*Sorry so late in posting. We had this written about…oh, three weeks ago, but due to some ah, technical difficulties (my computer crashing…) it was delayed…
yargh. Evil email formatting thinger…
 
Much thanks to those who reviewed! We are very, very happy =^^=
Just a few comments…
Yeah, sorry about those tenses. Alice was in the middle of beta-ing it, when her
email died, so bleh, we just posted it (it's all her fault! Her fault! Her- )
Alice: HEY!!! *blows raspberry and sticks out tongue* I resent that...~chucks
wireless mouse at mindy squared~ anyway....Thank you for the reviews!!!
Hopefully, I'll be able to get the computer to work soon....
Sasori:...anyhoo…I swear to god our English does not seem as bad as it seems. I
heroically take the blame…lol.
What else? oh, yeah, Ginny. Teehee. We were kinda thinking it might be more fun
if we had her kind of slow… There are so many stories with her being witty and
smart and totally awesome, we figured, 'well what if Ginny was the eccentric
Weasley? Not stupid, just sort of strange…'. If you really can't stand that, do
tell us, we'll change. And the rest of the characters?
Sasori:….mweeheeheeheehee…..*glint*.
ESoR: Err...yea, didn't mean to make Ginny sound so stupid, but Mindo insisted
on it. *Slowly steps away from Sasori*
Sasori: Did not! You forgot to make her smart, and I just didn't want to change
it, so there! *nyah nyah nyah*
ESoR: What?! I just forgot that she wasn't supposed to recognize Lupin, but by
then, it was kinda too late! And you said her slowness is GOOD for the fic! =P
Sasori: *gasp* blasphemy! I would never, ever, ever- *cough* okay,
anyhoo…storytime! *ducks*
 
Disclaimer: WE disclaim My Fair Lady and Harry Potter and all else that through
the Powers that Be appear in this ficcie…
~~~~
 
 
                    It was a reddish-brown brick house stuck in the middle of other reddish-brown
houses. There was nothing too special about it, but there was a little dent on
one of the cement stairs, as if something had fallen and exploded. The windows
were bordered with white, and the two lower ones had pots of violets
neatly in a row on the sill. This house sat on a street somewhere in England,on
a street where people who only kept bathroom slippers worth eighty pounds or
more resided. Yet they all insisted on finding the cheapest sort of clothing,
the type found in regular department stores, claiming that those nice fur
coats were just too much for them. Eight out of ten of them could have had at
the very least, half a dozen mink coats. The other two of ten already owned
them, though hidden under bushels of mothballs and tissue paper.
                    Such was the street where Draco Malfoy, music professor and great piano
virtuoso, kept his town house. It was a neighborhood of high standards, yet with
false pretenses of wannabe middle-class. Why anyone would want to live there,
especially Malfoy, was beyond capable minds. In truth, even Draco had been a bit
startled at his own audacity of buying the home on the spot, but it might have
been all due to the old lady next door who often shouted at him for making much
noise. Much of his amusement had been at her expense, and he'd continually pound
away at his baby grand piano, gleefully ignoring the sound of muffled high
pitched shrieking and shattering pottery against his walls. Unfortunately, the
old lady died half a year later of supposed old age, but a disappointed Draco
continued to believe that it was because he had skipped a day of pounding. She'd
been too relaxed the whole day, without his music, and lost a grip on the mortal
realm, thus slipped away.
For a time once more, the residents of Appledore Street had considerable peace
again, and was finally getting used to it. It had almost becoming a wonderful
tranquility And then, one day, Mr. Draco Malfoy brought home another new
calamity.
Ginny Weasley.
****
 
"This street is…Appledore." Ginny, eyes wide, stumbled after Draco and Remus.
"They call it the 'British Beverly Hills,'" she said.
Draco snorted. "Americans do. We call Beverly Hills the 'American Appledore.'"
Ginny was paying no attention though. Her eyes were glinting, and the words
'high-rollers', 'money' and 'where's my blasted harmonica ?' circled in her
head. Her eyes darted about the street as she searched feverishly for her
harmonica, even though she knew that it was cluttered somewhere along the
streets of (whatever the street name was that Draco had threw her harmonica in).
Lupin noticed her distracted gaze as she continually bumped into him. He smiled,
knowing what she was looking for.
"Don't worry, Ginny. We'll find you something much nicer than a harmonica,"
Lupin reassured her.
"Something MUCH nicer," Draco muttered, emphasizing the "much" excessively. He
looked up at the large building before him, what he called "home". Fitting a
large key into the large lock, he opened the door, not bothering to hold it open
for the other two. Lupin slipped into the house and moved the door stopper into
place in one swift movement. He glanced back at Ginny before following Draco
down the hall, trusting that she would follow them.
                    Ginny gaped at the house, tilting slightly backwards on the front steps to
allow her the full view of the house. Her eyes moved slowly from the cracked
bricks down to the dent in the cement stairs. Certainly, the house was better
than any house she had lived in, but a MALFOY living here? He must've been on
drugs when he bought this house, Ginny thought, shaking her head as she stepped
into the building, slipped the doorstopper out of place and sprinting down the
hall after the other two.
                    The interior of the house was tastefully, but sparsely decorated. There were a
few choice tables here and there, or a nice painting over a fireplace or
something, but with nothing too extravagant. It looked like a typical Muggle
house that belonged to a typical Muggle professor (albeit with a fetish for
green and silver). Or, at least that's what Ginny thought, until Draco reached a
door at the end of the hall, unlocked it, and flung it open with casual grace,
allowing her and Lupin to view the rest of the house. The rest of the
magically-enhanced, morbid, green-and-silver house.
From the entrance to the end of the long, dark corridor, were dimly lit lamps,
reflecting a gloomy forest green. The marble floor was checkered with a precise
black and white, giving a cold and calculating feel. Ginny felt Lupin twitch in
surprise, and she herself gaped. Draco continued into the hall, his shoes making
a clicking sound on the floor.
"Follow me."
Ginny and Lupin stared at each other.
"Ladies first."
"Oh, but I insist. Please, go right ahead." Ginny retorted.
"Ahem." Draco coughed, sounding irritated. His two companions jumped and
hurriedly scrambled after him. The door closed silently, and Ginny felt a moment
of panic before Draco began talking.
"This is the main part of the house," he told them. "Your rooms will be in the
Muggle house, but all your training and such will take place in here. Therefore,
this place should become more important to you than your bed and closet ." Ginny
had sudden images of iron maidens, spiked wheels, and leather
whips. Draco just smirked at her terrified and faintly nauseated expression and
pointed to a door on the left. "This door here," he reached over with a sinister
glint in his eye. "leads to…" Ginny ducked behind Remus and peeked out from the
crook of his arm.
"The brass instruments." Draco flung the door wide and both Ginny and Remus gave
startled gasps (or gapes) at the large room, filled with an assortment of brass
instruments. Trumpets, trombones, bugle, English and French horns, tubas, and
so much more. Despite the large number of objects, the room was neatly
arranged. Each instrument was displayed as if in a museum, with a small note
card and labeling beneath it.
"I keep all my instruments separately." Draco told them a bit smugly.
"God…I never knew you were so paranoid…" Remus muttered. Draco tossed him a
glare and shut the door, almost smashing Ginny's inquisitive nose.
They continued down the hall, with Draco opening more doors, although with less
flair than he had (the 'paranoid' had gotten to him). In less than half an hour,
Ginny had seen more musical instruments than she or her family had ever, in
their lives. She had also been given a crash course in them, and was now, to her
chagrin, able to tell apart a Spanish castanet and an orchestral castanet. With
her mind whirling with accordions, violas, Alphorns, bongo drums, oboes, and
whatnots, she finally sat down weakly in the living room of Draco's home.
"So."
She stared at him and Lupin blankly.
"So?"
"Pick your instrument."
"Ri-right now?!" Ginny blinked. Draco looked at her condescendingly.
"Right… er…Can I- can I look around…myself?" Draco sighed in annoyance, and
Remus gave him a look like 'let her. She'll only make you worse in time.'
Gratefully, Ginny started from her seat and fairly raced out of the room. She
took one look in each direction, then turned left and began walking quickly.
Where was the door? She had to get out here!
Unfortunately, she seemed to have gone the wrong direction, and before she knew
it, had run smack dab into a dead end. Rubbing the end of her nose, she blinked
away tears of pain and cursed the bad lighting. Spinning around, she prepared to
run back in the other direction, when the slightly open door on her right
distracted her. It was a door that her host hadn't shown, and just because of
that, it made her all the more curious. Darting a look towards the light from
the living room down the hall, Ginny quietly pushed open the door and stepped
in.
The light was brighter in this room, and seemed to be a trophy room. There were
rows and rows of beech wood, where numerous awards and medals were placed
carefully, each on its own pedestal. Certificates of Merit hung framed on the
walls. Everything looked perfectly dusted and perfectly kept. Stunned, Ginny
walked around the room dazedly, and came to one corner of the room. Her eyes
alighted on one particular shelf, where numerous wizard pictures and some
unanimated ones were framed and displayed. Curious, she scanned each of them
quickly, and suddenly began feeling a dreadful feeling in the pit of her
stomach. Feeling as if eyes were boring into the back of her head, she whirled
around and stared. Her fears were justified; she began screaming banshee-like.
 
Remus had been just about to launch into a description of what he'd been
planning to Draco when a horrible shriek echoed down the hall. Instantly, crumbs
of strawberry shortcake somehow lodged themselves in his throat and he began
hacking violently. The other man, however, had muttered something about 'stupid
Weasels' and jumped to his feet.
Pounding at his chest, Lupin quickly wiped his watering eyes and raced after
him. As soon as he stepped into the hallway, a sense of disorientation hit him.
Dizzily, he shook his head and ran after Draco, cursing the evil echoes that
bounced around the halls, causing some of the more delicate instruments to
vibrate slightly and the walls to shake.
They found her in the trophy room, staring dead straight at a framed picture and
her face pale white. Draco noted distastefully that her freckles stood out
abominably.
"What is it?" Remus asked Draco.
"I think she just realized where she is." He murmured back, annoyed but
nevertheless, wickedly amused. Lupin leaned over and adjusted his glasses,
studying the moving picture.
"Why, that's your Hogwarts graduation photo! Look, there's Harry and Ron! My my,
they seemed to be permanently scowling." Remus commented. Ginny stopped
screaming, and instead looked at Draco in shock and horror.
"You're…you're you're… you're the…"
"Musical virtuoso? The Next Mozart? Most Eligible Bachelor in England? Genius?"
Draco supplied helpfully.
"You're Ferret Malfoy!" she shrieked. Remus suddenly started coughing again,
much more violently than before. Draco flat-out glared at him, then turned
venomously on the hyperventilating girl.
"Well, fine. Who did you think I was?" he shot back nastily.
"I-I don't know…I was hoping that…maybe you had…you know…only the same name?"
Ginny returned weakly. Draco tossed his head.
"Of course not! I'm the only person on this world allowed to be named 'Draco
Malfoy'. My father had that name copyrighted at my birth." Ginny stared a beat,
then joined Remus in hacking up a lung.
Draco tapped his foot impatiently while glaring at the shaking bodies of the two
until Ginny stood and gasped for a decent breath of air. He opened his mouth to
say some biting, evil, arrogant comment to recollect his broken dignity, but
checked himself and instead drawled:
"Well, Weasley. Had you decided which instrument you're going to play? Nothing
expensive, mind you. I don't want to have thousands of pieces of a thousand
dollar instrument on the floor."
Ginny, upon discovering the identity of the professor, had racked her brain
furiously for any loopholes out of the deal she had sealed herself in. "Well
then, Malfoy - "
"Professor Malfoy." Malfoy interrupted, putting great emphasis on the
"professor" proudly, greatly enjoying rubbing this fact into Ginny's face.
"PROFESSOR Malfoy," Ginny mimicked, drawing out the word grotesquely. "I'm
beginning to think that I will never be able to…erm, play any of the instruments
you have without…slightly damaging it. So…I believe that I won't be able to do
this - be able to play at Calgery Hall." Ginny watched Malfoy, waiting hopefully
for a release from the deal.
Malfoy's eyes narrowed as he scrutinized the redhead. "First of all, it's
Carnegie Hall. And second, we're not Muggles. We - use - magic - to - repair -
any - damage." He drew out the last phrase as if Ginny was a first grader. Ginny
grimaced, feeling incredibly silly, and hint of hope disappearing from her mind.
Lupin, meanwhile, had recovered from his coughing fit and was watching the two
with amused interest.
Draco had noticed her reaction, and he furrowed his brows as he glared at Ginny.
"You were trying to back out of the deal, weren't you?" he demanded.
Ginny's head shot up and answered a bit too quickly. "NO! I me - I mean…why
would I?"
Draco smirked, wanting to draw this torturing out for all its worth. "Oh, I
don't know. Maybe because I'm a MALFOY…" His effort was rewarded with another
grimace on Ginny's part, and he smiled. "That's the reason, isn't it? You think
I'm not good enough to teach you. Well…if I had known better, I'd say that you
are too lowly to touch any of my instruments anyway." He tipped his head to one
side thoughtfully. "Actually, I suppose I do, but alas, me and my soft heart."
"Soft-heart my ass." Ginny muttered. Remus caught the venomous glares and jumped
in.
"Ah, Ginny my dear, it seems as if you have no easy way out of this situation.
Why don't you just go along with it? I'm sure six months of your life doing
something productive can't hurt."
"It'll be the last six months of my life, and it's going to be bloody
torturous!" Remus' former student replied in slight panic. Lupin shook his head
slowly and sighed.
"Come, let's go together. I'd certainly like more time to study these marvelous
instruments."
"Study them yourself! I won't go." Finally, Ginny flat out refused.
"I hear oboists are in the trend lately." Ginny shook her head.
"How about the lovely accordion? 'La Vie en Rose'?"
No.
"Flutes are nice…"
No.
"How about the drum set?"
No-wait…
"No! I will not run the risk of suddenly having a garage band in my home!"
Fine. No.
"Do you like foreign instruments? A sitar?"
No.
"Conga drums?"
"Lupin… I'm warning you…stay away from drums!"
"Guitar?"
No.
"Saxophone?"
No.
The poor professor finally lost it.
"What do you want to play then?! Shall he teach you the blasted bagpipe?!"
"I'd love it!"
 
Lupin and Malfoy stared. Apparently, they hadn't thought Ginny'd actually decide
on anything.
"It has always been my life long dream to play a bagpipe!" Ginny clasped her
hands to her chest and her eyes sparkled happily. "My mother's uncle, you know,
was Scottish, and once a upon a time, I'd sit upon his knee, and he'd tell me,
"Eh, m'lass, playin the bagpipe is nought' o' t'be ashaimed of. It's jus' ta
squeeze o' your ahrm an a blow n' your lips, an' you make beoot'ful music.'."
Draco heard this recitation, aghast. He'd hope that playing the bagpipe was not
this easy. Lupin was shaking with silent laughter at Ginny's attempt at a
Scottish accent. It sounded nowhere near. He glanced at Ginny and his laughter
died out as he realized she was serious.
"Please?! I'd love to try a bagpipe on!" Ginny entreated them, having made a
one-hundred eighty degree attitude change.
"Lupin… She's serious." Draco muttered.
"I know, Draco. Do you think we should let her try?"
"I hope not!" He muttered back, then cleared his throat. "Weasley, I er, I don't
think a bagpipe is right for you."
Ginny's face crumpled. "Why ever not?!"
Malfoy threw a look at Lupin.
"Because, ah, bagpipes are… well, it requires a lot of, well, uhm…" The
professor cast around for a word that meant 'talent'.
"Because you won't be able to play it." Malfoy interjected.
"I will! Let me try! Please!" Ginny begged them, earnestly gazing at the two
professors. The two men exchanged looks.
"Well, it can't hurt to try…"
"You'd be surprised." Draco snorted. "Alright. Fine. We'll let you try the
stupid bagpipe." Squealing, Ginny happily clapped her hands.
Draco whirled around gracefully and walked out of the trophy room, Ginny
following him eagerly, and Lupin trailing behind the procession. Draco led them
back down the hall they had been in earlier, and he stopped at the door labeled
"Foreign Instruments". He flung the double doors open, but before he could even
set a foot in, Ginny had pushed past him and started ogling at all the different
instruments. Her eyes settled on a large bagpipe. She picked it up gently and
cradled it like it was a baby.
Malfoy had stepped up behind her, a scowl appearing on his face as he imagined
the horrendous noise that's about to come. Lupin watched on from the doorway,
the amused smile still on his face. "Go on Ginny...try it"
Ginny's face lightened up and she set the bagpipes under her left arm,
supporting the instrument with her right arm. She placed pipes to her lips and
she began to blow with all her might, giving the bag a large squeeze now and
then. [ESoR: Is that how they play it? *shrug*]
And she produced the most hideous sound imaginable. No, scratch that. It was so
horrible it was not recognizable as anything ever produced by anything on Earth.
It kept every ounce of self control Draco had ever learned from Lucius to keep
himself from crying out. He quickly clamped his ears shut with his hands, and
took a glance at Lupin.
The poor professor had immediately lost his smile, replaced by a grimace. His
hands were too covering his ears, and he was howling loudly for Ginny to stop.
His howls, Draco noticed, just seemed to add to the clashing sounds.
He...had...had...enough.
He wrenched the instrument out from Ginny's grasp, not exactly caring at all
whether he broke the instrument or not, and flung it back onto the stands.
Ignoring Ginny's shrieks, he grabbed her wrist and dragged her out to the hall,
also motioning for Lupin to follow.
When they were all standing out in the hall, and the doors to the now accursed
room closed, Draco whirled around to fume at Ginny.
"You...are...never...to...play...another...wind...instrument" he managed to
sputter out. Lupin smiled meekly. "I think we should have realized that when we
heard her play the harmonica."
Ginny stared at Lupin before huffing indignately. "My harmonica tunes were just
fine."
"Yeah, for homeless people who consider banging on trash cans music," Draco
mumbled, before examining Ginny. What on Earth can Ginny play without causing
the use of hearing devices popular? Hm...a stringed instrument, possibly? The
girl didn't seem strong enough to saw any strings in half with a bow, let alone
the instrument. He tapped a finger on his forehead thoughtfully before turning
around and walking down the hallway. Ginny and Lupin had no choice but to follow
him meekly, much like sheep following a shepherd.
They stopped in front of another set of double doors, this time labeled
"Stringed Instruments". Ginny quirked an eyebrow in a curious fashion as Malfoy
opened the doors, more carefully this time. The three stepped inside, and Draco
moved off into the general area where the violins were kept. Ginny looked about
the room and nearly shrieked in surprise as she found herself towered over by a
full sized bass. Getting over her shock, she reached out to touch the large
instrument. Before she could, something was thrust into her hands.
She looked up to find Malfoy glaring at her, almost daring her to try another
"bagpipe incident" with the bass. She shifted her gaze down to what he had put
into her hands, and found herself holding a violin by the neck in one hand and a
bow in the other. She brought the instrument up to eye level and began to
examine it. After a minute, she still hadn't figured how to work it. She blankly
looked at Malfoy and Lupin, shrugging slightly.
Malfoy sighed in impatience before snapping, "Well Weasley? Are you going to try
playing it or not? I know it's the most expensive piece you've ever held, but
you don't need to spend all our time just looking at it."
Ginny bit her lip angrily, stopping the retort from rolling off her tongue. She
instead focused on Lupin. "How do I work this thing?" she asked, holding the
violin up.
Lupin stifled a snort, and Draco slapped a hand to his face. He tore the violin
away from Ginny's grasp and roughly pushed the end of the instrument under
Ginny's chin, adjusting the shoulder rest to line with the curve of her
shoulder. He grabbed her left arm and propped the neck of the violin into her
hands. He then took a hold of the bow, carefully avoiding touching the hairs. He
stuck this into Ginny's right hand, and brought her arm up so the bow settled on
the D string of the violin. Ginny stood there, poised and looking dumbfounded.
Now what? she thought.
"You pull the bow so that it slides across the string at a perpendicular angle.
Make sure to exert some pressure on it or a scratchy sound will be produced,"
Malfoy tiredly answered her unasked question.
Ginny nodded mechanically and pulled the bow across the string, careful to do as
Malfoy instructed. Malfoy automatically winced, expecting a sound resembling
that of a screaming pig. Lupin also had the same thought in mind, and had his
hands poised over his ears. Instead...
The flawless tone of a D resounded through the room. The note echoed about the
room before dying out, a surprised look appearing on all three faces. Ginny
looked utterly dumbfounded, and her arms were frozen in the motion she'd stopped
in. Lupin's face slowly cracked into a large smile, and Draco's lips
tugged upwards slightly.
"Thank the Lord," he breathed.
~~~~
 
Sasori: well….that's one chapter over with. heh. BTW. The accent part…I have no
idea what a Scottish accent sounds like. I'm very sorry to those who are nit
picky and have to have every pronunciation correct to the bone. Can anyone link
me to a website where they teach you to speak in a Scottish accent? If so, then
I'll fix that up there. =^^=
                    We admit it! we have no earthly clue how to play a bagpipe! Though I personally
think it'd be tight to own one…teehee. I play the violin though, and ESoR plays
the cello, so our knowledge of string instruments should be slightly higher than
of wind. Alice plays….she plays…the electric French horn! Haha. No. Just
kidding.
*Alice chucks a tube of body lotion at sasori*
ESoR: O gosh...thank goodness Sasori doesn't own a bagpipe...and Alice doesn't
own a horn
*Alice chucks a speakerphone at ESoR*
Thank you for the reviews!!! We are very honored to have heard your comments and
suggestions *bows as a clash of gongs sound behind*