Chapter 2
The following day, Ginny's alarm clock went off as usual at seven in the morning. She hit the snooze button and then continued on with her sleep. When she finally emerged from bed, only because of the bright light coming in from her windows, she put her hand on her head. It was pounding hard, as if someone was hitting her over the head with a hammer in rapid succession.
'Oh great,' she thought. 'I have a hangover.' It felt pretty bad, and she took a sip of water from a bottle that was sitting on her bedside table before running into the bathroom and throwing up in her sink. What a wonderful way to start a day, eh?
She washed off her face, and then re-entered her bedroom. As she was changing from her red silk pajamas into her business clothes, she happened to glance at the clock. It was quarter of nine. She was forty-five minutes late!
She pulled on her clothes as fast as possible, picked up her bag and report, and then ran out of her apartment as if a crazy man was chasing her with a chainsaw. She skipped steps going down the stairs, and ran out into the street like a mad woman. She didn't even care at this point that her hair was a mess and her expression looked like she was actually insane.
Less then twenty minutes later she flew into the office of the newspaper she worked at. Ignoring the people who were greeting her throughout the place, she ran down the hall to her boss's office. The door was closed and she saw that somebody was already in there with him. Then the door opened and out came her current rival, Cho Chang.
Yes, it was ironic that her boyfriend's ex-crush was now her adversary in work as well, but it really had nothing to do with the fact that Harry had liked her. Cho had a low position at the newspaper, just like Ginny, even though she had been working there longer. Both of them had been competing for the same job ever since Ginny started working there.
Now that wouldn't bother Ginny as much, if Cho didn't constantly ask her how Harry was and how she was doing with her current article. She just irked her so much. Every time they talked she would always pull the wrong strings, on purpose seemingly, and Ginny did not know why Cho appeared to not like her. Jealously over Harry never even passed Ginny's mind.
As Cho passed by Ginny, she had a smug smile on her face. 'What is she so happy about?' she wondered, as she noticed the look of 'I beat you'. What she beat her at, Ginny had no idea. She smiled politely, even though she would have rather punched her in the face, and then entered the office of her boss Mr. Hillman, also known as Mr. Hellman.
He obtained that nickname from his subordinates by being demanding and strict. He could be nice, but usually only when he was already in a good mood and if you do exactly what he wanted you to do. Ginny always turned her column in on time, so he really had nothing to yell at her about, but she did have a sneaking suspicion that he was getting annoyed about how she kept turning in other articles to try and convince him to promote her.
This day, which started off terribly for her, could be looking better because he did not seem like he was in a bad mood. She walked into the office, and saw him sitting at his leather chair behind a mahogany desk. He glanced up at her, and motioned for her to sit down in one of the chairs in front of his desk.
She did as he wanted, after closing the door behind her, and set her bag down on the floor. She held her report in her hand and said confidently, "Mr. Hillman, I have an article that I would like you to look at." Then she set it lightly on the desk in front of him and studied his expression.
For some reason he did not seem at all surprised. "You were forty-five minutes later today, Miss Weasley. I am sure that you have a good reason." he said in a dull tone of voice while looking at something that was already on his desk.
"Sorry, I overslept." she proclaimed. Unlike many of her fellow employees, she was not afraid of him. As far as she was concerned he was a cranky old man who was jealous that his youth was gone, so he tormented the young people around him. Yeah, that was it. Either that or he just woke up on the wrong side of his craftmatic adjustable bed every day. (A/N: I'm pretending that Ginny knows what those type of beds are)
Without responding, he opened the cover of her report and began to read it in front of her. He studied each page carefully, with a serious expression on his face and both of his brows lowered. Ginny sat there watching him, anxious to know his response to her piece. She sat on the edge of her chair, still feeling lousy, but getting very impatient.
After ten minutes of that torture, he finally looked up at her and closed the paper. "Impressive." he stated, causing Ginny to elate with joy. She was just about to jump out of her seat and scream, but that was until she heard him continue. "Unfortunately Miss Chang just handed me a piece similar to yours, if not the same."
So that was why Cho had that look on her face! How did she know about what Ginny was writing about? Ginny only told Hermione, who couldn't have been able to tell Cho, and there was her informant. Would Cho have stolen the article from her apartment? No, that's too unrealistic. Maybe her informer was also telling things to other people as well...
"Hello, Miss Weasley?" Mr. Hillman asked, waving a hand in front of her face.
She had gone into a state of confusion and anger. If only she hadn't overslept! Then she would have beaten Cho to her boss. Then Ginny snapped out of it and was once again looking into the brown eyes of her boss. "Yes?" she asked, having missed whatever it was he said, yet at the same time knowing that he had been talking about something.
"I said that since you two wrote about the same thing, both very well too, it is hard to judge which of you to commend. Yes, Miss Chang turned hers in first, but I do find it odd that you both wrote about the same thing. It is an interesting topic, I admit, but I'm afraid we cannot use it. The Ministry already went public with it half an hour ago."
Ginny groaned. This day was not looking to get any better. Was she destined to be writing about romance novels and science fiction the rest of her life? Not if she had anything to say about it! Even if she had to quit her job and somehow start her own newspaper, which was not very likely, then she would find a way to get the career she was pursuing.
Her supervisor continued talking. "So, I have decided to let you both write another article. You have one month. Whichever article is better, which will be a hard choice, will be published in the newspaper and the writer will get a promotion. How does that sound?"
Things were looking up, slightly. "Thank you for the opportunity. I won't let you down." she replied.
"Good. Now go, I have work to do. Don't forget the book reviews are due by the end of the week." he reminded her before returning to the papers that were piled up on his desk.
Ginny picked up her bag and let herself out of his office. He had been nice, and she was lucky that she got another chance at the promotion, which she felt was rightfully hers. That was the good news, the bad news was that she had to come up with some groundbreaking controversial story in one month. Not only that, but it had to better than Cho's, not to mention about a different topic.
She walked through the office building again, this time saying bye to her co-workers, and walked outside. She stood for a moment, breathing in the outside air, and then continued across the street to where a coffee shop was conveniently placed.
She entered the shop, and without looking around, walked straight up to the counter. She bought a large coffee, black, along with a small chocolate chip muffin. After waiting for the incompetent man, or at least how she liked to look at it seeing as she was in a bad mood, she grabbed her breakfast and threw some coins on the counter.
She found a clean table at the corner of the room and sat down. She had picked up a newspaper on her way out of the office from someone she worked with, so she opened it up on the table and read over the headlines. Her boss was right, there were already articles about that conspiracy throughout other newspapers. Apparently the Ministry came out with it before anyone else could, and they blamed it all on one man who was being questioned at the current time. In his picture he looked upset, like he had been crying, and oddly the expression on his face looked like innocence. Ginny thought that they were just using him as an excuse, but she had no proof to contradict the article.
She took a large swig of her coffee, praying that it would make her splitting headache go away, and threw the newspaper angrily down across the table. The coffee shop seemed busy for being a time when most people were working, but the people in it did not seem to pay any attention to her.
Ginny took a small bite of the muffin, unsure if it was a good idea for her to be eating. With the way she was feeling, she could be throwing up this muffin soon. She wasn't too worried though; the minute she got home she was going to take some potion for hangovers such as hers. She didn't have enough time to take it earlier. She was halfway done her coffee when she heard the little bell at the door ring. Curious, she glanced over at the door to see who it was entering, after all she did have the perfect view from where she was sitting.
It was a tall man, about six foot most likely, with pale blonde hair. He was dressed in a black business suit and holding a briefcase in his right hand. He looked strong, and she was sure that there were muscles underneath the business attire. He walked to the front counter and seemed to be arguing with the cashier, who after a couple minutes looked terrified.
There was something familiar about that man, and even though she was feeling like going back home and sleeping, she couldn't help but sit there and stare at him. The worker had a panicked expression on his face, and he seemed to rush much faster with the man's order then he had done for Ginny. 'What did he say to him that would get him moving so fast?' she wondered.
The man grabbed his order, which she saw as coffee and a bag of something. He stood there, not acknowledging the small line that was beginning to form behind him, and looked at what was in the bag. Then he looked back up at the cashier and began demanding something, Ginny found herself leaning over to try and hear what he was saying, but all she managed to understand was that the man forgot to put butter on his bagels.
The cashier took the bag back, and fixed his mistake before handing the bag back to the blonde man. She could see that the cashier was trembling and perspiration was forming on his brow. Eventually, the man threw some money on the table as if it meant nothing to him, and he looked around the room for a place to sit.
Ginny had only known one person like that her whole life who was so demanding and acted like he was superior to everyone around him. That person happened to be the enemy of her boyfriend throughout Hogwarts, and she shrugged the thought off telling herself that he was probably killing someone at the moment, so he wouldn't have time for coffee. It was then that she looked up and found herself looking into the smoky gray eyes of Draco Malfoy.
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A/N: Thanks to erbsenpüree and Catmint for reviewing! Please review!
The following day, Ginny's alarm clock went off as usual at seven in the morning. She hit the snooze button and then continued on with her sleep. When she finally emerged from bed, only because of the bright light coming in from her windows, she put her hand on her head. It was pounding hard, as if someone was hitting her over the head with a hammer in rapid succession.
'Oh great,' she thought. 'I have a hangover.' It felt pretty bad, and she took a sip of water from a bottle that was sitting on her bedside table before running into the bathroom and throwing up in her sink. What a wonderful way to start a day, eh?
She washed off her face, and then re-entered her bedroom. As she was changing from her red silk pajamas into her business clothes, she happened to glance at the clock. It was quarter of nine. She was forty-five minutes late!
She pulled on her clothes as fast as possible, picked up her bag and report, and then ran out of her apartment as if a crazy man was chasing her with a chainsaw. She skipped steps going down the stairs, and ran out into the street like a mad woman. She didn't even care at this point that her hair was a mess and her expression looked like she was actually insane.
Less then twenty minutes later she flew into the office of the newspaper she worked at. Ignoring the people who were greeting her throughout the place, she ran down the hall to her boss's office. The door was closed and she saw that somebody was already in there with him. Then the door opened and out came her current rival, Cho Chang.
Yes, it was ironic that her boyfriend's ex-crush was now her adversary in work as well, but it really had nothing to do with the fact that Harry had liked her. Cho had a low position at the newspaper, just like Ginny, even though she had been working there longer. Both of them had been competing for the same job ever since Ginny started working there.
Now that wouldn't bother Ginny as much, if Cho didn't constantly ask her how Harry was and how she was doing with her current article. She just irked her so much. Every time they talked she would always pull the wrong strings, on purpose seemingly, and Ginny did not know why Cho appeared to not like her. Jealously over Harry never even passed Ginny's mind.
As Cho passed by Ginny, she had a smug smile on her face. 'What is she so happy about?' she wondered, as she noticed the look of 'I beat you'. What she beat her at, Ginny had no idea. She smiled politely, even though she would have rather punched her in the face, and then entered the office of her boss Mr. Hillman, also known as Mr. Hellman.
He obtained that nickname from his subordinates by being demanding and strict. He could be nice, but usually only when he was already in a good mood and if you do exactly what he wanted you to do. Ginny always turned her column in on time, so he really had nothing to yell at her about, but she did have a sneaking suspicion that he was getting annoyed about how she kept turning in other articles to try and convince him to promote her.
This day, which started off terribly for her, could be looking better because he did not seem like he was in a bad mood. She walked into the office, and saw him sitting at his leather chair behind a mahogany desk. He glanced up at her, and motioned for her to sit down in one of the chairs in front of his desk.
She did as he wanted, after closing the door behind her, and set her bag down on the floor. She held her report in her hand and said confidently, "Mr. Hillman, I have an article that I would like you to look at." Then she set it lightly on the desk in front of him and studied his expression.
For some reason he did not seem at all surprised. "You were forty-five minutes later today, Miss Weasley. I am sure that you have a good reason." he said in a dull tone of voice while looking at something that was already on his desk.
"Sorry, I overslept." she proclaimed. Unlike many of her fellow employees, she was not afraid of him. As far as she was concerned he was a cranky old man who was jealous that his youth was gone, so he tormented the young people around him. Yeah, that was it. Either that or he just woke up on the wrong side of his craftmatic adjustable bed every day. (A/N: I'm pretending that Ginny knows what those type of beds are)
Without responding, he opened the cover of her report and began to read it in front of her. He studied each page carefully, with a serious expression on his face and both of his brows lowered. Ginny sat there watching him, anxious to know his response to her piece. She sat on the edge of her chair, still feeling lousy, but getting very impatient.
After ten minutes of that torture, he finally looked up at her and closed the paper. "Impressive." he stated, causing Ginny to elate with joy. She was just about to jump out of her seat and scream, but that was until she heard him continue. "Unfortunately Miss Chang just handed me a piece similar to yours, if not the same."
So that was why Cho had that look on her face! How did she know about what Ginny was writing about? Ginny only told Hermione, who couldn't have been able to tell Cho, and there was her informant. Would Cho have stolen the article from her apartment? No, that's too unrealistic. Maybe her informer was also telling things to other people as well...
"Hello, Miss Weasley?" Mr. Hillman asked, waving a hand in front of her face.
She had gone into a state of confusion and anger. If only she hadn't overslept! Then she would have beaten Cho to her boss. Then Ginny snapped out of it and was once again looking into the brown eyes of her boss. "Yes?" she asked, having missed whatever it was he said, yet at the same time knowing that he had been talking about something.
"I said that since you two wrote about the same thing, both very well too, it is hard to judge which of you to commend. Yes, Miss Chang turned hers in first, but I do find it odd that you both wrote about the same thing. It is an interesting topic, I admit, but I'm afraid we cannot use it. The Ministry already went public with it half an hour ago."
Ginny groaned. This day was not looking to get any better. Was she destined to be writing about romance novels and science fiction the rest of her life? Not if she had anything to say about it! Even if she had to quit her job and somehow start her own newspaper, which was not very likely, then she would find a way to get the career she was pursuing.
Her supervisor continued talking. "So, I have decided to let you both write another article. You have one month. Whichever article is better, which will be a hard choice, will be published in the newspaper and the writer will get a promotion. How does that sound?"
Things were looking up, slightly. "Thank you for the opportunity. I won't let you down." she replied.
"Good. Now go, I have work to do. Don't forget the book reviews are due by the end of the week." he reminded her before returning to the papers that were piled up on his desk.
Ginny picked up her bag and let herself out of his office. He had been nice, and she was lucky that she got another chance at the promotion, which she felt was rightfully hers. That was the good news, the bad news was that she had to come up with some groundbreaking controversial story in one month. Not only that, but it had to better than Cho's, not to mention about a different topic.
She walked through the office building again, this time saying bye to her co-workers, and walked outside. She stood for a moment, breathing in the outside air, and then continued across the street to where a coffee shop was conveniently placed.
She entered the shop, and without looking around, walked straight up to the counter. She bought a large coffee, black, along with a small chocolate chip muffin. After waiting for the incompetent man, or at least how she liked to look at it seeing as she was in a bad mood, she grabbed her breakfast and threw some coins on the counter.
She found a clean table at the corner of the room and sat down. She had picked up a newspaper on her way out of the office from someone she worked with, so she opened it up on the table and read over the headlines. Her boss was right, there were already articles about that conspiracy throughout other newspapers. Apparently the Ministry came out with it before anyone else could, and they blamed it all on one man who was being questioned at the current time. In his picture he looked upset, like he had been crying, and oddly the expression on his face looked like innocence. Ginny thought that they were just using him as an excuse, but she had no proof to contradict the article.
She took a large swig of her coffee, praying that it would make her splitting headache go away, and threw the newspaper angrily down across the table. The coffee shop seemed busy for being a time when most people were working, but the people in it did not seem to pay any attention to her.
Ginny took a small bite of the muffin, unsure if it was a good idea for her to be eating. With the way she was feeling, she could be throwing up this muffin soon. She wasn't too worried though; the minute she got home she was going to take some potion for hangovers such as hers. She didn't have enough time to take it earlier. She was halfway done her coffee when she heard the little bell at the door ring. Curious, she glanced over at the door to see who it was entering, after all she did have the perfect view from where she was sitting.
It was a tall man, about six foot most likely, with pale blonde hair. He was dressed in a black business suit and holding a briefcase in his right hand. He looked strong, and she was sure that there were muscles underneath the business attire. He walked to the front counter and seemed to be arguing with the cashier, who after a couple minutes looked terrified.
There was something familiar about that man, and even though she was feeling like going back home and sleeping, she couldn't help but sit there and stare at him. The worker had a panicked expression on his face, and he seemed to rush much faster with the man's order then he had done for Ginny. 'What did he say to him that would get him moving so fast?' she wondered.
The man grabbed his order, which she saw as coffee and a bag of something. He stood there, not acknowledging the small line that was beginning to form behind him, and looked at what was in the bag. Then he looked back up at the cashier and began demanding something, Ginny found herself leaning over to try and hear what he was saying, but all she managed to understand was that the man forgot to put butter on his bagels.
The cashier took the bag back, and fixed his mistake before handing the bag back to the blonde man. She could see that the cashier was trembling and perspiration was forming on his brow. Eventually, the man threw some money on the table as if it meant nothing to him, and he looked around the room for a place to sit.
Ginny had only known one person like that her whole life who was so demanding and acted like he was superior to everyone around him. That person happened to be the enemy of her boyfriend throughout Hogwarts, and she shrugged the thought off telling herself that he was probably killing someone at the moment, so he wouldn't have time for coffee. It was then that she looked up and found herself looking into the smoky gray eyes of Draco Malfoy.
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A/N: Thanks to erbsenpüree and Catmint for reviewing! Please review!