Chapter 8: Once Upon a Wanker

That evening, Amara was sitting in Ginny's room, on her old bed, brushing her hair. She was wearing a white satin nightie

"Come on, Hermione," urged Ginny, nudging the curly-haired witch through the doorway. "Ask her."

"Ginny, you already know what happened. I don't see why-"

The red-haired witch cut Hermione off. "You want to know don't you?"

"Yes, but-"

"Girls!" Amara called, putting the brush down. She straightened herself and crossed her legs. "If you're hoping to ask me a question, I suggest you do it then… unless you like giving me headache with your indecisive blathering."

Hermione was taken back by the older witch's attitude. She really didn't want to ask now, but Ginny joked.

"You're such a bitch, Amara," the young Weasley said. The raven-haired witch smirked at the endearment. "Talking the way you do, I'm sure you and Snape will become fast friends."

"That's if he doesn't kill you first," added Hermione. The two Gryffindors couldn't help laughing.

"You're alright in my book, Hermione," said Amara. "Go on, ask your question."

"Well, it's about your big announcement, you said you didn't get fired this time?"

"Yeah…"

"How many times have you been fired?"

"Twice"

"How come?"

"Well, often an establishment isn't too keen on flogging the customers."

"You did what?!" Hermione asked in surprised. "That's not what Ginny said."

"And what?" Ginny shot back. "Ruin the whole story for you? I don't think so."

"Ahem," Amara cleared her throat, grabbing their attentions. "As I was saying…the first time it happened, I was working at the Leaky Cauldron, I ended up harming a customer, a very VALUED customer."

"And what about the second time?" asked Hermione.

"Same thing, same customer, different setting: the Three Broomsticks."

"Come on Amara," said Ginny. "There's more to it then that."

"Ginny, I already told you what happened," Amara reminded her.

"Yes, but you didn't tell me his name"

"So what?"

"I still want to know," Ginny whined, the mystery of it all still inching her brain.

"Is that why you brought the smartest girl of Hogwarts in here to interrogate me?"

"Yes, now spill," was Ginny's demand.

"Hermione," the former witch-maid began. "Do you really want to know what happened?"

"It sounds fascinating," Hermione said surly,"but you don't have to. I don't want to have to force you, if you really don't want to."

"Ever the Gryffindor…" Amara drawled in cross with a yawn. "Well girls, gather round for a story. Feel free to ask questions anytime."

She waited for the younger girls to get comfortable. Amara sprawled herself across her bed while Ginny and Hermione sat on Ginny's bed and faced her.

"Okay, two years ago, the summer of 1992, I was a witch maid at the Leaky Cauldron. I lived there for years and I had this special room. It used to be like any ordinary room at the inn, the basic necessities, but I get bored, you know, so I made some changes."

"What kind of changes?" asked Hermione.

"Well, I saved some galleons and bought me this advanced spell book called "Enchanting Places". I ended up expanding the space; refining the master bathroom with some marble and gold fixtures, transfigured the cloth and furniture into something of a more bohemian chic style, and finally I made the ceiling simulate the sky."

"Just like Grand Hall at Hogwarts."

"Exactly like the Grand Hall at Hogwarts," Ginny confirmed. "I've seen it myself. It's no wonder why she left here for good. If I got a place like that with the price she's getting, I'd be out of here too if I didn't miss mum, dad, and everyone so much."

"Anyway, I left the inn one day to go to some parts of the Forbidden Forest closer to Hogsmeade. I had to gather some ingredients, kinds that only bloomed at night and some that would only so under the moonlight, for these potions I was planning to make. I may not have attended school, but there's no doubt I am a self-educated girl.

"However, I didn't return home that night. It was four-thirty in the morning and the trip along with the flower picking was just tiring. I was only fifteen then, and I didn't have apparition license. I still don't. So I did what I thought seemed like a good idea at the time and took a nap on some meadow in the Forbidden Forest, first putting up some protective wards of course.

"So I got up around noontime, inspected the forest for other ingredients now that it was clearer in the daylight, and I took the Knight Bus home.

"Then I headed to my room and spoke the password, but oddly enough, the door didn't swing open like it usually did. So I tried to open it the old fashion way and stuck the key in, but the door repelled it from the lock, so I went to see Tom about it.

"Amara, what happened to you? He asked me. I finally looked at myself in a mirror, and I saw I was this dead ugly mess. My hair was long then and it had all these twigs in the back of it, and my shirt and jeans were just covered in dirt. He told me that I was 'putting off the customers' and that I need to go upstairs and clean myself up, but I reminded him I couldn't."

-How can I clean myself up if I can't get into my own room? Better yet, why the hell can't I get into my room in the first place?

-It's booked.

-Why is my room booked? It's my room! You shouldn't have done that when I'm not around.

-I wouldn't have, but he had the galleons for it, altered and all, so I thought I'd make a profit.

-How is it that he even knew my room even existed?

-The boy was being right nasty about what my establishment had to offer, so I kind of mentioned your room to him.

-You could have just kicked him out, Tom.

-If he were someone else, I would have, but he was part of one the richest pureblood families known to England.

-Well, how long has he been in there?

-Been there since one. Said he wanted to freshen up and take a nap before he had to meet up with his father. He should be out soon enough.

-You know I want half of what you charged him…for the inconvenience.

-Consider it done.

"So we talked, and what happened was that he booked my room to some little pureblood brat who wanted the best room in the house to take a shower and a nap. And I accepted that and got a pretty profit from it seeing it was still my room."

"Rich pureblood brat?" asked Hermione. "He could be anyone from school, from any house."

"You're telling me," said Ginny. "I've been trying to figure it out for years. Even if I guessed his name right, she still wouldn't tell me."

"Why are you protecting his name?" asked Hermione.

"Honestly, I kind of felt guilty about what I did to him. I don't want everyone who knew him rubbing the incident in his face, well everyone except me. If word of this got out, it would be uncontrollable. He wouldn't be able to live it down."

"Can you at least tell me how old he was?"

"At the time… probably like twelve or thirteen.".

"He might be the same year as me," guessed Hermione.

"Maybe…" Amara let her answer hang in the air. She wasn't going to tell.

"So what happened next?"

"I went up the stairs and went into the storage closet. There was a sink there I could wash up in, and in there was my old uniform I out grew. I put it on and it was tight fit. My breasts were squeezed that my cleavage couldn't be hidden by the neckline, and the hem of my skirt was so short, it met my mid-thighs. It was just so embarrassing. I might as well have worn a tiny tea-cozy. Wizard-patron's leering at me in the hallway, and I couldn't hide. I just did what I normally did. I did my rounds, going to room to room, and with a flick of my wand, cleaned up and as quickly as possible. Some of the men in the rooms tried convincing me to stay awhile."

"That's so gross," the younger girls reacted in unison.

"Isn't it?... So I did my job, and the only room I didn't enter was mine. So I knocked on the door, hoping the guest would leave soon."

-Housekeeping…

Silence. No response. – The witch knocked on the door persistently.

-Housekeeping! – shrilled Amara. Still no response, so the maid let herself in. She didn't care anymore. It was 3:30 and a good enough time for him to check out, and if the boy gave her any cheek for it, she was more than ready to help send him on his way.

Amara shut the door quietly, and looked around the room. The room was the same; however, she discovered a shirt, trousers and underpants strewn across the floor. She flicked her wand at the mess, and they were neatly folded on the side table drawer.

'Just great,' she thought. The boy was in her bed sleeping absolutely starkers. Amara circled the bed and found him beneath the sheets. His body wasn't bad looking… if he was only a couple years older, who knows? He seemed to be sleeping. The fringe of his hair veiled his eyes.

If he wasn't awake, Amara didn't mind him being there. The nudity was a tad disconcerting, but it's only the sheets she was worried about. Sheets she sleeps in. 'Oh well,' Amara thought. They can be cleaned, and cleaning sullied sheets was a part of her job description.

So she turned around, and pretended he wasn't there. She went to the trunk from across the room and bent over to store it with the ingredients she gathered from the night before.

"And you know what happened as I began drying my ingredientsin order to put it into storage? I heard a noise."

"What sort of noise?" Hermione asked.

"Well, I heard a grunt, so I checked to see if he woke up, and it turns out…"

"He was beating his bludger right in her bed," Ginny answered for her.

"Quidditch? Indoors?" Hermione was out of the loop.

"No Hermione. Not Quidditch. Trust me. What he was beating definitely was not a bludger."

"Oh!" gasped Hermione, the meaning of the metaphor finally dawning on her.

"Yeah, bloody wank," Amara cursed.

"So what did you do next?"

"I did what any witch maid would do… I cleaned up."

"What did you mean? You didn't finish the job?" Hermione asked suggestively, catching Ginny and Amara by surprise.

"Can you believe it, Ginny?" Amara started. "I think the prim and proper Miss Granger made a joke, and a naughty one too."

"Oh stop it," said Hermione. She was blushing, and they all bursting in a fit of giggles.

"Shit! I just saw you…" Amara covered her face, blushing red. Oh Merlin… fuck! My bed…"

"Get out of here!" the guest yelled, frantically hiding himself in the bed.

"No, you should be checking out right now," the witch said, wanting to claim her territory. "You get out!"

"Well can you turn around and give me some privacy?"

"Funny, that you didn't seem so shy with your cock hanging out AFTER I came inside. At first, you actually looked like you were sleeping or was that all just pretend?"

"I… I…" the boy stuttered. "I'm not going to take this shit from some whore like you."

"I'm not a whore!" she screamed. "I haven't even had sex yet, so shut it!"

"Well you fooled me," he said slyly. "You could have magicked some decent clothes, you know, than to prance about dressed like the servile stupid slut you are."

"You take that back!" Amara spat, aiming her wand at him.

"Fuck no!" he said, and she lowered her wand, deciding to approach the matter a little differently.

"You know, Draco," the witch patronized him, "one of these days you're not going to be on top of the world anymore." Amara said as she walked towards the bed. Her body leaned against the bedpost, prompting the young Malfoy to hug the sheets around him tighter. "One of these days, I, the working girl, am going to enslave you, and when I do, you are going to regret a lot of things you've just said to me."

He snorted, "Yeah right, you own me? I never heard anything funnier than what you just said right now."

"You'll see, but in the meantime, I'm going to have to clean these sheets. Very expensive silk, and you just jizzed all over them."

"What?" he said alarmed.

She yanked the sheet out from under him, tosses it AND him to the floor, then petrified him.

Looking down at his frozen body, Amara said, "Don't worry I'm not going to violate you… well, not in a way that's going to please you. Mouthy wankers just aren't my type…"

"Well, I told him to leave, and when he refused, I did what I thought seemed like a good idea… I petrified him while he was still starkers."

"You're unbelievable," said Hermione.

"Thanks," Amara smirked at the compliment then continued on with her story. "So I left him stiff in the hallway, tossed his clothes at him, and the spell wore off in three minutes. From that moment, there was no way of dodging my fate of being fired."

"It was totally worth it though," said Ginny gleefully.

"You know," began Hermione, "seeing as he got you fired, you really should thank him. Because had you still been working at the inn or at the Three Broomsticks, you wouldn't have spent your time honing your skills for your apprenticeship."

"True, true," Amara agreed.

"So Amara," Ginny said with a salacious glint in her eye. A new juicy question had formed in her mind. "Who was it you left Percy for? You know, before you moved out of here?"

Amara shook her head in amusement. Ginny just lives for gossip. The raven-haired witch got up from the bed, leaving the question unanswered. She smiled at the girls still waiting a response, and sauntered out the door. Turning out the light, she bade them goodnight.