Another Disclaimer - I don't own the knew characters of the Warners
Representative, or the character of Cary Weston. I don't know anything
about law, and I don't know if the ministry of magic has a Underage
Protection Department, but I have created one any way!
Sorry to say, this chapter is shorter to than the others, I will make the next longer, I promise.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Get lost" Ginny slapped Draco's hand away from the bowl of salad. Draco whimpered, and rubbed his hand. Sticking out his bottom lip like an immature little kid, he whimpered again, so this time, Ginny slapped his shoulder.
"Did I not tell you to set the table?" She asked, turning back to preparing the salad.
"You know, I have never had a conversation with your mother, but am I correct in assuming that this is the way that she orders around you and your brothers?" Draco asked as he laid the forks and knives of the table and then did a sorting charm.
"No, I am not as mean as my mother, I sware, she was made to rule an army" Ginny smiled as she checked the meat that was grilling.
"Well, she gave birth to an army! You have to be a strong woman to look after all the pranksters and perfectionists in our family." Draco replied, moving back into the kitchen and returning to picking at the salad again. Ginny turned and slapped him on the shoulder again. Draco smirked.
"Listen woman, my money, my house, my salad, my table, by plates, my bowls, my choice when I eat it!" Draco exclaimed playfully. Ginny threw down the towel she was holding.
"Can you cook Draco?" She asked. Draco blushed slightly and then looked at the floor.
"Well, no. When I am finished with the food, it can no longer be called food really" he replied. She nodded, Happy that what he had just said had not only confirmed her thoughts, but helped her prove a point.
"Didn't think so" she replied, grinning "So bugger off and stop eating the food I am trying to prepare."
"Yes Ginny, as you say Ginny, right away Ginny" Draco saluted, and then moved to the table to sit and wait for her to finish preparing the food.
It was Sunday, the day before the court case was set to start. There was a still a chance that the Warners would ask for the case to be postponed, but if things went as Ginny and Draco hoped, the case would be in full swing by Monday afternoon.
They had been preparing for the last few days, researching anything that they could bring up in court to help give them an advantage. But now, the nerves were setting in.
Ginny was cooking dinner for Draco, against her own better judgment. After seeing the post and pans that had come from his kitchen over the last few days, she decided that the slop he was eating could not have been offering him much nutrition. So, she took over his kitchen for the night.
Ginny just made sure that Draco knew that it would not happen to often.
Placing the plates on the table, Ginny realized that Draco had filled their glasses with butterbeer. She smiled, and sat.
"Well, you can eat now" She offered, gesturing to the plate that was in front of him. Draco looked down at the meat, vegetables and the Salad that was in a bowl in the middle of the table.
"Healthy food?" He groaned, she kicked him under the table.
"Eat" She told him, cutting her own meat. "You re going to have to learn how to cook healthy food you know, a growing little girl will need her fair share of fruit and vegetables"
"Toffee apples and carrot cake" Draco mumbled. Ginny shot him a dark look "I know, I know, healthy food for little Kayla"
"I am going to have give you some cooking lessons" Ginny told him.
"Or you could just come over and cook every meal for us?" Draco suggested, smiling.
"And what about when I am back at school?" Ginny asked. Draco shrugged and then turned back to his food, cutting his meat and picking at the Salad that he had put on the plate.
"Are you nervous yet?" he asked after a few minutes silence. Ginny looked up from her plate. He was looking young and venerable again, and it suited him in an odd way.
"Yeah, I have begun to get a little nervous. But I guess that is a good thing right?" She asked, Draco nodded and took a sip of his butterbeer.
"I am scared" Draco admitted softly. Ginny smiled.
"I know you are, I am scared to. But we will do fine. Just take each question as it comes. Kayla will be here as before you know it" Ginny smiled.
"What do you think that the Warners are going to say about me?" Draco asked nervously. "Do you think they will bring up what a horrible man Lucius is? Or will they bring up the fact that I was once against muggle born and half bloods. Do you think...."
"You are doing it again" Ginny interrupted him.
"Doing what again?" he asked.
"Thinking about what might happen. Every thing you have brought up have been worse case scenarios. Depending on who the ministry sent to represent the Warners, they may not even think of bringing up Lucius, or Death eaters, or Slytherin values." Ginny told him.
"Maybe we should have asked for a representative to" Draco sighed.
"They never would have let us have one, we have both grown up knowing the rules, and we have a strong enough case against the Warners already" Ginny reminded.
Wizarding law representatives played the part of a lawyer, but were not used very often. The representatives were only really called in if one of the parties involved in the case was muggle, and needed help understanding the laws that witches and wizards had always known. Therefore, the Warners were given the luxury of a representative to help them with their case while Draco and Ginny would have to argue their case on their own.
"But do we really know everything that we need to know?" he asked.
"We know more then enough Draco, you need to stop stressing, it can't be healthy. Now, we are going to go to the ministry of magic tomorrow, and we are just going to answer the questions truthfully, and maybe even appeal to their softer sides. If the Warners begin to play dirty, then we are just going to have to find a way to turn the tables and play dirty as well." Ginny informed him. Draco smiled, took another mouthful of food, and nodded. She was right, as usual.
"What would I ever do with out you Gin?" Draco asked.
"I don't know, but you would have starved to death, long ago"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The fire was roaring. After finishing dinner and cleaning up their plates, Draco and Ginny had retired to the living room with another few bottles of butterbeer.
They had begun to talk openly, about anything that came to mind. Draco had explained how his father had made him feel growing up, and Ginny explained what it was like to have so many brothers. They spoke of their time a Hogwarts, and how much Harry Potter had effected their lives for the first few years (Draco finally admitted to her that he was jealous of Harry)
They spoke of anything, as long as it was not about the case.
The clock chimed midnight, bringing Ginny out of the conversation. She looked over her shoulder at the clock, and curse at it for announcing the end of the evening.
"I guess I better get going home" She smiled, placing her empty bottle on the table and standing, wincing as her back cracked.
"You don't have to go if you don't want to" Draco began, placing his own bottle beside hers. "You can stay in Kayla's room for the night if you want. I am sure she won't mind that her Aunt Ginny used the room before she did"
"Thank you for the offer Draco, but I best be heading off. Mum and Dad are probably sitting up waiting for me, I told them I would be back by midnight" She said, dousing the normal fire that was in the fire place. Draco did a cooling charm on it. Ginny stepped in and took a hand full of floo powder.
"Thank you for dinner, and for keeping my mind off of tomorrow" Draco smiled.
"It was nothing, I really enjoyed myself" Ginny smiled. "I will see you tomorrow, early"
"Cook me breakfast?" Draco grinned.
"If you buy me lunch" She replied. Draco nodded.
"See you in the morning Gin" he replied. She waved with her free hand, and threw the powder with the other.
"The Burrow!" And then she was gone.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Malfoy, if you are still in bed, you are going to be really, really sorry" Ginny yelled through the house. She dumped the bag of food that she had brought with her on the kitchen table and went off in search of Draco.
The shower was running, so she returned to the kitchen, beginning to cook the bacon she had brought as breakfast.
"Good morning Ginny" Draco smiled as he entered the kitchen. She turned to look at him, a smile soon working its way to her lips.
He was dressed in a black business suit, with his black robes over the top, he looked very dashing indeed. (A/N: I always wanted to use the word dashing to describe Draco.)
"You know what Malfoy, if you could cook and clean my toilets, I think I would have to marry you" Ginny mocked, Draco laughed.
"That means I look good?" he asked.
"Means you look great, very responsible."
"What are you cooking, it smells great?" he replied, moving into the kitchen to check the pan.
"It is breakfast, so you owe me lunch" Ginny replied.
They sat and ate breakfast together, once again not talking about the case. But Ginny could see Draco's hand shaking as he ate. His shaking was causing her nerves to rise to the surface to, and soon her own hands began to shake.
They cleaned up, and then waited for the clock to tick over to the hour in which they could go to the ministry. Luckily, there was a ministry office in Diagon Alley, and that was where the case was being held.
When the time came, they walked together to the ministry. The shaking of his hands had become unbearably shocking, so bad that Ginny found herself reaching out, taking his hand in her. The tremors still ran through his hand and up her arm, but at least now it was a little less noticeable.
When they reached the ministry building, they were shown to the room that the case would be held in.
"Room doesn't look very big does it?" Ginny said, looking around the room. It was about the size of a normal office, with a long table down the middle. Draco just shrugged and took a seat, Ginny followed him.
A door at the end of the room and a middle aged man entered, he had a few files with him, which he put at the end of the table in front of the seat that he would obviously be sitting in.
"You must be Mr. Malfoy" The man smiled, holding out his hand. Draco stood and shook it.
"This is my friend Ginny Weasley" Draco added, Ginny shook his hand to.
"My name is Cary Weston, and I am from the Underage Protection Department. It is our job to make sure that all underage witches and wizards are brought up in safe and nurturing environments. I will be hearing you case, and with any luck, we can get this over with quickly. Our intention with this case id finding the best house for your daughter, and the sooner than happens, the sooner a proper schedule and routine can be established, weather it be at the home that she is already at, or at the home that you are more then willing to provide for her" Mr. Weston Told them, taking a seat at the head of the table.
"Thank you Sir" Draco nodded "I would like this to be as painless and possible for every one as well"
"Well, Mr. Malfoy, as soon as the Warners and their representative arrive, we can begin" Mr. Weston replied.
Not long after, the main door to the room opened. Jacob and Evelyn Warner entered behind another man, who was obviously their representative. The representative gestured to the chairs across from Draco and Ginny, and they took them quickly. Mr. Weston shook their hands in turn.
"Nice to meet you Mr. and Mrs. Warner. I am Cary Weston, and I am hearing your case. I think it is about time we got things started. Don't you? ..........."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
JUST A FEW QUICK MESSAGES
Mytsie - Sama : True, he may have another middle name, but I also think that the tone Molly Weasley uses when she gets angry would be enough to scare the crap out of any one.
Liotard Vogt : You had a few things in your review that I want to clear up for you. One, you asked How could Draco still love Jessica after she dumped him and kept him away from his child. I think that Draco understood and respected that Jessica thought she was doing the right thing, and if his love was real and unconditional, then he would respect her strength In making a decision that in the end hurt them both (well, that was what I was trying to show any way). Two, You asked why he didn't just steal Kayla and do a memory charm, well, I think that Draco would have a sense of guilt. Would you feel right taking a child away from their grandparents, and then wiping the grandparents memories? Sure, he would have his daughter back, but I think that after a little while, the guilt would get to him and drive him mad. And Three, why don't the characters just Apparate? Well, first off, Ginny is not old enough to apparate, she has not passed the test, so I don't think Draco would apparate when she couldn't, when they were hanging out together (it would be like your friends taking a car and leaving you to walk). I also think that Malfoy manor would have some sort of charms on it, like Hogwarts did, to stop people from apparating from different parts of the house. (I mean, it would make sense right?) So he needed her to pick him up. Well, they are just a few of my thoughts on those matters, I hope that helps.
Mystique : I am not in law school, I don't even know anything about the law (only that I don't break it), so I am probably going to stuff this up totally. At least I can blame it on Wizarding/Muggle differences.
Crystal : Georgery? Why not, it could work (
Oh yeah, and just a quick note : SELF CONTROLL WAVERING, KISS IN UPCOMING CHAPTERS, FIGHTING TEMPTATING, FIGHTING, FIGHTING.... MUST HAVE SMOOCHIES!!!!!!
(not the next chapter, but coming soon)
Sorry to say, this chapter is shorter to than the others, I will make the next longer, I promise.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Get lost" Ginny slapped Draco's hand away from the bowl of salad. Draco whimpered, and rubbed his hand. Sticking out his bottom lip like an immature little kid, he whimpered again, so this time, Ginny slapped his shoulder.
"Did I not tell you to set the table?" She asked, turning back to preparing the salad.
"You know, I have never had a conversation with your mother, but am I correct in assuming that this is the way that she orders around you and your brothers?" Draco asked as he laid the forks and knives of the table and then did a sorting charm.
"No, I am not as mean as my mother, I sware, she was made to rule an army" Ginny smiled as she checked the meat that was grilling.
"Well, she gave birth to an army! You have to be a strong woman to look after all the pranksters and perfectionists in our family." Draco replied, moving back into the kitchen and returning to picking at the salad again. Ginny turned and slapped him on the shoulder again. Draco smirked.
"Listen woman, my money, my house, my salad, my table, by plates, my bowls, my choice when I eat it!" Draco exclaimed playfully. Ginny threw down the towel she was holding.
"Can you cook Draco?" She asked. Draco blushed slightly and then looked at the floor.
"Well, no. When I am finished with the food, it can no longer be called food really" he replied. She nodded, Happy that what he had just said had not only confirmed her thoughts, but helped her prove a point.
"Didn't think so" she replied, grinning "So bugger off and stop eating the food I am trying to prepare."
"Yes Ginny, as you say Ginny, right away Ginny" Draco saluted, and then moved to the table to sit and wait for her to finish preparing the food.
It was Sunday, the day before the court case was set to start. There was a still a chance that the Warners would ask for the case to be postponed, but if things went as Ginny and Draco hoped, the case would be in full swing by Monday afternoon.
They had been preparing for the last few days, researching anything that they could bring up in court to help give them an advantage. But now, the nerves were setting in.
Ginny was cooking dinner for Draco, against her own better judgment. After seeing the post and pans that had come from his kitchen over the last few days, she decided that the slop he was eating could not have been offering him much nutrition. So, she took over his kitchen for the night.
Ginny just made sure that Draco knew that it would not happen to often.
Placing the plates on the table, Ginny realized that Draco had filled their glasses with butterbeer. She smiled, and sat.
"Well, you can eat now" She offered, gesturing to the plate that was in front of him. Draco looked down at the meat, vegetables and the Salad that was in a bowl in the middle of the table.
"Healthy food?" He groaned, she kicked him under the table.
"Eat" She told him, cutting her own meat. "You re going to have to learn how to cook healthy food you know, a growing little girl will need her fair share of fruit and vegetables"
"Toffee apples and carrot cake" Draco mumbled. Ginny shot him a dark look "I know, I know, healthy food for little Kayla"
"I am going to have give you some cooking lessons" Ginny told him.
"Or you could just come over and cook every meal for us?" Draco suggested, smiling.
"And what about when I am back at school?" Ginny asked. Draco shrugged and then turned back to his food, cutting his meat and picking at the Salad that he had put on the plate.
"Are you nervous yet?" he asked after a few minutes silence. Ginny looked up from her plate. He was looking young and venerable again, and it suited him in an odd way.
"Yeah, I have begun to get a little nervous. But I guess that is a good thing right?" She asked, Draco nodded and took a sip of his butterbeer.
"I am scared" Draco admitted softly. Ginny smiled.
"I know you are, I am scared to. But we will do fine. Just take each question as it comes. Kayla will be here as before you know it" Ginny smiled.
"What do you think that the Warners are going to say about me?" Draco asked nervously. "Do you think they will bring up what a horrible man Lucius is? Or will they bring up the fact that I was once against muggle born and half bloods. Do you think...."
"You are doing it again" Ginny interrupted him.
"Doing what again?" he asked.
"Thinking about what might happen. Every thing you have brought up have been worse case scenarios. Depending on who the ministry sent to represent the Warners, they may not even think of bringing up Lucius, or Death eaters, or Slytherin values." Ginny told him.
"Maybe we should have asked for a representative to" Draco sighed.
"They never would have let us have one, we have both grown up knowing the rules, and we have a strong enough case against the Warners already" Ginny reminded.
Wizarding law representatives played the part of a lawyer, but were not used very often. The representatives were only really called in if one of the parties involved in the case was muggle, and needed help understanding the laws that witches and wizards had always known. Therefore, the Warners were given the luxury of a representative to help them with their case while Draco and Ginny would have to argue their case on their own.
"But do we really know everything that we need to know?" he asked.
"We know more then enough Draco, you need to stop stressing, it can't be healthy. Now, we are going to go to the ministry of magic tomorrow, and we are just going to answer the questions truthfully, and maybe even appeal to their softer sides. If the Warners begin to play dirty, then we are just going to have to find a way to turn the tables and play dirty as well." Ginny informed him. Draco smiled, took another mouthful of food, and nodded. She was right, as usual.
"What would I ever do with out you Gin?" Draco asked.
"I don't know, but you would have starved to death, long ago"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The fire was roaring. After finishing dinner and cleaning up their plates, Draco and Ginny had retired to the living room with another few bottles of butterbeer.
They had begun to talk openly, about anything that came to mind. Draco had explained how his father had made him feel growing up, and Ginny explained what it was like to have so many brothers. They spoke of their time a Hogwarts, and how much Harry Potter had effected their lives for the first few years (Draco finally admitted to her that he was jealous of Harry)
They spoke of anything, as long as it was not about the case.
The clock chimed midnight, bringing Ginny out of the conversation. She looked over her shoulder at the clock, and curse at it for announcing the end of the evening.
"I guess I better get going home" She smiled, placing her empty bottle on the table and standing, wincing as her back cracked.
"You don't have to go if you don't want to" Draco began, placing his own bottle beside hers. "You can stay in Kayla's room for the night if you want. I am sure she won't mind that her Aunt Ginny used the room before she did"
"Thank you for the offer Draco, but I best be heading off. Mum and Dad are probably sitting up waiting for me, I told them I would be back by midnight" She said, dousing the normal fire that was in the fire place. Draco did a cooling charm on it. Ginny stepped in and took a hand full of floo powder.
"Thank you for dinner, and for keeping my mind off of tomorrow" Draco smiled.
"It was nothing, I really enjoyed myself" Ginny smiled. "I will see you tomorrow, early"
"Cook me breakfast?" Draco grinned.
"If you buy me lunch" She replied. Draco nodded.
"See you in the morning Gin" he replied. She waved with her free hand, and threw the powder with the other.
"The Burrow!" And then she was gone.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Malfoy, if you are still in bed, you are going to be really, really sorry" Ginny yelled through the house. She dumped the bag of food that she had brought with her on the kitchen table and went off in search of Draco.
The shower was running, so she returned to the kitchen, beginning to cook the bacon she had brought as breakfast.
"Good morning Ginny" Draco smiled as he entered the kitchen. She turned to look at him, a smile soon working its way to her lips.
He was dressed in a black business suit, with his black robes over the top, he looked very dashing indeed. (A/N: I always wanted to use the word dashing to describe Draco.)
"You know what Malfoy, if you could cook and clean my toilets, I think I would have to marry you" Ginny mocked, Draco laughed.
"That means I look good?" he asked.
"Means you look great, very responsible."
"What are you cooking, it smells great?" he replied, moving into the kitchen to check the pan.
"It is breakfast, so you owe me lunch" Ginny replied.
They sat and ate breakfast together, once again not talking about the case. But Ginny could see Draco's hand shaking as he ate. His shaking was causing her nerves to rise to the surface to, and soon her own hands began to shake.
They cleaned up, and then waited for the clock to tick over to the hour in which they could go to the ministry. Luckily, there was a ministry office in Diagon Alley, and that was where the case was being held.
When the time came, they walked together to the ministry. The shaking of his hands had become unbearably shocking, so bad that Ginny found herself reaching out, taking his hand in her. The tremors still ran through his hand and up her arm, but at least now it was a little less noticeable.
When they reached the ministry building, they were shown to the room that the case would be held in.
"Room doesn't look very big does it?" Ginny said, looking around the room. It was about the size of a normal office, with a long table down the middle. Draco just shrugged and took a seat, Ginny followed him.
A door at the end of the room and a middle aged man entered, he had a few files with him, which he put at the end of the table in front of the seat that he would obviously be sitting in.
"You must be Mr. Malfoy" The man smiled, holding out his hand. Draco stood and shook it.
"This is my friend Ginny Weasley" Draco added, Ginny shook his hand to.
"My name is Cary Weston, and I am from the Underage Protection Department. It is our job to make sure that all underage witches and wizards are brought up in safe and nurturing environments. I will be hearing you case, and with any luck, we can get this over with quickly. Our intention with this case id finding the best house for your daughter, and the sooner than happens, the sooner a proper schedule and routine can be established, weather it be at the home that she is already at, or at the home that you are more then willing to provide for her" Mr. Weston Told them, taking a seat at the head of the table.
"Thank you Sir" Draco nodded "I would like this to be as painless and possible for every one as well"
"Well, Mr. Malfoy, as soon as the Warners and their representative arrive, we can begin" Mr. Weston replied.
Not long after, the main door to the room opened. Jacob and Evelyn Warner entered behind another man, who was obviously their representative. The representative gestured to the chairs across from Draco and Ginny, and they took them quickly. Mr. Weston shook their hands in turn.
"Nice to meet you Mr. and Mrs. Warner. I am Cary Weston, and I am hearing your case. I think it is about time we got things started. Don't you? ..........."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
JUST A FEW QUICK MESSAGES
Mytsie - Sama : True, he may have another middle name, but I also think that the tone Molly Weasley uses when she gets angry would be enough to scare the crap out of any one.
Liotard Vogt : You had a few things in your review that I want to clear up for you. One, you asked How could Draco still love Jessica after she dumped him and kept him away from his child. I think that Draco understood and respected that Jessica thought she was doing the right thing, and if his love was real and unconditional, then he would respect her strength In making a decision that in the end hurt them both (well, that was what I was trying to show any way). Two, You asked why he didn't just steal Kayla and do a memory charm, well, I think that Draco would have a sense of guilt. Would you feel right taking a child away from their grandparents, and then wiping the grandparents memories? Sure, he would have his daughter back, but I think that after a little while, the guilt would get to him and drive him mad. And Three, why don't the characters just Apparate? Well, first off, Ginny is not old enough to apparate, she has not passed the test, so I don't think Draco would apparate when she couldn't, when they were hanging out together (it would be like your friends taking a car and leaving you to walk). I also think that Malfoy manor would have some sort of charms on it, like Hogwarts did, to stop people from apparating from different parts of the house. (I mean, it would make sense right?) So he needed her to pick him up. Well, they are just a few of my thoughts on those matters, I hope that helps.
Mystique : I am not in law school, I don't even know anything about the law (only that I don't break it), so I am probably going to stuff this up totally. At least I can blame it on Wizarding/Muggle differences.
Crystal : Georgery? Why not, it could work (
Oh yeah, and just a quick note : SELF CONTROLL WAVERING, KISS IN UPCOMING CHAPTERS, FIGHTING TEMPTATING, FIGHTING, FIGHTING.... MUST HAVE SMOOCHIES!!!!!!
(not the next chapter, but coming soon)