The Wedding of a Boy Hero
Disclaimer: Own nada . . .
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Chapter Twenty-One: Grumpy
He kissed me . . . he kissed me . . . he kissed ME!It had been a nice reconciliation with Harry. Ginny was extremely satisfied with the outcome. A small curve of her lips accompanied her walk home, but that small smile quickly got wider.
Oh, how soft those lips were and the gentleness combined with a bit of command. That was so sweet.
Ginny giggled at the memory. Her wide smile remained on her face from the trip home to lunch to dinner to falling asleep. She actually woke up with the smile . . . and a smile for breakfast . . . and a smile for relatives who chose to interrupt her lovely meal with a side dish of reminiscing the past day's events. Hermione had another fiery message for Ginny during her breakfast. Harry had forgotten to ask Ginny if she would housesit for him. Of course, Ginny happily accepted. Her thoughts were giddy with the prospect of being near everything Harry.
A flashback of her childish obsession about Harry brought a flaming blush on the redhead's face. It was after Harry's first visit at the Burrow, Ginny was still star struck about Harry. It was normal fanatical action where the fan wants to keep anything the paradigm touches. Thankfully Ginny was over that stage of the infatuation. If she were still that obsessive, she just might die from happiness upon the thought of spending at least a months in Harry's house.
Ginny had gotten Harry's house keys at Ron and Hermione's house. Hermione was in a second trimester of pregnancy and she was at the point of extra energy. The couple took that time to start remodeling the house. A little nursery was being built for the coming baby. That was the reason why Harry's house needed housesitting. It was usually Ron or Hermione who took care of the house when Harry had to perform his auror duties.
Entering the house, Ginny wanted to squeal in girlish perkiness. The modernly decorated house was for her to take care of. A letter of instructions was on the kitchen counter. The handwriting was definitely Harry's; it was sophisticated kind of chicken scratch, like the handwriting of a hurried, educationally advanced person.
Dear Ginny,
I would like to thank you for taking care of my house for me. From what the mission information said, I will be gone for at least two months. If Aurora's flirting techniques improve, we might be able to return to London in less than the eight weeks. From what we know, we'll mainly be dealing with men. Most of our hope lies with our female companion charming the males, not by magic, but by her feminine charms. Somehow the task seems impossible . . . not only because Aurora cannot flirt, I don't think Malfoy likes to see other man staring at his fiancée with a predatory look.
Here are the household duties:
Hedwig has found a way to open the cage door. Also, she usually likes to have a flight early morning, so don't worry when she disappears. She always comes around around nine.
There will be some kneazles visiting the house on Tuesdays. They like to take a break from the meals of their owners. Just feed them the breakfast grains. For some odd reason, the kneazles like the cereal in milk.
The plants should be easy. There are notes stuck on the pot to tell you how much water each plant needs. They shouldn't have any dangerous qualities. They are just leafy plants to bring some nature in the room.
As for housecleaning, I have a maid to do help. Her name is Helen. She comes every other Monday to clean the floor, vacuum the rooms, and such. Since you are probably tidier than me, she will love you.
That should be all. My house isn't that complicated to keep an eye on. The security spells have been adjusted to you being the master. The door will open at your bidding so you can bring your friends to here.
If you haven't noticed, my house is very close to the office of the Daily Prophet. You just walk towards the building and you'll arrive there in less than 10 minutes. Perfect place for the massive number of interviews, right?
Once again, I want to apologize for not telling you this while you were here yesterday. I got a little distracted.
Sincerely, with affection,
HarryTaking care of Harry's house was not an intimidating task. Hedwig and Mimi became close friends therefore making Ginny's pet-sitting job much easier. There were no owl feathers to cleanup after a fight. The month since Harry had left was an ordinary months with the added responsibility of being a reporter at the British wizarding world's most popular newspaper.
The housekeeper was a nineteen-year-old girl working to pay for tuition for her additional studies. Since Ginny was only a junior reporter, her job was pretty much a part time job. The only responsibility was her column, but she didn't need an article everyday. Her column would only be on the Friday editions. The other advantage is that Ginny could write about whatever she wanted. The editors had specifically told her to not include worldwide issues. It was supposed to be a column of non-seriousness. One of the suggestions was to write about tips of planning a successful wedding . . .
Ginny was quite unhappy with the turn of events. She now had doubts about whether or not her writing skills were good enough. Did the editors choose her for her talent or for her contacts with various famous people? Ginny didn't want to think that her hobby of planning glamorous events earned her a seat among the reporters of the Daily Prophet. If she wrote about the weddings she was planning, it would make her seem like she was a tabloid writer.
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It was supposed to be the third visit from the maid. Ginny was anticipating the arrival of the girl since they began an exchange of desserts on every visit. For this Monday, Ginny wanted the younger girl to taste the Ginny Weasley's Lemon-Lime Meringue Pie. The doorbell rang at 10:00 am sharp. Ginny giddily ran towards the door to meet her friend.
"Hello!" Ginny exclaimed with a smile while opening the door. The expected visitor was too tall and bulky to be a nineteen-year-old girl. "I suppose you are Helen's substitute?" Ginny asked with uncertainty. The man looked more like a bodyguard than a maid.
"Yes," the visitor outside answered with thickly accented English. Ginny was hoping for a more explicit answer, but seeing the man was not going to say more, she widened the door slowly. The male maid, or more politically correctly, the male housekeeper entered the house with a thump from his large feet. He was wearing a white apron with the necessary accessories needed to clean the house by his side.
"Well, I'll just be in the kitchen," Ginny declared with a shaky voice. The man was looking around the house like some inspector. "I am baking a meringue pie. Would you like some?" The human version of Hagrid nodded with a smile that showed all of his yellow, crooked teeth. The yellowy whites did not reassure the friendliness of the new housekeeper.
When the pie came out of the oven, Ginny took out a slice, but it on the plate and left it on the kitchen counter. She then made her way to the living room and began drafting the next article for her column. The heavy footfalls of the nameless cleaner went to the kitchen. Ginny smiled at the thought of him getting a piece of the pie to taste. It would be a nice reward for him.
But the thumping of his feet seemed like the drum beats of the ominous music of cheesy horror movies. The reminder unsettled Ginny's nerves. There was a person who seemed barely more social and friendly than a Hippogriff. Having seen only a few poorly made muggle films in Muggle Studies, Ginny was still quite certain the Frankenstein-ish man would be a perfect antagonist. After all, having a stranger in a moderately large house with a relatively unarmed woman qualifies as a typical horror scene.
The morbid thoughts chilled Ginny and she quietly made her way to the guest room to get her wand. Before she could question her own sanity in having thoughts of a serial killer in the house or the logic of quite conspicuously getting her wand, blackness filled her vision as a her head felt like it was being split into two.
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Ginny didn't feel like opening her eyes. Her head was throbbing like all the blood decided to rush to there and the crimson liquid was in a rush to get out. Opening her eyes would feel like letting the blood rush out.
I am probably upside down . . . Who in the world would hang their prisoner upside down?
The redhead gingerly moved her hands. She noticed she was in fact, hanging from her feet. Her hands were in an uncomfortable position of below her head. She attempted to lift her hand, but unfortunately, she was not flexible. The extent of her flexibility was touching the palms of her hands on the ground when bending over. She would fail any other flexibility test.
"Hey, she is moving!" a gruff accented voice observed. "Didn't you stun her?"
"No, I've told you. I used a dictionary," answered the voice belonging to the evil housecleaner.
"Why would you do that when you have a perfectly fine wand with you?"
"I didn't have my wand. Who needs a wand to do house work?"
"You used something called magic to help you clean the house!"
The pointless conversation dragged. Ginny was quite happy that the two dunderheads were too engrossed in their own conversation to notice she was trying to escape. Everything would have been much easier if she wasn't upside down. But then again, if she were on her feet, they probably would have been paying more attention to her or have stunned her.
A wooden stick was lying on the lone table in the dimly lighted room. Blinking her eyes to adjust to the dark, Ginny could see well enough to know that wand was hers.
"Hello Miss Weasley!" a British accented voice said from behind. Ginny attempted to swing her body around to face the speaker. "No need to move. I'll relocate so you can see me better." The shadows indicated the person had done as he said.
Ginny looked up, to see the British member of her kidnapping gang. From what light the room had, Ginny could tell the man had blonde hair and the way the light bounced off his eyes made them glow. He seemed as though he was a little over six feet, but her perception of heights was probably inaccurate since she was hanging upside down.
"Could you let me stand on my feet rather than be hanging from it?" Ginny requested not really caring that she was the prisoner and that prisoners usually don't get what they request unless their lifespan was going to be cut short. The British man laughed heartily. He waved his hand and the two dunderheads came stomping over. Their large hands did not reassure Ginny whether or not she would fall on her head. After all, she didn't say if she wanted a soft landing or a head-on collision with the ground.
Like typical criminals, they chose the loophole in Ginny's request. She had no support so if she didn't prepare for a hard landing, she was quite sure she would have been unconscious again from being hit on the head by something hard.
"Nice save." Ginny got up and glared at the blonde man. "You must wonder why we decided to kidnap you." Ginny rolled her eyes. The adrenaline from saving herself was still in her veins and the more sensible part of her was drowned by the annoyance.
"Of course I am wondering why I was kidnapped," she snapped back. "Don't most hostages wonder about that?" The blonde man chuckled again.
"That tongue and cheek attitude will get you in trouble." Ginny merely glared. There were a number of things that hindered the common sense in the redhead. She didn't want to be kidnapped ever again after the Riddle incident. Harry's house was left without a person to keep an eye on it. She still needed to get her draft for her column done. And the fact that she had been hanging upside down with blood rushing to her already throbbing head.
"At the risk of sounding clichéd, my kidnapping won't go unnoticed." Ginny glared at the three men. "I have a job at the Daily Prophet. My weekly column would lack articles, so people are bound to notice something."
"Of course we knew that," the British man answered smoothly. "You also have a rather large family. I would hope they would get worried about their youngest child/sister and aunt." That was true, so the kidnappers probably wanted to get attention anyway.
"Am I being held for a ransom?" The Brit chuckled once again. At least he was a good-humored criminal. His patience might last through all the questions and snappy comments Ginny knew she could not hold back.
"No, no, definitely not for a ransom. I have quite enough money, thank you." Ginny was quite confused now. What did she do that made people want to kidnap her? The man must have understood the thoughtful look on her face. "Miss Weasley, as you know, you are our prisoner. You do not need to know the purpose of your containment. Sooner or later, you will find out."
"Just not now." The man nodded. A few minutes of silence, on Ginny's part, passed. The kidnappers were speaking to each other silently. "Excuse me? Would you tell me your name at least?" The three men looked at her as though she was quite stupid. "Even an alias would be fine. I could even make one up for you." The blank look on her capturers face didn't go away. "Alright. You are Stupid and Idiot," Ginny said christening the two bulky men. The bodyguard-ish maid was named Stupid for hitting someone in the head with a dictionary when a stunning spell was easier was a stupid thing to do. The two men looked at Ginny, rather offended. Ginny shrugged, but the action made her aware of the throbbing pain on the back of her head.
"What will you name, Miss Weasley?" Ginny shook her thoughts away from her aching head. She answered without much thought or assessment.
"You'll be Grumpy . . . For you have made me rather cranky."
~*~ to be continued ~*~
Thank You's
Littlegoober: Thanks! Though I am somewhat incapable of doing much since my brain cells are scattered in different time zones. ^^ Don't you love transoceanic flights?
Loopyloony: Yay! You're hooked. You know, my teachers always told me hooks were the most important thing in presentations of any kind. =P
Eclipse: Eh, the deal didn't work too well. Internet access costs 3 yuan per hour. Even if I use it for 15 minutes, I still have to pay 3 yuan. Not to mention the initiation fee and such. I did end up using broadband at my grandparents' house, but they got everything setup the day before I had to leave. Basically, sorry about the lack of updates.
Hplova4eva: Still the ever succinct one . . . ^^
Nimacu: Oh goody, I was hoping I would be less likely to sent people to the psychiatry ward. Yes, I am that confusing . . . even in real life events. ^^
Arkaynn: Hmm, because I am still wriggly about writing about action? Is that a good enough reason? I'll to try work on it though the twitchiness won't go away. *sniffle, I need fluff help*
Aindel Druida: Thanks. That was encouraging. Though to read that when school is so near kind of lessens the positive effect. Oh crap, what was I thinking when I signed up for zero hour?! Just kidding, I am not regretting anything. ^^ Can you believe the changed my schedule so that I had English right after Physics? I don't handle timed writing very well at 8:00 in the morning . . . Anyhow, the China trip was great and tiring. I got a weird case of stomach flu (couldn't handle the food) instead of SARS. The country announced it was "free" of SARS near my arrival. I lost nearly 10 pounds due to that icky stomach flu. Got everyone worried, but that was really funny.
HopefulTears: Tis fine! No one has to say much. ^^ And take your time about some things. I learned that the hard way . . . bumped into way too many objects.
Sum1special: Thank you! But this is as soon as I could get myself to update. Sorry
Female Fred: I figured one way of remembering him is to keep writing about him. Just writing about the exploits of the Marauders kind of justifies his existence. Besides, I have this theory that someone is hiding a magical painting of Sirius. All they need to do is share the art and let all of us enjoy Sirius commentary.
Silver Witch: Thank you! I wouldn't say all of my writings were good. You just haven't seen the ones I deleted. I'll search for your update!
Ron Weasley: Thank you for reviewing nearly all the chapters. It must have taken quite a lot of time to read them all. As for being confused, I got lots of reviews saying, "I am confused". It is an aspect of my writing that I have to work on. ^^
Corrie: Thanks! I am working on it. While I was on vacation, I was able to work out the last major twist. So half a chapter is already written. ^^
Rhain: I am not sure about Harry yet, but let's hope Ginny's safe.
As for the promised pictures of my trip back to China, some of them will be at my website (still no there yet). Go to the photo album link. Due to the fact that I took lots of high-resolution pictures, I will host most of the photo album in my Yahoo! Photos account. Just click on the links to see the pictures. ^^
Happy day,
Omni (1 given to me by ff.net. I think I am going to scrounge around for another name…)