Chapter 7
A/N: Uh, this is your captain speaking. Sorry for the delay, I have a bit of short-term memory loss and tend to get side tracked. By the way saw 50 First Dates. Cute. Uh, right. Have fun, and thank you for flying OCTOBER KNIGHT AIR. Next stop (or rather chapter) due soon... er...
"You are an evil, evil witch." Hermione looks up from her desk at Draco's voice.
"Pardon?" this is starting to get old Hermione finds.
"I need you to explain to me one more time why this girl is in my apartment."
"Keep in mind Draco it's no longer your apartment alone. It's now as well. She paid for it the day she moved in."
"That's not the point."
"Didn't she apologize this morning?"
"No she didn't apologize. I haven't seen her since she slammed the door to her room last night. I take it she spent the night with you?"
"Yes."
"Well, if I would have known that I wouldn't have slept with the door locked with an alarm spell and light on. I thought she would have put a pillow over my head while I slept." Draco pauses for a second, realizing something for the first time. "You roomed me with a psychotic MURDERER! If I didn't want to make it to thirty I would have sided with Voldemort. I didn't need to recruit you for that."
"She is not a psychotic murderer." Hermione hopes he didn't pick up on her stutter. He did. "In any case she came over to my house so she wouldn't do it. Not that she would to begin with."
"Right." Draco leans down to be eye level with Hermione. "I want her out."
"First: NO! She already paid for her month, AND you two signed a contract. Second: if you want her out why are you telling me? Tell her."
"I'll need a body guard first." he mutters, straightening up and leaning on her desk with his arms crossed.
"Oh, get over it. And get to work."
"Who are you to tell –" Draco starts, feeling indignant.
"Out! Go! Work!" Hermione points to the door, and dejectedly Draco does listen to her. When he's out and the door closes Hermione wonders when she'll learn to keep her good intentions to herself.
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When Draco enters the flat there is a strange aroma that hits him. It's good. It's smells good. It smells like ... chicken teriyaki? What?
"Weasley?" he called out.
"Malfoy." Ginny confirmed.
"What are you doing?" Draco asks walking into the kitchen. "What's that smell?"
"You don't like it?" she asks turning from the stove.
"What is it?" he is thoroughly confused.
"Chicken teriyaki!" Ginny says as if it should be obvious. "Part of my apology for being silly. I shouldn't have shoved your head in the toilet," as amusing as it was to see you squirm, she thinks, "and I shouldn't have acted so immature."
"Why chicken teriyaki?"
"Hermione told me you liked it, that is was one of your favorites. I'm hoping that my cooking abilities are good enough to coerce you into calling a truce."
"You didn't poison it did you?" he asks sitting down at the table and looking at the food being put onto his plate suspiciously.
"No, I didn't poison it. That would defeat the purpose." Ginny says, and begins filling her own plate. "If you don't trust me, I can test it for you."
"Hermione knows you made this for me?"
"Yeah."
"Well, then she'll know the cause of my sudden death. Though you two may be in cahoots. I'll have you know I had a physical right before you moved in and I was healthy as a horse. They'll know it was murder."
"Shut up and eat, before it gets cold and I have to hear you complain about that." Ginny cut him off and began eating her own food, blowing it before placing it in her mouth. He stopped and eyed his plate warily. First he smelled it, and then he poked at it with his fork. Ginny laughs quietly looking at him with her head bent down to face her plate. Finally deciding it was no longer so questionable he takes a piece in his mouth.
"Oh! Ah!" he breathes.
"What! I really didn't poison it!" Ginny's head had snapped up at the noises and she looks like he was accusing her of attempted murder. But he shakes his head and has his mouth in an o shape.
"Ah!" he breathes, yet again. "Hah! Ha! HOT!" and Ginny restrains her laughter. He chews painfully trying to keep from burning his tongue, the roof of his mouth and the inside of his cheeks. It's quite comical to watch and Ginny can barely keep from falling off her chair. "Yo a cwa-e wih!" Draco yells at her not quite able to use his tongue yet.
"I'm sorry, what was that? I have lazy wit? Really Draco that makes no sense!" Ginny mocks before she can help herself.
"You're a crazy witch! A lunatic! What the hell were you trying to do!" he yells when it doesn't hurt so much.
"It's not my fault that you don't know any better than to eat something right of the oven without cooling it first. And you thought you were the smart one." She laughs.
"That's it! You're out!" he commands, standing and pointing to the door.
"I believe not." Ginny begins, also rising from her seat. "We signed a contract. I paid my half. I'm staying. That's final."
"NO!"
"That's your argument? 'No?' What are you? Five? 'No.' Oh let me go off and pack my bags on that one. Then again, how about not! I'm staying, I know you won't leave and the last thing either of us wants is to have murder threats hanging over us for the next three weeks, so you are going to sit down, shut up, accept my apology – that I am woman enough to give by the way – and eat! And you will cool off your food before you stick it in your mouth!" Ginny finishes, sitting once again and returning to her plate, looking as though nothing happened, if only it weren't for the red in her face.
Draco, serious considering this woman truly unstable, decides to do as she says, afraid any further prodding would enrage the madness within. Hesitantly, he did eat his dinner made for him, because one, he had a very small lunch and two, Ginny. It wasn't half bad either. She was quite the cook. He would no sooner admit that, than he would the fact that he made sure Ginny was unaware he was in the bathroom unless he had his wand at the ready, or could have it ready in two seconds.
After about twenty minutes of silence Ginny began to regret her temper tantrum.
"Malfoy?" was it her imagination or did he just jump? "Er, Draco..." Uh, apologize? No it didn't seem right. To redundant. "Um... How's the chicken?"
"Oh. It's good. Good. Tasty. Yum." Came Draco's reply, with almost less enthusiasm than when he heard he had to take pictures of tattoos of evil dark lords on the rears of ten witches and wizards over one hundred. This time there was no cursing.
"Malfoy," she sighed, "I won't snap if you don't like it. Really, I'm like a cute puppy. Don't attack and I won't."
"Right." And I can fly without a broom, or a hippogriff, or a thestral... Oh you get the idea!
"I'm sorry?"
"Any interesting new?" Yawn.
"You're a git?"
"I said 'interesting,' not old."
"Harry's pregnant with Ron's child?"
"Really?" About time...
"No. Ron's with Hermione you know that."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, and you and Potter are to announce your engagement any day now." Blah, blah, blah...
"Well... not really. We aren't even really seeing each other, but when he's in town there's definitely a spark. I'm just – "
"I didn't ask." Draco cuts her off. Ginny blushes. Merlin, just like at Hogwarts, pathetic. Draco shakes his head.
"Well, anyway, have we got a truce? Three weeks is a long time to be living the way we are." Ginny holds out her hand over the table. Looking at her hand as he had her chicken, he wonders if insanity is contagious, before shaking it and sighing. Ginny is as well but hers is more out of relief than anything else, while Draco is feeling weary and wary and bored.
"Do you drink, Weasley?"
"Usually. I find it keeps me hydrated, healthy and alive."
"Alcohol, Weasley."
"Socially, I'm a hideous drunk."
"So it doesn't have an affect on you, does it?"
"Hilarious, you are. A regular, stand-up." Ginny comments dryly.
"Come on, I don't have to go into work tomorrow, I'm bored and I have a full bottle of firewhisky in the cabinet. Let's get pissed."
Ginny scrunches up her nose. "Fun as that sounds, I'll pass. Though I won't mind watching you. I imagine it would be funny to see you disoriented, giddy, and slower than a stick on Sunday. Well, more than usual." Ginny added as an after thought.
"Come on, Weasley. You're a social drinker, I feel like being social, think of this as ... my apology."
Ginny takes a deep breath and shrugs. "Ah, what the hell. Bring out the bottle, and pray we can keep our clothes on, and our hands off each others throats."
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A/N: Do you feel it coming? Eh? Eh? Ah... I feel a song coming on.... (Tantalizing music intro) I keep really try-yin' baby, (beat) trying to hold back these feelings for sooo long. But if you feel like I feel baby. Come on. Wow come on... let's get in on....
Ok so Marvin Gaye and his 'friend' had fun that night... but will Ginny and Draco?