Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, settings, or Harry Potter related mentions in this story. Those all belong to JK Rowling - if they did belong to me, I probably wouldn't be here. Just saying.
Ginny nervously twisted her hands, staring at her reflection in the back wall of the lift. She had chosen the best work outfit she owned: black trousers with a white blouse, a gray sweater over it. She had even put on a pair of small kitten heels for the occasion. It had been odd to hear the clicking of her heels in the marble lobby, but she also thought, for the first day at least, she should try and look as professional as possible. The lift doors slid open, and she strolled past the receptionist's desk, ignoring the sneer that the receptionist shot her way, and walked to Lucius's office. He had told her to arrive at nine, and her watch told her it was a quarter to eight. Taking a deep breath, she pushed open the double doors, her eyes falling on Lucius's open door.
He looked up from his desk and beckoned her forward. "Miss Weasley, come in."
Hesitantly, she stepped into his office, hearing the click of the double doors inside her. "Mr. Malfoy."
"Have a seat," Lucius directed, unfurling a piece of parchment. "Before we begin with my expectations, I would like for you to sign this contract."
"Contract, sir?" Ginny was wary of signing anything from Lucius Malfoy.
Lucius's lips curled into a sneer. "Yes, a contract. I have, in the past, dealt with a few distasteful assistants. To ensure that I don't run into problems, I have a contract for my assistants. With every assistant I fire, there seems to come a new clause."
Ginny carefully examined the contract. There was a section about privacy and the consequences of revealing anything discussed with Lucius. She expected as much. The other clauses seemed rather natural, considering the fact that the Malfoys weren't a well thought of family. She scowled as she read the clause stating that if she were to get pregnant, he had the option of letting her go. It was certainly discriminatory but not illegal in the Wizarding World—and Ginny knew that must have been how he was able to fire Romilda. As she read over the last clause, which seemed to be written in fresh ink, Ginny balked.
"I assure you that I have no intentions of sleeping with Malfoy," Ginny snapped.
Lucius raised an eyebrow. "Malfoy? I'm assuming you mean Draco, and not myself or Narcissa."
"I am not going to sleep with your son." Ginny held the contract as if it were a piece of garbage she would rather not touch. "I am sure that you are aware the two of us do not get along."
"Do not underestimate my son's charms or looks," Lucius said, his eyes raking over her. "Though you are certainly not my son's type—not in style nor looks."
Ginny didn't know whether to be offended or thankful. She settled with the latter. "I am happy to hear it."
"Indeed," Lucius said, amusement written across his face. "Then you have no issues with signing the contract."
"Hand me the quill," Ginny demanded, leaning forward to take the quill and dip it in the inkwell. She had half-expected Lucius to ask her to sign it in blood. With a flourish of her hand, her signature appeared on the dotted line. "There."
"Wonderful," Lucius said. His gray eyes glittered, and Ginny felt as if she had signed over a piece of her soul, which made her rather uncomfortable. "Now to get down to business."
"Yes, sir. I can tell you—"
"Miss Weasley, I will be the one speaking for the next few minutes. Do not interrupt me," Lucius said, his face a blank mask. "I am here every morning at eight. I expect you to be here when I arrive. Unless asked, I do not wish to have tea or breakfast here upon arrival. I prefer to dine with my wife."
Ginny thought that seemed uncharacteristic of Lucius Malfoy.
"You will find an appointment book on your desk. I have an exact copy and anything you write in it, appears in my copy, vice versa. There is an inbox on your desk in which all my letters appear. You are responsible for sorting through them," Lucius said. He paused and held up a black journal. "This is my copy of the journal. On the front, you will see that my initials are written in silver. When you update my appointments, it will glow green until I open the book – and cancelled appointments will be in red. Yellow means I have yet to confirm the appointment."
Ginny thought it was quite ingenious, though she felt strange about writing in another enchanted journal given to her by Lucius Malfoy.
Lucius seemed to read her thoughts. "I assure you that nothing has been done to the journal, Miss Weasley. I will also cover any expenses you should incur to have the book checked for any dark magic."
"My brother is a curse breaker. It costs me nothing," Ginny said without thinking.
"Indeed," Lucius said with an amused smirk. "Your book is more feminine and not black. I thought it prudent that you not be reminded of—"
"Thank you," Ginny said, cutting him off. "That wasn't necessary."
"The same charm is set on your book. Your initials will glow as well for any changes. The first page of the book is my way of communicating with you without the nuisance of an owl." Lucius opened his book and showed her a stark white page, unlike the other eggshell colored pages in his appointment book. "Should I need to contact you, I will write my message in the book. It will appear on the front cover of your book, and your book will also vibrate. There is a charm written in the back of the book to change the setting if you would prefer for it to warm to the touch, make a noise or any other warning sign."
Ginny nodded, processing all the information she was told.
"You will attend meetings with me. I do not require you to take notes, but I do require that you pay attention. I have an excellent memory, and I do not need an assistant's help to recount a meeting, especially when I have a Pensive at my disposal." Lucius steepled his fingers as if thinking about what else he needed to tell her. "You will also come to events with me: parties, functions, balls, galas. If I am not at the office or at home, Miss Weasley, you will most likely be required to be at my side."
She didn't know how she felt about that particular rule but knew there was nothing to be done. She had signed the contract. She needed to see it through.
"The company is not called Malfoy International for naught. I do a great deal of traveling, and you will travel with me. Travel expenses are covered by the company, of course," Lucius said, the last part added more as an after thought. "Miss Weasley, this position is more work than your previous one, but I trust that you have the capabilities to meet my needs."
She did not like the sound of that at all. The innuendo was clear, intended or not.
"You will be working long hours as well, which is why you are paid substantially," Lucius said. He paused, letting his words sink in, before he asked, "Do you have any questions?"
Many were swirling around in her head, but the first from her lips were, "Personal letters, sir. Ma—Ms. Flint preferred to open her own personal letters. You said earlier that I was to open all letters. Does that include your personal letters?"
Lucius nodded. "You're not merely my assistant, Miss Weasley. You are my personal assistant. You will be dealing with far more than simply office nuisances. My wife and son know not to write anything of interest in a letter to my office and are more than likely writing to schedule a lunch or dinner."
Ginny thought that was quite sad.
"So to answer your question, yes. I do require that you open all my letters. If it is the case that the letter is from Narcissa and Draco, you may come in and speak to me about it," Lucius said. "Which is what I expect you to do concerning any appointments."
"These functions—"
"Are non-negotiable." Lucius smirked when she slumped a little in her seat. "I often discuss work matters and schedule appointments at these functions. I've been told that they can be pleasant for girls."
"Who like frills and thrills," Ginny added. "I am not one of those."
His lips twisted in something that resembled a smile, although it was sinister. "I believe that should be all for now Miss Weasley. You may have a few moments to get acquainted with your work area."
Knowing that she was being dismissed, she stood and exited his office, moving towards the desk. She sat in the chair, staring straight across at the windowed wall that afforded her a view of Diagon Alley. The chair was comfortable and seemed to adjust to her frame. Two bins sat at the top left of the desk, one marked out the other in. Opening the drawers, she found parchment, envelopes, a copy of the seal and various other stationary. She ran her hands across the smooth wood of the desk, much nicer than her old one, and bumped into her copy of the appointment book.
It was, as Lucius had said, more feminine than his. It was a deep purple color with her initial in silver at the bottom right corner. She opened the book, flipping through the pages, which were silver in color, barring the first page. They were filled with purple inked writings: Lucius's current appointments. She noticed that the pages in the back were for notes and wondered if writing in there would copy to Lucius's book. Checking the instructions page, she noted that it would not be. She picked up the quill and scribbled across the page, confirming her suspicion that she didn't need ink to write in the book.
According to the appointment book, he had a lunch meeting with the head of the Nimbus Broom Racing Company, an interview with the Daily Prophet and an appointment with no name nor location listed, simply a time. She was curious about that one but didn't have much time to think about it since she was being called into his office. She stood, grabbed the book and quill—a habit from working with Magnolia—and entered his office.
"Make a reservation at the Golden Coral for the lunch meeting today." Lucius shuffled leaves of parchments around on his desk. "I need to see Darren from the finance department immediately. Get someone from PR up here so that I can discuss the interview with the Prophet. You'll need to be in here for that discussion. And make arrangements for a Portkey to Dijon this evening at five. We will be dining there this evening while I take care of some business. Find a suitable restaurant, nothing plebeian."
"Dijon?" Ginny said, her voice sounding a bit squeaky as she paused in her writing. "As in France?"
Lucius looked up from his desk. "Is that a problem, Miss Weasley? Did you have other arrangements that take precedence over your work?"
"Of course not, sir," Ginny said warily.
"I thought not," Lucius replied with a clipped tone. "Procure two return Portkeys: one to Malfoy Manor and the other to your place of residence."
"Yes, sir," Ginny said, turning on her heel and exiting the room.
She took care of the interoffice memos first, hoping that the outbox worked the same as Magnolia's. Interoffice letters would appear on the person's desk rather than fluttering around the office building like in the Ministry. Any outside correspondences would be sent to the owlery to be sent off, although, judging by the perch on the other side of the room, Lucius had his own owl. She hastily wrote down a time for the Golden Coral and walked across the room to the perch.
The owl wasn't there, and she didn't see any windows to open. But as soon as she appeared, she could see a white blob in the distance flying towards her. She held up her hands to stop the owl from running in the window and let out a shrill scream, expecting the owl to splatter against it. But it didn't. Instead, it came straight through a section of the glass, which shimmered, and Ginny's cheeks turned bright red as Lucius entered the outer office.
"Miss Weasley, while I find it highly amusing that you are startled by magic tricks, considering you are a witch, you are disturbing my work and scaring Annabelle," Lucius said calmly before turning and going back into his office.
"Annabelle?" Ginny whispered. The owl shook her white feathers, nipping at Ginny's fingers. "I suppose it's a pretty name."
She watched Annabelle flutter away with the letter clasped in her talons before going back to her desk, reading back through her notes to see what needed to be done. Luckily, she knew how to deal with the Portkey arrangements, although she had no idea what to do about restaurants in Dijon, having never been there. She wrote down the instructions for the Portkey and dropped it in the outbox to be delivered to their transportation department, trying to figure out what to do about the restaurant.
Ginny wished someone had been there to train her. She opened desk drawers, searching for anything that would help her. She found old copies of Witch's Weekly in one drawer, a copy of Rita Skeeter's autobiography and another held a Muggle make-up kit. Romilda had not cleaned out her drawers, it seemed. Ginny removed her wand and levitated the old magazines to the trash, quickly followed by the autobiography and the make-up.
Annabelle chose that moment to fly in and drop a letter on her desk before flying back to her gilded perch. The appointment for Golden Coral was confirmed, and she sent a letter to Samuel Nimbus with the time and location for lunch. That settled, she still had no idea about places to eat in Dijon. It wasn't until she was on the verge of ripping her hair out that she realized they had a transportation department. Surely there was someone in the department who knew about the places for which they were required to procure Portkeys. Ginny wrote a quick missive and dropped it in her outbox.
Gathering all the letters in the inbox, she started to sort through them. Her mind reeled at the amount of invitations that Lucius Malfoy received in one day. As she began to catalogue the invitations and requests for meetings, two people walked into the office. She assumed that the man was Darren from the finance department and the other was a woman from PR.
"Miss Weasley, a word," Lucius called.
"Please wait here," Ginny said politely.
"Shut the door," Lucius ordered as she stepped in the office.
She closed the door behind her. "Mr. Malfoy?"
"Are you under the impression that I am two people?"
Ginny thought the question was rhetorical but answered anyway. "No, sir."
"Then why would I be able to correspond with two different people about two different matters at the same time?" Lucius's voice was low and calm. "I fail to see how that makes any sense."
"But—"
"I do not wish to hear your excuses," Lucius said with a raised hand. "I will see Darren first—alone."
"Yes, Mr. Malfoy," Ginny bit out, feeling like a child who was just scolded.
"Are you waiting for an invitation to leave?"
She hurried out of the office and faced the man. "Mr. Malfoy will see you now."
"You're the new assistant," the woman said after Lucius's door was shut. Her tone was incredulous. "I find that hard to believe."
Ginny's jaw ticked, and she did not respond.
"Lucius usually picks pretty girls." Ginny wanted to launch herself across her desk and rip the woman's black hair out. "You're not pretty, nor do you have any sense of style. Blouses are meant to be fitted, dear. People aren't supposed to have to question your gender."
"Excuse me?" Ginny snapped.
The woman's brown eyes were familiar as she leveled them on Ginny. "Well, you're a Weasley, the only girl in fact. It makes sense that you would be confused about your gender."
It all clicked into place: the voice, the nose, those eyes. "Pansy Parkinson, mean and nasty as ever."
"It's a special talent," Pansy said idly. "What is a Weasley doing in a Slytherin's nest?"
"Slytherin's nest?" Ginny laughed quietly. "I see you haven't grown at all, Pansy. If you hadn't noticed, we're not at Hogwarts. Houses don't define us."
"Be that as it may, you are still a Weasley and a Gryffindor," Pansy remarked snidely. "You don't belong here, especially not as Lucius Malfoy's personal assistant."
Darren exited the office at the moment, his face pale, and Ginny wondered what had transpired. But she didn't think on it too long, grabbing her quill and book as she was summoned into the office along with Pansy. The two of them entered, Pansy in front of her, and Ginny stood to the side as Pansy sat down in one of the chairs. Magnolia would have told her to sit, but for some reason, she assumed Lucius would want her to remain scarce.
"Miss Weasley, I dislike this habit of having to wait on you," Lucius said, gray eyes trained on Ginny. "Should I have a house elf dust your chair for you? Is it not suitable for your limited tastes?"
Ginny couldn't help the blush that stained her cheeks when Pansy snorted. "Sorry, Mr. Malfoy."
"Now then, you should know Ms. Parkinson. The two of you attended school together," Lucius said.
Ginny nodded, realizing that Lucius used Miss for her and Ms. for Pansy. It was almost as if he were saying that there was no chance that Ginny would be married or attached to someone, whereas Pansy could be. Oddly, she found herself offended by that, especially since Miss made her feel like she was a child. She brushed those thoughts aside and tuned in as Pansy and Lucius began to discuss the interview, which would be focusing on Malfoy International's branching off into women's fashion.
At the end of the meeting, Pansy fidgeted and said, "They will ask you about the more recent scandal."
"I'm a Malfoy, Ms. Parkinson. There is always a scandal," Lucius said, dismissing her with a wave of his hand. "Stay, Miss Weasley."
She almost bit out, 'I'm not a pet,' but restrained herself.
"I have an office house elf. Her name is Dilly, and she can provide you with tea if needs be," Lucius remarked. "Have the arrangements been made for lunch?"
"Yes, Mr. Malfoy, at the Golden Coral," Ginny answered.
"That's all," Lucius said.
Ginny turned and left the office, eyes bulging at the stack of mail in the inbox, which kept growing. She spent the rest of the morning attempting to sort through the letters, unsure of whether to discuss the appointments with Lucius or make them herself. At some point, she heard a soft pop coming from Lucius's office and knew it must be the house elf with tea. She had never seen the house elves cleaning before and never used them. But it was nice to know that she wouldn't be fetching tea.
The lunch meeting had been a disaster. For some reason, her reservation had been confirmed for two instead of noon, and the Golden Coral had been brimming with customers. While they had attempted to pacify Lucius, who was more upset with Ginny than the Golden Coral staff, they had not been able to make room for him. The meeting had ended up taking place at a small cafe next door that had terrible tea and burnt food. Ginny spent the entire lunch trying to ignore the icy gaze of Lucius Malfoy.
After lunch, they had returned to the office, and Lucius had not said a word to her. Somehow, she found this to be more terrifying than if he had yelled at her or threw things. She didn't like the idea that he was simply sitting inside his office, stewing. When she had to go in and inform him of the reservation at a restaurant in Dijon, he had simply nodded and said nothing.
The interview with the Daily Prophet went well, and Lucius still had not said anything to her. When a quarter to five rolled around and they were readying themselves to leave on the Portkey, Ginny had deluded herself into believing that Lucius would say nothing to her. And indeed, he did not. In fact, she found that she was receiving the silent treatment from him, which would have been comical if it didn't involve her job.
Even after they landed in a pile of mud next to an inn in Dijon, Lucius said absolutely nothing, waving his wand to clean himself off. She did the same and pulled out the directions to the restaurant that Sandra from transportation had recommended. The place was quaint and reeked of money, and Ginny was happy to know that at least one thing seemed to go right, until she realized that no one in Dijon seemed to speak English. She only knew a few words of French, mostly swear words picked up from her sister-in-law.
"Miss Weasley, I was under the impression that you spoke French, according to the resume you submitted," Lucius said with a raised eyebrow.
Ginny blushed, remembering that she had fibbed that line since she thought that it would never be needed. "Er—right, but uhm—"
"Your eloquence astonishes me," Lucius said dryly. "I shall order for us then."
The rest of the evening was spent in silence. Ginny listened to Lucius speak French as if he were a native French speaker and found herself enraptured by his voice. She never understood it when Bill said he loved to hear Fleur speak French, but she did now. There was simply something riveting about the language, and a pink tinge suffused her cheeks as she was caught staring at Lucius Malfoy. She berated herself for even thinking about how attractive he seemed, reminding herself that he was Lucius Malfoy, old enough to be her father and married. The fact that she had to remind herself of these things made her blush even more and feel slightly disgusted.
Dinner ended, and she began to wonder why they were in Dijon, other from to have dinner. Her question was soon answered when Lucius grabbed her arm and Apparated to what looked to be a farm. She screamed and ducked as a winged-horse flew overhead, almost knocking her over with its extended hooves.
"Miss Weasley, you're scaring the Abraxans," Lucius scolded.
"Er—sorry," she muttered, though she didn't know why she had to apologize when he nearly killed her. "Where are we?"
"An Abraxan farm, Miss Weasley," Lucius replied as if it were obvious. "Narcissa wishes to add some to our animal collection."
Four hours later, Ginny's Portkey landed her outside her building, and she hurried in, reeking of excrement and covered in dirt and grass. Her kitten heels had sunken in the dirt, and she tripped, landing herself in a rather large pile of Abraxan dung. When she tried to get up, she ended up standing on her fallen purse, the unmistakable sound of her wand breaking reaching her ears. Lucius made no move to help her, and she spent the rest of the evening being laughed at by the stable hands and the owner of the farm, not to mention the fact that everyone stayed away from her because of the stench.
She let herself into her apartment, dropping the pieces of her broken wand on her counter. The only thing she could think to do at the moment was to take a shower and maybe burn her clothes. She went to the bathroom, turned on the tap, and stripped out of her clothing, briefly glancing at her reflection and gagging at the sight of dung in her hair.
Hopping in the shower, she thought of Lucius's parting words to her, "Should you fail to perform to my levels tomorrow, Miss Weasley, I will not hesitate to fire you." The words had been chilling to her ears, and she didn't know why she cared if he fired her. She would get a severance package. But she knew it would be because she failed, and she hated failing.
I hope you enjoyed!