That's How You Know

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Chapter Three

             "Wake up, Sparky," she prodded his side once more before finally getting a reaction out of him. It was a grunt, but at least it was a reaction. "I'm not telling you again: get up!" she grabbed the bottom of the mattress and lifted it harshly, causing him to tumble from the bed to the floor with a loud thud.

            Edward looked up at the kitchen ceiling, "guess she woke him up." He sipped at his coffee calmly as he scanned the newspaper while Isabelle smiled to herself.

            "What was that for?" Draco stood up, yelling loudly and angrily.

            She stood with her hands on her hips, trying not to laugh at him. "You're going to have to learn to wake up in the mornings. I'm just getting you used to what it will be like if you don't stop ignoring your damn alarm clock!" throwing a pair of Levi's and a white shirt at his head, she walked out of the room. "Get your butt moving, we have a lot of work to do!"

            Draco mumbled rude words at her back as he pulled on the pants over his boxers and slipped the shirt on. He was pulling down the hem as he walked into the bathroom and woke himself up more with a splash of cold water on his face. He thudded heavily down the back staircase to the kitchen and sat down at the table with a scratchy voice greeting to the couple.

            "Eggs, Draco?" Isabelle asked as if she hadn't heard the rude awakening. She shoved some onto his plate before he could answer, and lifted some bacon on with a fork. "You'll get used to the early rising soon, honey, don't you worry."

            Edward winked at his granddaughter who smothered a smirk by placing some bacon in her mouth. "What are you going to be doing today, Grandpa?"

            "I'm heading out to the north pasture. There is about five miles of fence that was blown out in the last storm that needs repairing. You?"

            She stood up from the table, motioning for Draco to do that same and grinned, "teaching Draco here the ropes. Going to try the stallion after lunch though."

            Isabelle smiled, kissing her granddaughter on the cheek. "Have a good day," whispering into her ear, "and be nice, Sunshine."

            "Well, let's get to work!" she slipped on her boots, lacing them quickly in the mudroom before walking through the screen door. She lifted the latch on one of the large doors to the barn, "open the other one, secure it with that hook," she told him, liking being able to boss him about already.

            Draco followed her into the barn where she handed him a pitchfork and pointed to a wheelbarrow. "I'm going to take all the horses that can go out and put them in paddocks. You're going to muck out their stalls." She started towards Peppers' stall when she turned to see him still standing there. "Well? What are you waiting for? The stalls to muck themselves out?"

            He opened his mouth, but closed it knowing that it would seem strange to these Muggles if he didn't know how to muck a stall out.

            She rolled her eyes and grabbed the pitchfork from his hands. "I'm only showing you once, so you better learn it fast." Lifting the latch, she grabbed Peppers' halter and led her out of the stall, fastening the thin straps that came from either side to the aisle to her halter. "Bring that wheelbarrow over here," she watched him glance at the barrow, then push it towards her.

            "Now, you take the pitchfork, then you scoop up the dirty straw, and then you put it in the wheelbarrow. Once it's full, you just cart it out those doors and to your right. There's a pile of it already there, so it's hard to miss." 

            Draco nodded, taking the pitchfork back from her.

            "And when you've done all the stalls, I'll show you where the fresh stuff is, alright?" she turned without waiting for his response and led Pepper outside. She stopped occasionally as she led the horses outside to see how he was doing, and she had to say that at least he caught on, and worked, quickly.

            "Where's the –" Draco stopped midstream, momentarily stunned by the sight of her lifting a large rectangular bale and walking towards him like it was nothing.

            She set the bale down at his feet. "This is the fresh straw, obviously. Cut the twine once you've put it in the wheelbarrow and just fork it out into the stalls. Make sure that there is enough to cover the entire stall."

            "What are you going to do?" he demanded as she walked back up the aisle.

            Not bothering to turn around, "I'm going to get more bales. Now get to work, Sparky. It took you far too long mucking out those stalls and now we're behind."

            Draco controlled his words as he turned around and pitched some straw into the first stall. He saw her come back in every two minutes with another bale until she finally stopped to grab another wheelbarrow and pitchfork. "What are you doing?"

            "You ask a lot of questions, Sparky," she replied before pitching straw expertly into a stall without taking her eyes off him. "But you look like a boy who might need the help with this answer: I'm putting fresh straw into the stall."

            Glaring, he turned his back to her again and continued his work, never knowing that she was smirking with success behind him. He stopped ten minutes later, done with his side just seconds before she was done with hers'. "Now what?"

            "Now we set up the ring."

            "Pardon?"

            She led him outside to a shed and opened the doors. "We set up the ring." Handing him a multi-colored pole, and grabbing one herself, she led him to the large ring to the left of them. "See, what my grandparents do, is train up horses for equestrian purposes."

            "Equestrian purposes?"

            Setting the pole in the notches, she took the other from his hands and crisscrossed it with the one she had set up. "Show jumping, dressage, and cross country."

            Draco followed her back to the shed and took up two more poles while she took one heavier one. He set them up how she told him to, then stood back to see what it looked like once they had finished. Turning to look at her, he found her missing.

            "Draco!" she called from inside the barn. Holding onto the saddle, she waited for the blonde boy to get to the stall. "Come in here and watch what I do. I'm going to need you to tack up three other horses while I'm out there, so you're going to have to learn fast."

            He watched her slid on the bridle, slipping the bit into the colts' mouth before tightening the straps. She did it slowly so that he would take note of everything before moving onto the saddle.

            "You'll have to brush them down before you put the saddle on, but I've already done that with Shady. I've already made sure that their hooves are clean, but this is how you do it anyway." She took the sharp tool from the tack box and slid her hand down Shady's foreleg. Holding the hoof, making sure that Draco could see, she scrapped the small bit of stall debris that was left in the hoof out. "Make sure not to scrape the frog, that's this soft bit here, or you'll wish you hadn't." She led the colt out of the stall, leaving him to fend for himself on tacking the other three on his own.

Draco stared after her before walking to the nearest stall and brushing down the filly before slipping on her saddle and bridle. By the third horse, it was becoming easier for him to tack up the horses and he led them outside to tie up on the fence.

            She dismounted from Shady and handed him over as she took Delia's reins from his hand. "Untack him, then hose him off over there," she pointed behind him to the cement area with hoses. "Make sure to get all the dirt off him and clean out his hooves, then get all the excess water off him with that black strap and let him loose in the paddock with the two black horses. And don't you dare spray warm water on the legs. Got all that, Sparky?"

            Jaw rolling; he walked away without telling her anything. That nickname was getting very annoying very quickly. He did as she had instructed quickly and efficiently before walking back to the fence, his front covered in water from Shady thinking it would be fun to grab the hose in his teeth and spray him.

            He rested his arms on the top rail, watching as she cantered around the ring towards the oxer. She lifted herself from the saddle, leaning forward on Delia's withers as they went over the two foot oxer easily. She slowed her to a walk, checking her occasionally to keep her from getting lazy, three times around the ring before handing her off to Draco. It wasn't until the last horse, a mare by the name of Midnights' Star, that she actually spoke to him again.

            "Raise all of the poles two notches, Draco," she ordered as she mounted up and trotted around the ring. He felt oddly like he was slave while he raised each jump to four feet high. "Star here is for more advanced students. She's going off to be a back up horse for an Olympic bound rider in two days. But we're just keeping her lively with these smaller jumps."

            He exited the ring and watched as she set herself and the horse up for the triple, performing it with poise he hadn't figured she had with all the things she had done so far that morning. "How high can she jump?"

            She dismounted, taking off the saddle once she had, "Star? See that old truck out there in the field?" Draco nodded, wondering what that had to do with anything. "That's her favorite jump. It's for the cross-country course. Right over the truck bed – five feet wide, five feet high." Draco masked his surprise at the revelation as they washed the mare together.

            "Why are you here, Draco?"

            Draco looked over the mares back at the young woman leading the horse to the paddock. "Pardon me?"

            She gave him a what are you up to look when she had closed the gate. "Why are you here?"

            "I need money for University."

            "Right."

            "You don't believe me?"

            She looked over her shoulder, "no, I don't. I know for a fact that your family happens to have a great sum of money. In fact, you made it a point to let everyone know you had money while at school."

            "How do you know that?" Draco was instantly suspicious. How did a Muggle know about anything he would have said at school half a world away?

            She lifted an eyebrow, "you can honestly say that you don't know who I am?" Wearing the scarf over her hair didn't make a drastic change to her looks; she knew that for a fact. How could he not know her?

            "I can honestly say that I don't know who you are," he gritted through clenched teeth. He was beginning to get annoyed that she was playing these games.

            "Lunch!" Isabelle rang the triangle loudly, knowing that it would reach her husbands ears in the north pasture if he hadn't turned on the truck radio. She smiled at her granddaughter and Draco as they made their way inside. "I see Sunshine put you to hard work, Draco."

            Draco forced himself to be pleasant in his replies to the woman during the afternoon break. He couldn't remember ever feeling this grimy and dirty after doing anything in his life. Not even after playing Quidditch out in the mud!

            "Meet me out by that enclosed ring, Draco. You're going to help me work with the stallion." She stood after finishing her food quickly only to be greeted by her grandfather, finally there from the north pasture.

            "Now what did I tell you, Missy? You're not going anywhere near that horse unless Draco or myself is out there watching you. Got that?"

            She put a hand on her hip, "you told me that I could break him myself, actually. And I'm going out there now, so just sit down and have some food. You look hungry."

            Draco got out of his seat when he saw the old man scowl and waited for her signal to leave the room.

            "See, Draco is now following me like you would have, Grandpa. Can I go now?"

            "Keep sassing me like that, young lady –"

            She winked, "you know I will. See you when you finish, Grandpa!" and with Draco following her, she made her way out to the enclosed ring where the stallion stood staring out at them with his black eyes. Grabbing a halter, she slipped through the bars and made her way slowly over to the male.

            "What are you doing?"

            "I'm going to try to put him in a halter. He's a wild horse, so he hasn't ever had one put on him," she explained as she held out her hand to him.

            Draco watched her as she walked slowly towards the horse that was staring at her, one ear flattened against his head, the other pointing up.

            "Hey there, big guy. I'm not going to hurt you," she said soothingly. "I'm not going to hurt you," she murmured again. When the second ear flattened against his head, she stopped walking. "It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you, big guy."

            Draco slipped through the bars himself, taking some of the stallions focus off her momentarily. He walked along the wall, noting the horse following him with one eye.

            "Get out of here, Draco. It's only going to –" she stopped as the stallion sorted and hit the ground with his front hoof. "It's okay, big guy." She stepped forward one step, causing him to strike the ground once more.

            Draco walked away from the wall slowly, still in the horses' vision but obviously not a main concern. "I think we should get out of here."

            "It's okay," she soothed, taking another step. This time the stallion charged at her instead of staying his ground. She jumped from his path in time, but was only charged at again before Draco pulled her from the path, both of them falling to the ground near the wall once more. He picked her up when he got his air back, and put her through the bars, diving out just as the stallion made another circuit around the ring.

            "Are you okay?" he asked as he sat back up, leaning over to lift her up with him.

            She stared at the hand on her arm. "Yeah. Fine. Why did you do that?"

            "Next time I'll leave you to be trampled then," he said in a confused voice, not understanding her question.

            She turned to him in disbelief, "but you're a Malfoy."

            "Just because Malfoy is my name doesn't mean a damn thing," Draco said bitterly as he let her arm drop and walked to the house, letting the door slam loudly in his wake.

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            Y'know, I just realized that you guys haven't a clue as to who the girl is. That just makes it more fun for me!