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The Founding of Pigwarts II – Cooking Chaos
Chapter 16: Everybody Likes Ducks
"I was thinking," Ginny commented on their way out of the Forbidden Forest. They had walked for a while, and then Daphne had suggested riding Dean, and after some giggling and blushing and imagining how everyone else would understand it if she told them what she had done, Ginny had concluded that the problem would be solved by simply not telling everyone else about it. Still, she preferred walking and let Daphne do all the riding business.
"That judging by the silence and lack of any wildlife, we probably left all the centaurs, spiders, and other ghastly beasts behind to Diagon Alley?" Daphne spoke, proving that she could ride a cow and think at the same time.
"Erm, no," the redhead admitted, although there seemed to be some truth in it – the forest was indeed abnormally quiet. Of course, perhaps being shrunk and confined into a glass ball could have such effects on its inhabitants, causing them emotional trauma or something like that; but then again, the idea of leaving all the magical and non-magical creatures behind to Diagon Alley while they themselves had Apparated here with the forest seemed rather plausible as well. So there was a considerable chance that a bunch of centaurs, several unicorns, and lots and lots of spiders were getting themselves acquainted with city life this very moment. And thestrals, too, but they didn't count because they were only seen by some. Well, perhaps it was time they got out and saw the world a bit, made new friends, visited new places, and all that stuff. And caused some decent chaos as well.
Ginny only hoped that no one would be able to trace it back to them, and then send them to Azkaban for an attempt of genocide or something like that. Hopefully those spiders could behave.
"Actually," she began, deciding that if they had rained Diagon Alley over with an abundance of dangerous species, the situation back there had probably been solved already, judging by the amount of time they had spent in the café after Apparating here, and there was nothing more they could do, except for staring at the sky and whistling, "I was more like thinking that perhaps Malfoy will notice this huge stretch of forest lying next to his house."
"I didn't consider this," Daphne admitted, falling into pensiveness. "I guess we just have to hope he has better things to do than deal with a couple of trees that hadn't been there before."
Ginny looked around in the forest. If it was made up by only a couple of trees, then those were some rather fast trees, hopping from one spot to another so quickly that they gave the onlooker the illusion that there were hundreds of them. Speedy trees, she grinned.
"We could put a huge bow on top of it," Daphne suggested, "and a card addressed to Draco. This way he knows it's a gift for him, and not just a few trees who decided to go for a walk."
"But then he knows it was you," Ginny remarked.
"Not necessarily," the Slytherin winked. "I don't have to sign the card, do I?"
"But who else besides you is crazy enough to give him an entire forest as a present?"
"What, you think that I'm the only person in the whole wide world capable of doing such a thing?" Daphne laughed.
"Yes," Ginny asserted firmly.
"What kind of world is this," the other girl sighed dramatically.
"Sane?" the redhead ventured.
"Boring," Daphne declared. "But at least it still has me."
"Oh, yes, you're the saviour of the day," Ginny remarked, although only half-sarcastically, for she couldn't deny that the world did need people crazy enough to hand out a forest as a gift. Otherwise, it really would have been too boring.
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Once they were out of the forest and it was bearing a nice huge bright orange bow with fluorescent pink polka dots, with a card attached to it announcing this a belated birthday present to Draco, Ginny and Daphne turned their backs towards it, mostly because the bow was painful to look at, and walked to the shore of the lake instead, where Dean was already quenching his thirst.
"It's a bit small," the Gryffindor stated after a while of staring at it and realizing that it was not too keen on enlarging under her gaze. "More of a pond, really."
"You're too picky," Daphne snapped. "It's a body of water, be happy with it."
But Ginny seemed to be in the mood to complain.
"It doesn't have the Giant Squid. It probably wouldn't even fit the Giant Squid."
"It has eels!" Daphne reminded her.
"But it needs a Giant Something! It's not going to be right without a Giant Something," Ginny remained stubborn.
"A Giant Jellyfish?"
"And where would I get a Giant Jellyfish?"
"You're the Professor of Care for Magical Creatures," Daphne shrugged. "And when you go for that, try to get some sessile polyps as well."
"Why me?" Ginny whined.
"Because you're the one not happy with a simple Eel Pond."
"True," she admitted, thinking who the hell should she ask or where the hell should she go for a Giant Jellyfish and some sessile polyps, whatever those were.
They stared at the pond for a while longer, until coming to the conclusion that if Malfoy saw them there, he might notice a few similarities between them and the forest, like the fact that neither should have been there but still was, and then he might get some funny ideas, and thus proceeding into the Manor.
"Here at least he won't be seeing us and the forest at the same time," Daphne had remarked.
"At least as long as we stay away from windows," Ginny had added.
This wasn't their first time roaming around Malfoy Manor. But all those other times it had been mostly observing, planning, and plain sneaking around. Now it was time they actually did something. First, they headed for the ground floor corridor that was going to be the dormitories of the Weasley House. Daphne had assured her thousands of times that Draco never used them anyway, and Ginny decided it would be less distressful to simply believe her.
With one flick of her wand and a very useful spell from the 1001 Very Useful Spells for Redecoration, they painted the walls and floors pale yellow and most of the furniture brown. The largest room in the hallway was turned into the common room, the others were to serve as bedrooms for the students.
"That's rather luxurious," Ginny commented, looking around the Weasley common room. "I really wouldn't mind being a Weasley at all."
"You are a Weasley," Daphne snickered. "Not for long, though. Yet after we have done the other rooms, I'm sure being a Potter wouldn't hurt either."
"Hmm, but this place still needs a little extra," she continued. "The Hufflepuffs loved plants, didn't they? I went to their common room once – living like in a greenhouse – plants and flowers and herbs everywhere. It was rather nice, actually, the green gave so much to their yellow and black. But your brother has never struck me as a plant lover. Surely he loves something, doesn't he?"
"Pancakes," Ginny said at once. "But better not decorate the House with those. And what were you doing in Hufflepuff anyway?"
"Playing hide-and-seek," Daphne replied, drawing huge bumblebees, no, weaselbees onto the yellow walls, conjuring up some vases with sunflowers and several golden plates.
"In Hufflepuff? And what are these plates for?" she asked, half-sure she knew the answer.
"No, in Hogwarts. But I figured it was a good hiding place. And the plates are for pancakes. We'll talk with the house-elves so that there would be warm pancakes waiting for the children every day."
"So, did you win?" Ginny queried.
"The hide-and-seek? No. Theo managed to sneak into McGonagall's office."
"Really?" Ginny gasped in surprise.
"He got detention, of course," Daphne continued with an amused smile, "but his Villain of the Week title was well worth it."
"So, did you ever get that title?" she asked, growing a black-currant bush into the corner of the room for black-currant jam was her favourite with pancakes.
"Hah!" Daphne snorted, scattering weaselbee pillows around the room, "I was the High Rogue for months."
"High Rogue?" Ginny couldn't hide her smile.
"It was a very desirable position, I'll have you know," the Slytherin defended herself.
"I'm sure it was, Lady High Rogue."
"Glad you admit that, Miss Chief of Mischief."
Ginny sent her an evil glare and muttered something like 'stupid Fred and George' under her breath.
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"This founding a school business is rather tiring," Ginny mentioned after a few hours, when the had long left Weasley House, climbed up to take care of Potter and Granger, and now were back in the dungeons decorating Malfoy. And damn it sounded weird to talk like that.
"I'm done with Potter and moved on to Malfoy," she declared, to see whether spoken aloud it sounded just as bizarre as in her mind.
"After riding Dean for a good half an hour," she added. "Does this sound a bit… freakish to you as well?"
"It sounds a bit false to me," Daphne replied, eyeing the rough stone of the dungeon wall, which now happened to be green with silver polka dots (she really liked those) and dragonflies that were really Malflies. "You didn't ride Dean, remember? I did, and you just watched."
"Yes, definitely freakish," the redhead concluded, adding finishing touches to a duck pond in the middle of the Malfoy common room. It had green water, of course, and silver rubber ducks.
"Ducks are neutral," she had claimed when Daphne pointed out that the symbol of this house was a dragonfly, not a duck. "Everybody likes ducks!"
"We should leave the chains," the Slytherin presently commented. "Chains are fun."
"For you and Malfoy and Hermione, perhaps, but not for eleven-years-old children," Ginny spoke wisely, creating a little whirlpool in the water and looking the ducks swirl round and round and round.
"Not to corrupt the innocent," Daphne agreed, vanishing the chains.
"So, do you think we are done here?" the redhead questioned once the surface of the pond had stilled and the ducks slowed down.
"Let's see," her companion said, looking around the room. "Green and silver – check. Many fluffy pillows – check. Malflies – check. Soft fluffy carpet – check. Duck pond – check. Yes, it seems we truly are finished here."
"Oh thank Merlin, I'm so tired," Ginny sighed in relief.
"You're thanking Merlin for being tired?" Daphne got confused.
"I want a bed," she stated, not paying any attention to her friend's words.
"I know where you can have a nice comfy bed," the Slytherin smirked, and grabbed her hand, "Let me take you to a nice comfy bed."
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Ginny had to admit that the bed was nice and comfy. And it was even nicer and comfier due to the fact that she had had to go up a long staircase and go down a long hallway to get there. But now she was there, and the bed was soft and nice and comfy, and she didn't give a damn about anything else, not even Daphne searching through the drawers.
Wait a second.
"Where am I?" she suddenly asked, a nasty suspicion sneaking into her mind.
"Here," Daphne replied calmly, "in this room on this bed."
"And whose bed is this?"
"Draco's."
Ginny sat up as if struck by lightning.
"We are in Malfoy's bedroom? Why are we in Malfoy's bedroom?"
"Because I haven't been here for a while and have to catch up with my snooping."
"Oh no, you don't," the redhead warned, her voice growing dark and dangerous. "You are not going to snoop around in Malfoy's bedroom while I'm resting on his bed."
"So come and join my snooping," the Slytherin offered.
"I thought you'd never ask," Ginny gave a devilish smirk and jumped off the bed, all her exhaustion suddenly vanished.
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Note: So, what do you think they are going to find from Draco's bedroom? And how did you like the Houses?
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