seventeen. revise.
Ginny woke up the next morning halfway through breakfast. Knowing it was too late to take a shower, she pulled on the most comfortable things she could find: a pair of jeans and a light jumper. She knew it wasn't exactly regulation attire, but at this point, she didn't care. She had been up late between getting acclimated to having Maxwell as her partner and focusing on revising for the final exam. She figured if she had to see this whole thing through, she may as well do the best she can. Galleons were hard to come by, after all. And Ginny Weasley was no quitter.
She threw her hair up in a careless bun and grabbed her belongings without a second glance at the mirror. She knew what she would be seeing in the reflection: an exhausted Ginny. There were likely dark circles and bags underneath her eyes from cramming in as much study time as she could before passing out for a few hours. The whole situation with Draco had been distracting her from her objective of successfully completing the program. She wasn't about to let a dumb bloke get in the way of her goals.
Instead of heading down the last flight of stairs towards the dining room, she made a left after hopping down the second set of stairs, towards the kitchens. She was not in the mood to get questioning looks from the other women about her outfit. Nor did she want to have to talk to Maxwell. He was nice and all, and easy on the eyes, but that was it. It just wasn't the same. She missed the snarky conversations she had with Draco. It was refreshing, it was exciting, and it always kept her on her toes. Ginny sighed as she reached over the counter to grab a few muffins and coffee. She needed the strong stuff to make it through the day.
Just as she was digging into the second muffin, she heard a muffled rumbling noise in the distance, likely the gong signaling the beginning of class. Ginny sighed and silently wrapped the muffin up to put in her book bag for safekeeping. She needed all the fuel she could get.
By the time she arrived to the classroom, nearly everyone had settled in. Thoughtfully, Lena had saved a seat for her in the back, far away from Draco and Blaise. She would have to thank Lena one of these days for being so considerate. It was the final class before their final exams tomorrow, and the morning session would simply a revising period. She was extremely grateful for that because Ginny wasn't sure how much information she could fit into her overworked brain.
As she settled into her seat in between the window and Lena, Ginny looked around the room while taking out her notes and quills out of her bag. Narcissa sat at the front of the room behind a large, looming wooden desk. She was scribbling away as usual in that notebook of hers while the room was quietly humming. Maxwell, she noticed, looked a little deflated at having to sit next to Daphne and her friends. It seemed like Draco and Blaise were not talking to him. Nor was she in the mood to plaster on an artificial smile and make small talk with him, either. Ginny couldn't help but smirk a little at the sight before her.
"I thought you were happy that you got reassigned partners," Lena asked quietly, noticing Ginny's expression.
Ginny turned to look at Lena's questioning glance. "I mean, I am. But…" she trailed off, unsure of what to say.
"What time did you get in last night? You were up pretty late practicing," Lena asked.
"We were practicing the waltz. It took a little getting used to since I've only ever practiced with Dra-Malfoy," Ginny replied, quickly catching herself. "It was a bit harder to get used to our height difference."
Lena snorted. "Draco's taller than Maxwell and you guys seemed to move around the room just fine, Gin."
"Yeah, well…" Ginny stopped herself. She couldn't exactly tell Lena that it just wasn't the same dancing with Max. Every time he touched her, placing his hand on her back or their hands clasped together, she felt numb. Ginny missed the sparks that flew between her and Draco. They just… worked, somehow. Ginny couldn't explain it, but she could feel it. It was really too bad that Draco turned out to be a conniving bastard.
Ginny frowned. She needed to stop reliving the past. There was no point on focusing on inconsequential matters. It wasn't going to help her pass this exam. "No offense, Lena, but I really need to get to memorizing all of these useless facts for the exam."
Lena's eyes searched Ginny's darting ones but said nothing. Instead, she turned back to her own lecture notes and began to concentrate on revising herself. Ginny breathed a quiet sigh of relief and focused on her own task at hand. She opened her notebook to the first page and began to concentrate on memorizing each and every fact that she had meticulously documented during lectures.
Not even fifteen minutes later, Ginny's eyes were growing tired and overwhelmed by the charts in front of her. She had hated History of Magic back at Hogwarts, and memorizing everything about the Pureblood families was just as torturous.
"Psst, Lena," Ginny whispered, nudging her friend.
"What?" Lena replied, blinking at her owlishly.
"These bloodlines are bloody confusing," Ginny said, bringing her notebook to the middle of their table. "How exactly is Blaise attending Charm School? I don't remember Zabini being one of the Sacred Twenty Eight."
Shuffling through her own parchments, Lena produced a long scroll of the bloodlines. Ginny squinted, trying to make heads or tails of it, but it was impossible. All of the lines crissed and crossed on so many different directions it was making her own eyes cross.
Lena followed one of the solid black lines with the tip of her quill, Ginny's eyes trailing close behind. "See here? I guess his grandmother... or great grandmother?... Is a Flint. Something like that. It took me awhile to figure out too, what with Blaise's mother marrying nearly a dozen times."
"These flow charts barely flow. It's an incestuous spider web," Ginny commented, still gazing at the tangle of lines. She noticed that Blaise was distantly related to the Fawleys, through his mother's side. From her cram session last night, she had gathered that the Fawleys were not as rich as some of the other Sacred families. Her family would always be at the bottom, but Maxwell's family had nowhere near the same amassed fortune as the Malfoys and Zabinis.
"You know how these old-fashioned Pureblood families are," Lena shrugged. "They feel the need to keep the bloodlines pure. It's kind of ridiculous, honestly. How many different ways can you be distantly related before it's too much?"
At Lena's last comment, Ginny couldn't help but scan the flow chart once again. She inwardly breathed a sigh of relief to see that she was very distantly related to Draco. And immediately after the fact, she wanted to slap herself for feeling the need to figure this out. What does it matter now? It's over! Move on, woman!
"Okay, okay. So damn pushy," Ginny muttered out loud to her inner voice.
"Hmm?" Lena said, barely looking up from her notes.
"Nothing," Ginny said quickly, slightly grimacing at her for voicing her thoughts out loud. "Just making sure this information is ingrained in my brain before the night is over."
After piling his plate with a mountain of food, Draco quickly escaped into the common room. He was in no mood to sit with the rest of the class in the dining room. Nearly everyone was frantic about the silly exam, though he couldn't understand why. For most of his classmates, this was knowledge that they had grown up with. All of these things should be secondhand to them. Even Daphne, who knew the material like the back of her hand, forced him to revise last night.
So, he enjoyed the peace and quiet of the room as he ate his lunch. It was the last bit of silence he would have over the next couple of days. After lunch, they would be heading over to the MVO Headquarters for a run-through of Saturday's event. Everyone needed to know their marks and when to enter to the music. Between the procession, the introduction, and the dancing, he knew it would be a large ordeal with the entire student body.
At least Draco managed to be productive during his speedy lunch. He caught up on the mountain of owls he had received in the past few days. He had been futilely ignoring them during the entire mess that he had fallen into with Ginny. But there was little time to wallow. He swiftly responded to the most urgent letters and even managed to read a few contracts, despite the fact that he kept yawning while scanning through the parchment scrolls. Draco still wasn't getting a good night's sleep. He hadn't felt this exhausted in a long time, even with some of the stressful acquisitions the Malfoy Estate had dealt with under his charge.
Draco eyed the wristwatch on his arm, and decided to head back to his room to change. If they were going to be dancing, he had best put on proper footwear before his mother would nag him about it later.
With his plate finished, it simply vanished, the house elves magically summoning it back to the kitchens. Banishing up his writing materials to their rightful place, Draco quickly headed into the hallway and ascended the flights of stairs necessary to his bedroom. Just as he had one more staircase to mount, Draco ran into the person he least wanted to see in the corridor.
"Oh, joy. It's you," she deadpanned.
It was Ginny. Only it was an exhausted, cranky Ginny in front of him. She looked as tired and over everything as he felt. The jumper looked very old with its frayed edges as did the jeans. Her hair was haphazardly pulled back into a messy knot, while there were dark circles and slight bags under her eyes. A thick parchment scroll was in her hand, crumpling in her fist.
"So, that's how it's going to be?" Draco suddenly blurted out. He hadn't meant to say that out loud, let alone to Ginny. He intended to be calm and collected, putting up his usual cool façade so she wouldn't expect anything. But Draco was tired. Tired of acting like nothing bothered him and pretending that nothing had happened between the two of them.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Ginny retorted with a frown.
Draco snarled in frustration. "It's always one step forward, two steps backwards with us! Why is it like this?" It had taken forever for the both of them to warm up to each other, and just like that in a blink of an eye, whatever foundation they had built had crumbled beneath them.
"Maybe you should ask yourself that," she snapped, moving forward to walk past him. She carefully made sure not to brush up against him as she made her way down the corridor.
Draco angrily ran a hand through his hair. He wasn't good at laying out his emotions before him. Ginny easily wore her heart on her sleeve, but he rarely told people things. Real things. Things that he was feeling, hoping, imagining. He watched her reach the end of the corridor before disappearing with a right turn.
He sighed regretfully. His mind was overflowing with words that were left unspoken. The Manor suddenly seemed too small for the both of them. Knowing he had to escape to gather his wits, Draco quickly climbed the staircase, two steps at a time.
Once he reached the room, he threw the door open and made a beeline for his dresser, the third drawer from the top in particular. It had slowly been designated his junk drawer, where he kept hideous things that he didn't know what to do with. He couldn't re-gift them or exactly get rid of them either, so the items had eventually been allocated into this drawer. Draco probably should have burned all its contents, but that required effort. He slid the drawer open and quickly cast aside several things to find the thing that he was looking for.
He cast aside a pair of neon red and green flashing socks that still hadn't had its charm worn off despite the fact they were given to him two years ago. Then there was the dinky certificate stating that a star was named after him, when in reality there were dozens of stars named after him. Better known as a constellation. He had quickly dumped the insipid girl that had proudly given him that redundant gift. Draco also threw tacky towels over his shoulder that had been given to him by a potential investor. What made matters worse was that they were monogrammed, but with the incorrect initials.
A look of triumph graced Draco's face as his hands wrapped around a small rectangular box. His arm snaked out of the drawer, cigarette carton still in hand. He knew it was a bad idea, and he hadn't had one in at least a month, but it was the perfect escape.
Several minutes later, Draco had Apparated near the stables. Normally, he would never bother to stray this far onto the Malfoy grounds unless it was necessary, but he wanted to get away as far as possible. He couldn't go out to the Quidditch Pitch or stew in the gardens like he usually would do. The bloody redhead could be anywhere. At least he knew she wouldn't want to come anywhere near the stables after that embarrassing incident with Daphne.
Draco reached into the pocket of his trousers and returned with the carton. He gave it a couple of shakes until a white stick finally jiggled out of it. Right when he was about to light the cigarette, Draco heard a moan. A feminine moan.
He wrinkled his face in disgust. "Bloody hell, is this for real? This place is worse than Hogwarts."
Fortunately, there were a series of stables, so Draco raced towards the other end of the stables as fast as his feet could take him. He cast a silencing charm in the direction of the presumably shagging couple just for good measure. Draco also wished he could magically wipe the moment from his mind. Alas, memory charms were not his forte.
He leaned against one of the stables, lit the cigarette, and began to enjoy it in silence. A steady stream of smoke escaped from his nose as he exhaled in pleasure. Suddenly, a horse neighed behind him, brushing up against Draco's back. It startled him, causing him to lose his footing.
Squish.
Draco's eyes widened. He reluctantly looked down to see that his expensive formal shoes had ended up in horse droppings. He had hit a new low. Literally and figuratively, he was in deep shit.
That Friday evening, everyone was anxiously waiting for their final exam results. While most of the students had gathered in the common room after dinner to pass the time until the results were delivered, Ginny decided to retreat to her room. Not only had she wanted to get a head start on her packing, she wanted to avoid Draco. She had been unnerved by his rare display of emotions in the corridor yesterday. It almost made Ginny want to give him a chance and break her stubborn resolve. But she couldn't let him continue to make a fool of her, so she quickly turned the other cheek.
A couple of hoots from the balcony doors alerted Ginny that the post had finally arrived. She dropped the dress she was folding and was surprised to see two owls on the railing of the balcony. She walked out into the cool night to see a Malfoy Manor owl regally balancing itself on the balcony next to an overly enthusiastic Pigwidgeon.
Ginny retrieved the letters from the owls and give them treats before they took off for their journeys back to their homes. Walking back to her bed, she scanned both of the letters. The first one was addressed to her in Hermione's even handwriting. She quickly opened up the letter and scanned its contents with a sigh, making a note to write back to her later. There was too much to tell her and she simply didn't have time. Hermione would understand. Throwing her friend's letter into her book bag, she turned the other envelope around. It bore a waxy seal emblazoned with the Mulieres Viginti Octo crest. Ginny's hands trembled a little as she carefully opened the letter. A wave of relief coursed through the body. She had passed the course with flying colors, with an Outstanding. At least everything that had transpired here hadn't been for naught.
She threw herself onto the bed, laying on a pile of rumpled clothing and all of her other belongings. The whole morning she had been nervous, almost as nervous as she had been before her first Hogwarts Quidditch game and her final Healer's exams. She had barely eaten anything for breakfast, except for a piece of toast Lena forced down her throat, which thankfully abated her nausea. Ginny had chewed through the quill she was using on the exam, and had to throw it away, as much as it pained her.
After the euphoria had worn off from getting her exam results, a bundle of nerves were beginning to tighten in her stomach once again at the thought of tomorrow. The Ball was a culmination of everything they had learned in Charm School. Nearly every lesson they had learned would be put to the test in a practical setting. Even though they weren't being evaluated anymore, it somehow made it worse as they would be rubbing shoulders with the crème de la crème of Pureblood society.
Moreover, Ginny was happy to return to her quaint, regular life. She would be getting her Healer's schedule in a matter of days and couldn't wait to see what floor of St. Mungo's she would be placed at. Most significantly, she would finally be moving out of Shell Cottage! It was both scary and thrilling to know that she would finally be moving out on her own, truly beginning her grown-up adult life.
Alone. There was that silly, little voice in her head again. Ginny quickly pushed that thought aside and got up from the bed. It was time to get a move on and finish packing her things. Everything she had brought to Malfoy Manor had been thrown onto the bed, except for the few comfortable clothes she would need tomorrow and her Ball gown. Looking at the sight before her, she was determined to get everything done tonight in order to sleep in as late as possible before having to get ready to go to Headquarters.
It's going to be a long night, Ginny thought grimly as she went back to folding her clothes.
The next morning, Ginny was woken up by an irate Lena who was threatening to project water out of her wand in order to wake the redhead up. She dragged her feet after a quick shower as she pulled on a t-shirt and shorts before packing up her necessary items for the long day ahead. Today was finally the day. The Ball. A few weeks ago she was cautiously excited for the event, but now she just wanted to get it over with.
Ginny and Lena met the rest of the class in the same drawing room that they had all gathered in the first day. Everyone had luggage and garment bags tucked over their arms for the night. All of the other suitcases and trunks would be t delivered to their homes by the house elves. She took a small look around the room. It had the same purple walls and the morning sunlight spilling through the towering windows. Only instead of thirty nervous witches and wizards in cocktail attire, everyone looked a lot like Ginny. Some were nervous, some were impatient, while some were simply still sleepy. Everyone seemed to have pulled on whatever comfy clothes they could find.
As Ginny moved forward to place a finger on the portkey with her classmates, it struck her. This would be the last time she would be setting foot in Malfoy Manor. This time tomorrow she would be waking up in her tiny little bed in the Burrow, likely with her mother fawning all over her. Just as she soaked in one last glance over as much of the Manor as she could, a place and now a society she no longer feared, that familiar tug at her navel pulled her in and whisked her away.
Once she regained her composure on the paved ground underneath her feet, she gazed up at the building before her. While it was most definitely not as large as Malfoy Manor, it was still an impressive building. It was a stunning white structure with a triangular roof, held up with striking columns. It by exquisite gardens and lush grass, and there was no other building anywhere close by. She assumed they must be in some Wizarding portion of England, but couldn't be entirely sure. Grasping the strap of her duffel bag slung on her shoulder, Ginny followed the rest of the class into Mulieres Viginti Octo Headquarters.
Kendra led the way, pointing out some of the rooms they were passing by, as if they were on an official tour. They had passed by several offices and conference rooms, and the banquet hall. However, the banquet hall's grand doors were tightly locked, going under preparations for the event tonight. Once they had passed through a library that contained desks, lamps, and hundreds of valuable books. The men and women parted ways at the staircase.
The women walked into a large room with plenty of dressing room stations. A series of empty chairs stood before lighted mirrors with all of the necessary cosmetics and hair products for the women. Ginny hung up her Ball gown on the nearest rack to be steamed by a house elf. She settled into the nearest station next to Lena, and before she knew it, preparations began to go underway.
Every little thing was taken care of before the end of the day. Eyebrows were shaped to perfection, any unnecessary body hair was magically removed, hands and toes were given manicures and pedicures, and everyone's teeth were gleaming white. Just as she had finally taken a breather with refreshing cucumber water, a familiar face grinned behind her. Giovanni looked back at her in the mirror through his blue-tinted glasses. Ginny resisted the urge to roll her eyes, praying to anyone that would listen that he wouldn't go crazy with her hair.
Before she knew it, it was thirty minutes before the Ball promptly began at six o'clock in the evening. Her hair and makeup were tastefully done, and Ginny was more than satisfied with how she looked. The gown that she had assistance in getting zipped up in from Lena, looked absolutely breathtaking. Ginny slipped into her high heels and gathered the skirt of her dress to head out into the corridor that led to the staircase into the banquet hall.
The other girls looked around for their partners just as she was doing, all looking classically stunning in their respective ball gowns. The men looked like they had been waiting around for much longer, undoubtedly having had to spend less time getting ready than the women.
Kendra quickly forced the young men out of the corridor and led them downstairs. While their escorts were an integral part of the evening, each of the women would make their grand entrance into high society at the arms of their fathers. Their respective escort would meet them at the foot of the stairs, and the woman would pass through the hands of her father to her escort. There, they would form an assembly line to greet and curtsey at important officials in high society. After a decadent formal dinner, the real program would begin. Each debutante would be formally introduced to the audience and the president of Mulieres Viginte Octo. They would perform a formal waltz as a class before they were left to their own devices to navigate a high society function at their leisure.
"Ladies," Kendra's instructive voice floated over to her. "Please find your fathers and get in line in alphabetical order. We're to start in a few minutes."
A/N: And we'll be at the Ball (finally!) in the next chapter! Sorry if this one seemed a little short and with a cliffhanger, but I'm planning to make the next one longer. Thank you all so much for your lovely words and fantastic words. My writing time is also becoming more limited since now I'm out of the house four days a week. Good for me, bad for writing time. But in the meantime, I have another one shot up called "New Romantics"! My brain has been exploding with ideas, and I couldn't resist this one. Oh, and, I'm always randomly on my Tumblr (notallmalfoys) and I created a Twitter on a whim (notallmalfoys). Thanks so much for sticking with this story for this long by following, favoriting, and reviewing! I do hope you leave another awesome review on your way out! And maybe check out that one-shot as well. :)