes with you. I hope to see a proposal of what you have in mind. See you then.
Narcissa Malfoy
"Oh for the love of..."Ginny groaned to herself as she sat in her office. She slumped her head suddenly feeling exhausted. It had barely been a day and Narcissa was officially her personal client from hell.
"What's wrong, Ginny?" Her best friend and business partner asked her as she entered the room with two steaming mugs of coffee. Ginny sniffed the aroma of coffee beans in appreciation.
Nina Giovanni, Italian, pureblood and Ginny's best friend forever and business partner. She was mainly in charge of marketing, booking clients and handling various operations like venue, food and beverage and logistics. She was highly fashionable and had the patience of a saint.
-"I could hear you groaning from all the way downstairs. Is there something that you are hiding from me?" Nina waggled her perfectly shaped eyebrows mischievously as she eyed the door to the storeroom.
"I wish..." Ginny moaned showing her the note which she had accidentally crushed in her frustration.
"What's this?" Nina asked curiously, she took the expensive piece of parchment and began to read it.
"Oh... Don't you have another appointment with Parvati today?"
"Yes, I do... It's as though she's out to ruin Parvati's wedding or something."
"I think so too." They both giggled at the idea.
"What am I going to do now, Nina? I can't possibly be at two places at once."
"Technically you can...I'll handle Parvati today. My mother is equivalent to Narcissa Malfoy. There is only so much that I can handle." Nina explained as she tied her jet black hair into a ponytail with a green ribbon.
"Thanks Nina, I owe you one." Ginny sighed in relief. Now she had ample time to do her party research.
"Find me a hottie to bang and then we'll be even." Nina joked about her current love status.
"Looks like I am going to be indebted to you for all of eternity." Ginny joked back as Nina looked at her with a mock-outraged expression.
"Cheers to that, darling. I'm going to write Parvati here a note now." Nina said as she took a final sip of her coffee.
-"Finish up your coffee, love. I may not be able to cook but my coffee can get you higher than pot." She stood up as she headed down to the office kitchenette.
With the biggest problem cleared out of the way, Ginny felt much lighter and it was all thanks to her best friend. Though she may just have to request for a Time-Turner from the Ministry of Magic, her best friend could not possibly be saving her neck all the time.
Now it was time for party theme research and she knew just the person to contact.
Later that afternoon, once again Ginny found herself seated in the same parlour that she had been at less than 24 hours ago. She was five minutes early for the blasted meeting with Narcissa.
The parlour was huge – as expected. Its walls were a cool shade of teal but not quite teal, Ginny couldn't tell. Most of the walls had large windows that occupied almost three quarter of it. The windows were embellished with red curtains that had brass trimmings. It was a colour Ginny had not expected to see in a mansion where majority of the folks were formerly Slytherins.
Oh well, to each his own. She decided.
There was a huge chandelier in the middle that was made from glass and gold. In fact, majority of the furniture in the parlour was made from gold and was maroon-red. Ginny sat uncomfortably in one of their many sofas as she flipped through her proposal. Efficient as she was, she had brought samples.
Earlier, in the morning Ginny had called on the best person in the world to get the latest gossips and trends from, fellow gossip monger and the best friend of her client, Lavender Brown for help. After an hour being pestered with questions about the reasons why she needed the information, Ginny finally gave in and revealed that In Events Management was the company that received this year's contract for the Malfoy Christmas Ball.
If the reporter hadn't already printed it out, Ginny was quite sure half the town was aware of it by now. She'd prefer the Cruciatus curse any day than an hour of chit-chat with Lavender Brown. It left her bewildered with a fresh headache. As if her new client was not enough.
On the bright side, she was prepared with the latest party trends placed neatly in her blue folder.
"Fantastic. You are perfectly on time, Ginevra. I appreciate punctuality in my staff." Narcissa clapped her hands together, pleased.
Ginny immediately stood up to shake hands as was proper business etiquette but Narcissa shushed her. "I think we are acquainted well enough to get past all this formality business. Why don't you help yourself to a scone?" She gestured towards the same coffee table which had a silver tea set and freshly baked goods.
Ginny winced inwardly, she hardly preferred scones, she was more of a tea with biscuits person. Not wanting to offend her client as experience had taught her she helped herself unwillingly to a scone as Narcissa poured her tea.
"How much sugar?"
"Two teaspoon would be fine please, thank you."
She took a sip only to suppress the urge to spit it out, chamomile. Yuck!
"So what do you have in mind, Ginevra?"
"Well..." Ginny paused as she constructed the sentence mentally. –"I would actually like to know what you have in mind?"
"I don't actually have anything planned. It was quite a last minute decision you see. I'm hoping to use this ball to help Draco find a woman who not only has his heart but is suitable enough to be a Malfoy bride." Narcissa said thoughtfully as she held her hands together as if in prayer.
-"It's about time that he stopped associating himself with those good-for-nothing classless hussies."
Ginny's eyes widened in shock, that was probably the closest Narcissa Malfoy ever got to insulting someone and my wasn't it cutting! She was glad that she wasn't in Krystella's shoes.
Krystella was Draco Malfoy's new flavour of the month – Lavender Brown had taken great pains to fill her in on that. Ginny was also educated on the witch supermodels – Camilla, Bianca, Solange and possibly a girl with every other name on the English alphabet. Ginny could hardly care less.
"Oh... I see." Ginny managed weakly not wanting to neither agree nor disagree.
"Any particular themes, Narcissa?" She continued
"I have some in mind. What do you think of the Victorian theme? Or 'Once upon a dream' a fairytale like theme?"
"I think they are beyond ridiculous." A dry, male voice sounded from the entrance of the parlour.
Both Ginny and Narcissa looked up only to see none other than the devil's incarnate himself, former schoolmate and family rival, Draco Malfoy sauntering towards them.
He looked good, actually good was an understatement. He looked great with his expensive looking black robes. It helped his features stand out. He had stopped slicking his hair back with gel a long time ago. His grey eyes sparkled with humour and love as he looked as his mother.
"Draco! Darling! You are back!" Narcissa stood up to embrace her son.
"Mother..." He greeted her as he kissed her forehead lightly.
Ginny watched the entire exchange between the mother and son duo. She knew that it was basic manners to give them privacy but it was too good to miss the live telecast of Malfoy affections. When photographed in public, Narcissa often looked as though she had birthed the spawn of Satan. Not that Ginny – hell any of the Weasleys blamed her.
"You look refreshed dear. I suppose that's what foreign air does to you." She took a proper look at him and smiled gently.
"You are looking quite well yourself, Mother. New project on your hands?" He gestured towards the party samples strewn all over the table.
"Let me introduce you to my project manager, darling. This is Ginevra Weasley."
To Ginny she said, "Let me introduce you to my son, Draco Malfoy. I suppose the both of you might know each other from Hogwarts." She sniffed, as though the name of the school was enough to make her break out into hives.
"Ginevra?" Draco smirked at her as though he had discovered her greatest secret. Ginny had only seen pictures of him smirking in tabloid magazines and newspapers but the full-blown smirk unleashed on her was... surprisingly sexy.
"Hello to you too, Malfoy." Ginny greeted him coolly knowing that there was too much of bad blood between both families for this to end well.
"It's been long." He remarked casually as though they were old friends who met after months of not seeing each other.
It was not the same for Ginny for she had seen him when he attended his fellow Slytherin mate, Theodore Nott's wedding. The less conversation, the better – she told herself and went with the flow.
"Too long." She agreed.
Fortunately Narcissa chose the perfect moment to interrupt. "Why don't you get changed, son?"
"I'm perfectly fine, Mother. In fact, I'd love to sit here and listen to the ideas that both you and Ginevra here have to share." He placed emphasis on her name.
Ginny had a sinking feeling in her stomach. This was not going to end well – it was probably a test from the gods, she assured herself. She willed herself not to pick up the silver and throw it at him when he eventually set her on flames.
"That's a brilliant idea, Narcissa. I'm sure Malfoy's say here would be appreciated especially since..." She trailed off giving Narcissa a pointed look hoping that she would catch a hint.
"Oh! Of course!-" Narcissa did that weird clapping thing again.
As Draco sat down, a new batch of refreshments was served, the scones were gone making Ginny thank her lucky stars. Now, there were custard biscuits. Ginny and Narcissa went back to their discussion on themes for the Christmas Ball.
"How about a costume ball? We could have a fancy dress competition and the female winner wins a ..." Narcissa trailed of looking as though she had not thought of a prize.
Ginny on the other hand was willing to bet her house that Narcissa meant that the female winner would win a date with Draco. Of course, Narcissa would make sure that she was single and eligible.
"Halloween came and went a long time ago, Mother. Nobody would appreciate one. Finding the perfect costume these days is quite a hassle. And frankly, everyone is either going to dress up as angels, butterflies and everything else that is clichéd." Draco cut in thoughtfully; she had to give him credit for that.
Planning a costume ball in less than 24 days was not going to be an easy task.
"Ginevra, do you have any suggestions?" Narcissa turned and looked at Ginny who was currently chewing on her quill.
"I was thinking..."
"Careful Weasley, you might hurt your head." Malfoy teased.
"Hilarious" Ginny retorted dryly rolling her eyes to herself. Very funny, Malfoy.
"So anyway, may I suggest a Masquerade of Mystery theme?" Ginny reached forward and picked up her blue folder for the last theme that Narcissa had yet to view.
"Isn't masquerade a rather common theme?" Narcissa raised a perfectly arched platinum eyebrow.
"Actually, according to the statistics of the recent party themes, the masquerade theme has not been used for the last seven years or so." Ginny offered, showing her the research that she had spent almost the entire morning compiling.
"A masquerade theme does sound rather interesting..." Narcissa considered.
"I like it-"she declared –"What do you think, Draco?" she asked her son.
"Whatever you want, Mother. You know these functions are hardly any of my concerns." He sighed, irate.
"I have a meeting with the designers tomorrow; can you make sure that Ginevra here gets the invitations list? And you can pick out the invitation design tomorrow when you drop by her office." Ginny felt her heart sinking at that.
A day to design or find designs for invitations.
Oh for the love of...
I hope you are all excited for the next chapter! Reviews please! XOXO
