He tenderly rubbed the patches of feverish dry pink skin under his eyes, hissing as he watched himself backwards in the mirror. His perfectly manicured fingers tracing a path form the highest point of his cheekbones to the tip of his pointed nose. Pain shot through his facial nerves at the contact of his nail and nose and his frown deepened even further.
"That's it!" He yelled into his large empty room. "I'm not leaving my room till this horrid outbreak goes away."
In his green pajama bottoms he padded across the room and dramatically threw himself onto his large feather mattress.
"That sounds like a brilliant idea, dear." He heard the sympathetic voice of his mirror.
Draco huffed as he pulled the thick cover over his disgustingly pink and painful face.
He hadn't noticed his painfully pink face had been hexed until he had arrived home from Egypt. His first order of business had been to see his mother and he had sat by her side for the evening. Narcissa's nurse had given him a sympathetic look, but he had been used to those. The older nurses always looked as if they wanted to hug him. However, when he left his mother's side for dinner the servants had given him odd looks. In the beginning Draco's ego had told him they were admiring his symmetrical aristocratic features, but the looks turned to hidden behind their hand giggles and Draco's temper got the better of him.
"What's wrong with everyone?" He whined to his head house-elf. "Has my face gone green or something?"
Edmund's big blue-eyes had grown wide and his lip-less elfish mouth was struggling not to laugh. He gently directed Draco by the elbow to one of the many mirrors in the hall.
"No master. It's gone itself pink." He answered shaking his tiny lapel clad shoulder's with laughter.
Draco was sure if he hadn't been in shock from his bright pink cheeks, forehead, nose, and chin. He would have given his favorite house-elf the ability to fly without a broom.
"Young Master?" Draco heard a muffled but still squeaky voice pulling him out of his bitter reflection.
"What Tink?!" He spat from under his feather downed shelter.
"Miss. Whezzy is on her ways to sees you, sir."
"Buggar." He whined, still not pulling the dark cover down. He had been so absorbed with the state of his pink complexion that he had forgotten about his meeting with the Weasley.
"Tink thinks. Not that master cares, but Tink thinks it be best if master be presentable to entertain Ms. Whezzy."
"It doesn't matter." He said breathlessly, pulling the cover down. The thick blanket was suffocating him. "I'm not seeing her, anyway." He thought this over and found his idea brilliant, bloody brilliant.
"That's it." He said assertively. His blanket fell to his naked waist, as he propped himself on the palms of his hands.
Tink narrowed her oversized brown eyes at him with confusion.
"Take this down Tink." He ordered looking down at the tiny elf whose head didn't reach the bed frame. Her little mouth opened to object and Draco realized his fumble. "Forget that, I forgot your kind can't read or write." Tink's eyes fell down to her feet. "Remember this then. Tell the staff and Edmund's too," He pointed a long finger at her. "I've taken ill and I won't be entertaining, visiting, or paying anyone till my terrible illness has been cured." He looked down at his young slave and she looked more confused then before he'd started.
"Think your small elf-brain can remember all that?" He asked bitterly.
"Tink will remember, sir." A deeper but still squeaky voice came from the now opened door.
There stood Edmund in all his Napoleonesque glory. He was wearing the matching hat also. "Tink! Kitchens! Now!" He commanded, stepping into the room with his shiny black boots.
Edmunds weaker female counterpart ran to the service door in Draco's room. It was a passage he had used many times as a child to sneak around the manor undetected. His eyes came back to rest on the ancient house-elf.
He pulled his soft green pajama clad knees up to his chest. A tactic he'd learned in youth to gain his mother's sympathy. "Come to laugh at me too. Make me feel worse then I do already. Well it doesn't matter." Draco looked to his stain glassed windows. "I'm not meeting with anyone today and NOBODY!" He said turning back to the house-elf with narrowed eyes. "Is going to make me."
"Suit Master's self." Edmund said dryly. "But Ms. Wheezy is in Master's office right now."
*~*~*~*
Ginny looked down at the tiny doe-eyed house-elf, who had ushered her outside Draco's office. She had been quite surprised to see another elf. Draco's were very good, and could pop in and out of the room with the blink of an eye. The only house-elf to be seen or heard was Edmund and he always made his presence known.
"Excuse me, but what am I doing out here?" Ginny asked. She still didn't understand why she had been shooed outside.
The little house-elf shushed Ginny. "Master says he wants Ginny Wheezy outside Master's office. Tink puts Ginny Wheezy outside Master's office."
Ginny gave a disappointed sigh. House-elves.
The small house-elf named Tink, pushed his office door opened and peered in. Ginny heard a very annoying voice she knew belonged to Edmund squawk and Tink retreated.
She turned back to Ginny and squeaked, "Not ready."
Ginny smiled when Edmund opened the door. His glassy blue-eyes raked her body again and gave her a half hearted bow.
"Master will see Ginny Wheezy now."
"Thank you, ever so much." Ginny sarcastically replied.
Ginny wasn't sure but she thought the house-elf's cold eyes narrowed bitterly at her, as she passed.
The room was darker then she had been expecting. Draco usually kept the thick velvet curtains behind his desk open. She knew he liked the awed look people got from the Manor's beautiful stained glass windows. On the rare occasion's when he didn't, the massive ivy-leafed carved stone fireplace was ablaze with the dancing fire of a thousand colors. Another frill of his home, Ginny knew Draco took for granted.
She squinted harder to see if Draco was sitting in his chair. If he was relaxing in his favorite position, he was more of a black silhouette then the illuminated white-blonde she was accustomed to seeing.
"Draco, is something wrong?" She asked.
"Nothing." He replied impassively.
His voice at least sounded normal. Ginny thought. The slight fear she felt from the darkness ebbing.
"Well," She began walking towards his desk, "If nothing's wrong then you won't mind if I light some candles."
"Don't." He ordered from the dark of his chair and desk.
"Why not?" Ginny asked. Her fear was giving way to the more powerful emotion, annoyance. She and Draco needed to do more research on the map and she only had half-an-hour for lunch.
"I don't want them lit."
Ginny realized this wasn't a justifiable answer but it was the only one she would get from him. Being the Weasley she was, the only Weasley that cared for anyone's feelings being her father, Ginny pulled her wand from her robes.
"Lumos." She whispered. The tip of her wand illuminated the top of Draco's desk. She could see his white hair turned golden in the wand light as he backed into the shadow of his chair.
"Stop. I'm a monster." He whined. He shielded his face from the wand light with his black robes.
"Draco what's wrong?" Ginny asked. She didn't understand why she was worried but she ran around to his side of the desk.
"Don't play dumb, Ginny." He spat bitterly, but it was muffled from his shield of thin night robes. "I told you. I'm a monster."
"What like a Vampire?" Ginny asked curiously. Had Draco been bitten by a charming blood-sucking phantom of the night?
He shook his head.
"A Werewolf?" What if he'd been bitten by a hairy smelly overgrown demon-dog.
Again a light bob of the honey against his black robes.
"A Windego?" Her voice was uncertain. She was beginning to run out of monsters that transported their disease through bite, but she had never been good at Care of Magic Creatures.
"No," He spat looking up at her. "I'm turning into a big pink something. Just look." He thrust his face into the wand light. He just looked flushed at first and Ginny was about to ask him if he were warm. When it suddenly dawned on her.
"Draco, Have you been out in the sun lately?" She asked reaching one hand out to touch his smooth cheek.
"Yes." He answered. Ginny was surprised he grimaced but didn't recoil from her touch.
"A lot of sun?" She inquired leaning closer to him.
"Is that not what I said."
"You have sun burn." She announced sitting back from him. "Your not turning into some monster. Well, no more of a monstrosity than you already are."
"Lovely." He said sitting back in his chair turning away from her. "How do I get rid of this..." He waved a delicate hand at his face. "What did you call it, sun-burn?"
"Do you have some aloe and daisy root?" She asked.
She had watched her mother, on more than one occasion, apply the nasty looking but sweet scented potion to her older brother's after an all day game of Quidditch. Ginny would hear Harry laughing at Ron as their mother slathered the near freezing potion on his back. Fortunate for Harry, he had never needed any. His complexion always turned a light gold. A fact she was secretly jealous of.
"What for?" He asked. Ginny looked over and Draco was facing her again.
"I can make you a potion that'll get rid of that for you." She replied haughtily. Ginny smirked to herself at knowing something the 'Great Potions Master' Draco Malfoy didn't.
"Great." His gray eyes were narrowed.
Draco leaned over and Ginny had to slide down his desk a bit. She hadn't noticed they were so close. He locked eyes with her as he picked up a silver bell, something else she hadn't noticed, and rang it twice.
The tiny silver bell barely made a sound.
"Yes Master." Two elves squeaked and Ginny jumped at their sudden appearance.
"Aloe." Draco pointed at the female house-elf. "Daisy root." He pointed at the other. "Is that all?" He asked Ginny.
"Mint." She replied. Her voice was a bit removed at the sight of Draco ordering his servants. Ginny had expected him to throw a tantrum over a cup of tea, but he was almost civilized with the way he handled his help.
The two elves bowed lower then Ginny had ever seen an elf bow. Both of their slopping noses skimming the marble floor, before they scooted out a small service door she had never detected in the wall.
*~*~*~*
Draco watched as Ginny added the mint to the ingredient filled bowl she was holding. She used her forefinger to stir the daisy root, mint, and aloe. The swirls in the green and clear mixture reminded Draco of a strange candy. He briefly wondered if it tasted as good as it smelled. It had filled the study with a wonderful aroma of daisy's and mint.
Ginny leaned against his desk, he could see her clearly now. She had complained enough about the room being too cold and he'd caved into lighting a fire. This act had given Draco a sting to his self-imposed law of: Never help a Weasley. He had agreed with himself not to let it happen again.
She pressed her fingertips to his cheekbones and he felt the cold batter slide smoothly across the bridge of his nose.
"Ow!" He yelled, backing away from her.
"Stop being such a baby." She said leaning further into him. It seemed to be a difficult task of bending over him and holding the green swirled bowl and she set the bowl in his lap.
He jerked again to annoy her.
"Do you want me to sit on you?" She threatened putting the cold wooden bowl in his lap.
"Matter's on if you'll be moving or not." Draco knew he was being immature, but he couldn't help himself. He lifted an eyebrow at Ginny but her face was relaxed. She either didn't understand his innuendo or she was deliberately ignoring him.
Humor really is lost on this girl. He thought bitterly.
"Push your fringe back." She asked pushing a little of his fair hair off his forehead with the back of her hand. She had worn her own hair down and the curled tips brushed the sides of his hands, as he pushed his own white locks back. He was uncomfortable with the idea that it would feel natural to curl her own red waves back.
"Thanks." She whispered, gliding the batter across his forehead. He welcomed the cool sensation.
His eyes wandered down Ginny's face. She had the pronounced rusty Weasley freckles that were sprinkled over her cheeks, nose, and forehead. Her face was a little rounder than her brother's. He could tell her cinnamon lashes were longs as they would brush her cheekbones when she looked down and dipped her fingers into his lap to get more lotion.
His eyes traveled down and rested on her neck. It was slender and from it she wore a thin gold chain with a corresponding gold pendant. The pendant was of a snitch before two beater's clubs and it was suspended from a keeper's goal.
"What's that?" Asked Draco curiously. He fingered the odd pendant with his fingertips.
She looked down at her chest where Draco was touching her charm.
"Oh that," Her eyes traveled back to Draco's now mint-green face. "That was a present I got when I graduated."
"You didn't play quidditch."
"True." She replied softly. "But almost all my brother's did."
She wiped her hands on the white hand towel that Tink had brought with the bowl.
She took the pendant from Draco's finger and touched the tiny snitch. "The snitch is for Charlie." She explained. "He was a seeker, good enough to play for England. If he hadn't run off chasin' dragons." She added casually.
Her slim finger's moved to the tiny bats behind it. "The clubs are for Fred and George. Beaters but you already knew that, and the clasp," She moved to the keeper's goal. "Is for Ron. It took him till sixth year, but he finally made the house team."
She smiled with pride, letting her gold pendant fall back to the base of her neck. Draco's eyes lingered on it for a moment, it was polished to a golden shine, reflecting the ever color changing flames from his fire. He briefly wondered why he'd never noticed it before. However he let his eyes fall further down the line of her v-neck blue jumper. It was slightly to big and gave Draco a minuted peek of her cleavage as she bent over him to check his hair line. He knew the sweater was most likely a Christmas or birthday gift. He'd discovered Ginny was of the people that no matter how unattractive the blouse was she would wear to not upset the person who had given it to her.
At this moment, he was gracious to the person who had misjudged her size.
He could smell her vanilla and sandalwood perfume over the mint and realized that he had never actually been this close to Ginny Weasley before. For the first time that she had put it there Draco was glad he had a cold bowl of mint, aloe, and daisy root in his lap.
Draco didn't understand why but his itched to touch her pendant, again.
"Do you always wear it?" He asked his knuckles brushing her collarbone as he fingered her golden chain.
"Always," She answered, taking the wooden bowl from his lap and setting it on his desk. "Haven't taken it off since the day they gave it to me."
She took her wand from the back pocket of her brown trousers and pointed it at the bowl. The light green mixture turned clear and Draco knew it was water when Ginny dipped a corner of a the hand-towel into the bowl and washed his face clean.
"Done." She announced, looking down at him. "Good as new."
"What do you want me to thank you?" He drawled and her face fell from pride to confusion. "Well I won't."
He watched her face flush with anger as she gathered her light-blue work robe from her favorite chair. Ginny had become very good at leaving the room before the famous Weasley temper burst on him.
"I don't see why I should be so grateful. It was your fault I was down there in the first bloody place." He said lazily, pulling his dark slipper clad feet onto his desk.
"Down where?" Ginny asked, reluctantly she turned around in the middle of the office.
"Cairo, of course." He answered with a smirk.
~*~*~*~*~
Colin sat in silence watching Ginny sleep. She had fallen asleep on the floor, again. Her forehead lay against another one of the many books she bad brought home from work.
She had been spending more and more time at the office. Bringing her files home on week nights, disappearing into the office on weekends. She had stopped attending Sunday lunches with her father and stopped spending time with her family in general. All her time was spent at work and frankly he was worried about her.
She wasn't acting like the Ginny that he had shared Double-Potions with for seven years or the Ginny he had divided a flat with for two. She wasn't acting like the Ginny he had grown to love like a sister.
No she had become a Ginny who had declined his offer of a week in Paris, a Ginny who no longer climbed in his bed when he came home from a night in Rome. She was a Ginny that in little over a month had become someone he barely knew.
He bent down and softly brushed a lock of red hair out of her face. The book she was reading was old, he could tell, the pages were thin and yellow and written in a language Colin wasn't quite familiar with. Ginny had always been good at foreign languages, not as good as Hermione, but good none the less.
"Don't touch me." She squealed crawling away from him. Her red hair was tangled and her eyes were puffy and unfocused from sleep. Pink creases lined her freckled cheeks from the pages of her book.
"Gin it's me." He said softly. "It's Colin." He had to do this often when waking her. Reminding her of where she was and who she was with. A routine he had begun while still in their seventh year.
Colin didn't understand why Ginny suffered the nightmares she did. From everything he had seen and heard from her. She had enjoyed a wonderful childhood, aside from the taunting of her older brothers, and she would be the first to tell him so.
No, Ginny has her own secrets. He thought as Ginny scooted closer to him closing her book.
"Sorry." She apologized wiping sleep out of her eyes.
"S'okay Gin." He said wrapping a thin but protective arm around her.
His eyes wandered over to the now closed book. The title was surprisingly in English and easily readable: The Chronicles of Cairo.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Draco opened the dark crimson seal of the envelope that had arrived by owl this morning.
Mr. Malfoy,
I would thoroughly enjoy having your presence at the sensational Hallo's Eve Ball thrown by the successful Weasley twins. I must explain that this is not a personal invitation, but a business proposition. The Weasley Wizard Wheezes company is always looking for new investors and I hope to be doing more business with you soon.
Sincerely, P. Weasley
Do business with one Weasley and you do business with them all.
"I think not." Draco said crushing the invitation and the envelope in his fist and throwing them both carelessly over his shoulder.
"You always thought too much." A drawling raspy voice announced from his office threshold. A voice that had shouted at him from the safety of the keeper's house. A voice he hadn't heard in a long while, but he needn't require to look at the man to connect it with his face.
"Zabini." His eyes never left the parchment, as he brought the quill he was now holding down to it.
"The one and only." He said sitting down in the chair Ginny often occupied. His long legs stretching out before him. Draco new those cold lavender eyes were taking in his office. "I must say your office is more..."
Draco wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of curiosity.
"Refined. Yes, that's the word I was looking for." Draco forced his eyes to meet the other mans. "Your office is more refined than mine."
"Zabini,"Draco began calmly. "Is there something you want? If not I would rather you leave. I haven't the time to sit around all day for idle chit-chat, and from what I hear from the Ministry you don't either."
Blaise's involuntarily cringed.
Draco smirked with satisfaction. He most definitely had one up on Mr. Zabini. His face and concentration fell back to his doodle filled parchment.
"Well," he said the smug smile he had worn walking into Draco's office vanished. "Where's your little Weasley at? Your house-elf says he hasn't seen her around here in a week?"
Did everyone know Ginny was working for him?
"Whatever do you mean?" Draco's eyes didn't leave the small triangle his quill was drawing.
"Don't play fool Malfoy?!" Zabini spat standing up. "I know the girls working for you. Her brother raided my home and from the information I've collected, there's something I need to get back from her."
"That's all great and well but what does that have to do with me?" Draco asked. He was fighting a smile as he added a circle to his neatly drawn triangle.
So Ginny had Zabini's dagger. Well, it's my dagger now. He could feel the left side of his mouth twitching up.
"It has everything to do with you." The raven haired boy hissed.
"Really." He listlessly dropped the quill he'd been drawing with on the desk. "Please explain it to me, because I really don't see how Ginny Weasley and some possession of yours have anything to do with me.
"What's between you and Weasley? Falls between you and Weasley? I have nothing nor will I have anything to do with it. Yes, the girl works for me. I don't deny it but why should I? What she's done or is doing?" He chuckled. "Well, I don't see how any of that is your business."
Blaise's eyes narrowed even further on his. "It is when you've been following behind me like some urchin mutt." He placed his hands defensively on Draco's desk. "I don't know what you're playing at Malfoy, but trust me. I'll make it my business to find out."
Draco's eyes wandered to the tan hands that rested on his desk to the slitted eyes of his old schoolmate. He stood to his full height which fell just short of Blaise's. His hands positioned to mirror the former Slytherin. "You do that." He sneered and his hand went for the silverbell that lay dormant on his desk.
Blaise deep eyes followed and before Draco could summon a house-elf he was gone in a swish of gray cloaks.
Draco wrapped his fingers tightly around the antique silverbell. His temper getting the best of him, and he hurled the tiny chime into the stone of his fireplace. A toll that could have only been made by a large Chinese bong rang through the castle. Soon his office was filled with cooks, butlers, valets, tiny elves, and every other servant employed at Malfoy Manor.
At least I have control over one thing. He thought bitterly.
A/N: Okay, well this wasn't exactly the greatest chapter I've written but I'm hoping it showed a little more of the character's depth. If not, well then tell me what I did wrong in the review, okay.
Well in the next chapter: We'll have: Draco at optimum evil. A new character whose pivotal to the sub-plot. Hermione starts figuring things out. Draco and Ginny get even CLOSER. And we have dancing: Ginny and Colin.
Lyrics from songs that will influence the story: (Points if you guess which songs)
"A heart so big God wouldn't let it live"
"Somewhere in this darkness there's a life that I can't find."
"Turn your pretty redhead babe and forget that I exist."
Review's:
Vuru Neno- Well I'm glad you hopped aboard. I'll try and keep you happy. Having a critic will keep me on my toes. NightSpirit-Well Ash Wednesday's March 5th, but I got a chapter out anyway. Thanks so much for the review. Evon-Thanks for the encouragement, and thanks for the review. MagicGirl2- Well you have to wait to see exactly what Draco needs from her. J/L means James/Lily. Blaze-fury- Aren't mental filing cabinets cool as well as troll eating demons. Thanks for the review it was really sweet. NC-kat2002-Thanks and to answer your question, HP is nothing short of an obsession for me, so it will be greatly tempting. Katrina-Thanks Percy's not exactly hard to write. Pompous jerk. (Sorry Percy fans but he is.) Last but most definitely not least: VirtualFaerie- You know you rock, so there's no real reason for me to even comment. Sunburn Draco completely sprung from your sweet review. Thanks for absolutely everything.
"That's it!" He yelled into his large empty room. "I'm not leaving my room till this horrid outbreak goes away."
In his green pajama bottoms he padded across the room and dramatically threw himself onto his large feather mattress.
"That sounds like a brilliant idea, dear." He heard the sympathetic voice of his mirror.
Draco huffed as he pulled the thick cover over his disgustingly pink and painful face.
He hadn't noticed his painfully pink face had been hexed until he had arrived home from Egypt. His first order of business had been to see his mother and he had sat by her side for the evening. Narcissa's nurse had given him a sympathetic look, but he had been used to those. The older nurses always looked as if they wanted to hug him. However, when he left his mother's side for dinner the servants had given him odd looks. In the beginning Draco's ego had told him they were admiring his symmetrical aristocratic features, but the looks turned to hidden behind their hand giggles and Draco's temper got the better of him.
"What's wrong with everyone?" He whined to his head house-elf. "Has my face gone green or something?"
Edmund's big blue-eyes had grown wide and his lip-less elfish mouth was struggling not to laugh. He gently directed Draco by the elbow to one of the many mirrors in the hall.
"No master. It's gone itself pink." He answered shaking his tiny lapel clad shoulder's with laughter.
Draco was sure if he hadn't been in shock from his bright pink cheeks, forehead, nose, and chin. He would have given his favorite house-elf the ability to fly without a broom.
"Young Master?" Draco heard a muffled but still squeaky voice pulling him out of his bitter reflection.
"What Tink?!" He spat from under his feather downed shelter.
"Miss. Whezzy is on her ways to sees you, sir."
"Buggar." He whined, still not pulling the dark cover down. He had been so absorbed with the state of his pink complexion that he had forgotten about his meeting with the Weasley.
"Tink thinks. Not that master cares, but Tink thinks it be best if master be presentable to entertain Ms. Whezzy."
"It doesn't matter." He said breathlessly, pulling the cover down. The thick blanket was suffocating him. "I'm not seeing her, anyway." He thought this over and found his idea brilliant, bloody brilliant.
"That's it." He said assertively. His blanket fell to his naked waist, as he propped himself on the palms of his hands.
Tink narrowed her oversized brown eyes at him with confusion.
"Take this down Tink." He ordered looking down at the tiny elf whose head didn't reach the bed frame. Her little mouth opened to object and Draco realized his fumble. "Forget that, I forgot your kind can't read or write." Tink's eyes fell down to her feet. "Remember this then. Tell the staff and Edmund's too," He pointed a long finger at her. "I've taken ill and I won't be entertaining, visiting, or paying anyone till my terrible illness has been cured." He looked down at his young slave and she looked more confused then before he'd started.
"Think your small elf-brain can remember all that?" He asked bitterly.
"Tink will remember, sir." A deeper but still squeaky voice came from the now opened door.
There stood Edmund in all his Napoleonesque glory. He was wearing the matching hat also. "Tink! Kitchens! Now!" He commanded, stepping into the room with his shiny black boots.
Edmunds weaker female counterpart ran to the service door in Draco's room. It was a passage he had used many times as a child to sneak around the manor undetected. His eyes came back to rest on the ancient house-elf.
He pulled his soft green pajama clad knees up to his chest. A tactic he'd learned in youth to gain his mother's sympathy. "Come to laugh at me too. Make me feel worse then I do already. Well it doesn't matter." Draco looked to his stain glassed windows. "I'm not meeting with anyone today and NOBODY!" He said turning back to the house-elf with narrowed eyes. "Is going to make me."
"Suit Master's self." Edmund said dryly. "But Ms. Wheezy is in Master's office right now."
*~*~*~*
Ginny looked down at the tiny doe-eyed house-elf, who had ushered her outside Draco's office. She had been quite surprised to see another elf. Draco's were very good, and could pop in and out of the room with the blink of an eye. The only house-elf to be seen or heard was Edmund and he always made his presence known.
"Excuse me, but what am I doing out here?" Ginny asked. She still didn't understand why she had been shooed outside.
The little house-elf shushed Ginny. "Master says he wants Ginny Wheezy outside Master's office. Tink puts Ginny Wheezy outside Master's office."
Ginny gave a disappointed sigh. House-elves.
The small house-elf named Tink, pushed his office door opened and peered in. Ginny heard a very annoying voice she knew belonged to Edmund squawk and Tink retreated.
She turned back to Ginny and squeaked, "Not ready."
Ginny smiled when Edmund opened the door. His glassy blue-eyes raked her body again and gave her a half hearted bow.
"Master will see Ginny Wheezy now."
"Thank you, ever so much." Ginny sarcastically replied.
Ginny wasn't sure but she thought the house-elf's cold eyes narrowed bitterly at her, as she passed.
The room was darker then she had been expecting. Draco usually kept the thick velvet curtains behind his desk open. She knew he liked the awed look people got from the Manor's beautiful stained glass windows. On the rare occasion's when he didn't, the massive ivy-leafed carved stone fireplace was ablaze with the dancing fire of a thousand colors. Another frill of his home, Ginny knew Draco took for granted.
She squinted harder to see if Draco was sitting in his chair. If he was relaxing in his favorite position, he was more of a black silhouette then the illuminated white-blonde she was accustomed to seeing.
"Draco, is something wrong?" She asked.
"Nothing." He replied impassively.
His voice at least sounded normal. Ginny thought. The slight fear she felt from the darkness ebbing.
"Well," She began walking towards his desk, "If nothing's wrong then you won't mind if I light some candles."
"Don't." He ordered from the dark of his chair and desk.
"Why not?" Ginny asked. Her fear was giving way to the more powerful emotion, annoyance. She and Draco needed to do more research on the map and she only had half-an-hour for lunch.
"I don't want them lit."
Ginny realized this wasn't a justifiable answer but it was the only one she would get from him. Being the Weasley she was, the only Weasley that cared for anyone's feelings being her father, Ginny pulled her wand from her robes.
"Lumos." She whispered. The tip of her wand illuminated the top of Draco's desk. She could see his white hair turned golden in the wand light as he backed into the shadow of his chair.
"Stop. I'm a monster." He whined. He shielded his face from the wand light with his black robes.
"Draco what's wrong?" Ginny asked. She didn't understand why she was worried but she ran around to his side of the desk.
"Don't play dumb, Ginny." He spat bitterly, but it was muffled from his shield of thin night robes. "I told you. I'm a monster."
"What like a Vampire?" Ginny asked curiously. Had Draco been bitten by a charming blood-sucking phantom of the night?
He shook his head.
"A Werewolf?" What if he'd been bitten by a hairy smelly overgrown demon-dog.
Again a light bob of the honey against his black robes.
"A Windego?" Her voice was uncertain. She was beginning to run out of monsters that transported their disease through bite, but she had never been good at Care of Magic Creatures.
"No," He spat looking up at her. "I'm turning into a big pink something. Just look." He thrust his face into the wand light. He just looked flushed at first and Ginny was about to ask him if he were warm. When it suddenly dawned on her.
"Draco, Have you been out in the sun lately?" She asked reaching one hand out to touch his smooth cheek.
"Yes." He answered. Ginny was surprised he grimaced but didn't recoil from her touch.
"A lot of sun?" She inquired leaning closer to him.
"Is that not what I said."
"You have sun burn." She announced sitting back from him. "Your not turning into some monster. Well, no more of a monstrosity than you already are."
"Lovely." He said sitting back in his chair turning away from her. "How do I get rid of this..." He waved a delicate hand at his face. "What did you call it, sun-burn?"
"Do you have some aloe and daisy root?" She asked.
She had watched her mother, on more than one occasion, apply the nasty looking but sweet scented potion to her older brother's after an all day game of Quidditch. Ginny would hear Harry laughing at Ron as their mother slathered the near freezing potion on his back. Fortunate for Harry, he had never needed any. His complexion always turned a light gold. A fact she was secretly jealous of.
"What for?" He asked. Ginny looked over and Draco was facing her again.
"I can make you a potion that'll get rid of that for you." She replied haughtily. Ginny smirked to herself at knowing something the 'Great Potions Master' Draco Malfoy didn't.
"Great." His gray eyes were narrowed.
Draco leaned over and Ginny had to slide down his desk a bit. She hadn't noticed they were so close. He locked eyes with her as he picked up a silver bell, something else she hadn't noticed, and rang it twice.
The tiny silver bell barely made a sound.
"Yes Master." Two elves squeaked and Ginny jumped at their sudden appearance.
"Aloe." Draco pointed at the female house-elf. "Daisy root." He pointed at the other. "Is that all?" He asked Ginny.
"Mint." She replied. Her voice was a bit removed at the sight of Draco ordering his servants. Ginny had expected him to throw a tantrum over a cup of tea, but he was almost civilized with the way he handled his help.
The two elves bowed lower then Ginny had ever seen an elf bow. Both of their slopping noses skimming the marble floor, before they scooted out a small service door she had never detected in the wall.
*~*~*~*
Draco watched as Ginny added the mint to the ingredient filled bowl she was holding. She used her forefinger to stir the daisy root, mint, and aloe. The swirls in the green and clear mixture reminded Draco of a strange candy. He briefly wondered if it tasted as good as it smelled. It had filled the study with a wonderful aroma of daisy's and mint.
Ginny leaned against his desk, he could see her clearly now. She had complained enough about the room being too cold and he'd caved into lighting a fire. This act had given Draco a sting to his self-imposed law of: Never help a Weasley. He had agreed with himself not to let it happen again.
She pressed her fingertips to his cheekbones and he felt the cold batter slide smoothly across the bridge of his nose.
"Ow!" He yelled, backing away from her.
"Stop being such a baby." She said leaning further into him. It seemed to be a difficult task of bending over him and holding the green swirled bowl and she set the bowl in his lap.
He jerked again to annoy her.
"Do you want me to sit on you?" She threatened putting the cold wooden bowl in his lap.
"Matter's on if you'll be moving or not." Draco knew he was being immature, but he couldn't help himself. He lifted an eyebrow at Ginny but her face was relaxed. She either didn't understand his innuendo or she was deliberately ignoring him.
Humor really is lost on this girl. He thought bitterly.
"Push your fringe back." She asked pushing a little of his fair hair off his forehead with the back of her hand. She had worn her own hair down and the curled tips brushed the sides of his hands, as he pushed his own white locks back. He was uncomfortable with the idea that it would feel natural to curl her own red waves back.
"Thanks." She whispered, gliding the batter across his forehead. He welcomed the cool sensation.
His eyes wandered down Ginny's face. She had the pronounced rusty Weasley freckles that were sprinkled over her cheeks, nose, and forehead. Her face was a little rounder than her brother's. He could tell her cinnamon lashes were longs as they would brush her cheekbones when she looked down and dipped her fingers into his lap to get more lotion.
His eyes traveled down and rested on her neck. It was slender and from it she wore a thin gold chain with a corresponding gold pendant. The pendant was of a snitch before two beater's clubs and it was suspended from a keeper's goal.
"What's that?" Asked Draco curiously. He fingered the odd pendant with his fingertips.
She looked down at her chest where Draco was touching her charm.
"Oh that," Her eyes traveled back to Draco's now mint-green face. "That was a present I got when I graduated."
"You didn't play quidditch."
"True." She replied softly. "But almost all my brother's did."
She wiped her hands on the white hand towel that Tink had brought with the bowl.
She took the pendant from Draco's finger and touched the tiny snitch. "The snitch is for Charlie." She explained. "He was a seeker, good enough to play for England. If he hadn't run off chasin' dragons." She added casually.
Her slim finger's moved to the tiny bats behind it. "The clubs are for Fred and George. Beaters but you already knew that, and the clasp," She moved to the keeper's goal. "Is for Ron. It took him till sixth year, but he finally made the house team."
She smiled with pride, letting her gold pendant fall back to the base of her neck. Draco's eyes lingered on it for a moment, it was polished to a golden shine, reflecting the ever color changing flames from his fire. He briefly wondered why he'd never noticed it before. However he let his eyes fall further down the line of her v-neck blue jumper. It was slightly to big and gave Draco a minuted peek of her cleavage as she bent over him to check his hair line. He knew the sweater was most likely a Christmas or birthday gift. He'd discovered Ginny was of the people that no matter how unattractive the blouse was she would wear to not upset the person who had given it to her.
At this moment, he was gracious to the person who had misjudged her size.
He could smell her vanilla and sandalwood perfume over the mint and realized that he had never actually been this close to Ginny Weasley before. For the first time that she had put it there Draco was glad he had a cold bowl of mint, aloe, and daisy root in his lap.
Draco didn't understand why but his itched to touch her pendant, again.
"Do you always wear it?" He asked his knuckles brushing her collarbone as he fingered her golden chain.
"Always," She answered, taking the wooden bowl from his lap and setting it on his desk. "Haven't taken it off since the day they gave it to me."
She took her wand from the back pocket of her brown trousers and pointed it at the bowl. The light green mixture turned clear and Draco knew it was water when Ginny dipped a corner of a the hand-towel into the bowl and washed his face clean.
"Done." She announced, looking down at him. "Good as new."
"What do you want me to thank you?" He drawled and her face fell from pride to confusion. "Well I won't."
He watched her face flush with anger as she gathered her light-blue work robe from her favorite chair. Ginny had become very good at leaving the room before the famous Weasley temper burst on him.
"I don't see why I should be so grateful. It was your fault I was down there in the first bloody place." He said lazily, pulling his dark slipper clad feet onto his desk.
"Down where?" Ginny asked, reluctantly she turned around in the middle of the office.
"Cairo, of course." He answered with a smirk.
~*~*~*~*~
Colin sat in silence watching Ginny sleep. She had fallen asleep on the floor, again. Her forehead lay against another one of the many books she bad brought home from work.
She had been spending more and more time at the office. Bringing her files home on week nights, disappearing into the office on weekends. She had stopped attending Sunday lunches with her father and stopped spending time with her family in general. All her time was spent at work and frankly he was worried about her.
She wasn't acting like the Ginny that he had shared Double-Potions with for seven years or the Ginny he had divided a flat with for two. She wasn't acting like the Ginny he had grown to love like a sister.
No she had become a Ginny who had declined his offer of a week in Paris, a Ginny who no longer climbed in his bed when he came home from a night in Rome. She was a Ginny that in little over a month had become someone he barely knew.
He bent down and softly brushed a lock of red hair out of her face. The book she was reading was old, he could tell, the pages were thin and yellow and written in a language Colin wasn't quite familiar with. Ginny had always been good at foreign languages, not as good as Hermione, but good none the less.
"Don't touch me." She squealed crawling away from him. Her red hair was tangled and her eyes were puffy and unfocused from sleep. Pink creases lined her freckled cheeks from the pages of her book.
"Gin it's me." He said softly. "It's Colin." He had to do this often when waking her. Reminding her of where she was and who she was with. A routine he had begun while still in their seventh year.
Colin didn't understand why Ginny suffered the nightmares she did. From everything he had seen and heard from her. She had enjoyed a wonderful childhood, aside from the taunting of her older brothers, and she would be the first to tell him so.
No, Ginny has her own secrets. He thought as Ginny scooted closer to him closing her book.
"Sorry." She apologized wiping sleep out of her eyes.
"S'okay Gin." He said wrapping a thin but protective arm around her.
His eyes wandered over to the now closed book. The title was surprisingly in English and easily readable: The Chronicles of Cairo.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Draco opened the dark crimson seal of the envelope that had arrived by owl this morning.
Mr. Malfoy,
I would thoroughly enjoy having your presence at the sensational Hallo's Eve Ball thrown by the successful Weasley twins. I must explain that this is not a personal invitation, but a business proposition. The Weasley Wizard Wheezes company is always looking for new investors and I hope to be doing more business with you soon.
Sincerely, P. Weasley
Do business with one Weasley and you do business with them all.
"I think not." Draco said crushing the invitation and the envelope in his fist and throwing them both carelessly over his shoulder.
"You always thought too much." A drawling raspy voice announced from his office threshold. A voice that had shouted at him from the safety of the keeper's house. A voice he hadn't heard in a long while, but he needn't require to look at the man to connect it with his face.
"Zabini." His eyes never left the parchment, as he brought the quill he was now holding down to it.
"The one and only." He said sitting down in the chair Ginny often occupied. His long legs stretching out before him. Draco new those cold lavender eyes were taking in his office. "I must say your office is more..."
Draco wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of curiosity.
"Refined. Yes, that's the word I was looking for." Draco forced his eyes to meet the other mans. "Your office is more refined than mine."
"Zabini,"Draco began calmly. "Is there something you want? If not I would rather you leave. I haven't the time to sit around all day for idle chit-chat, and from what I hear from the Ministry you don't either."
Blaise's involuntarily cringed.
Draco smirked with satisfaction. He most definitely had one up on Mr. Zabini. His face and concentration fell back to his doodle filled parchment.
"Well," he said the smug smile he had worn walking into Draco's office vanished. "Where's your little Weasley at? Your house-elf says he hasn't seen her around here in a week?"
Did everyone know Ginny was working for him?
"Whatever do you mean?" Draco's eyes didn't leave the small triangle his quill was drawing.
"Don't play fool Malfoy?!" Zabini spat standing up. "I know the girls working for you. Her brother raided my home and from the information I've collected, there's something I need to get back from her."
"That's all great and well but what does that have to do with me?" Draco asked. He was fighting a smile as he added a circle to his neatly drawn triangle.
So Ginny had Zabini's dagger. Well, it's my dagger now. He could feel the left side of his mouth twitching up.
"It has everything to do with you." The raven haired boy hissed.
"Really." He listlessly dropped the quill he'd been drawing with on the desk. "Please explain it to me, because I really don't see how Ginny Weasley and some possession of yours have anything to do with me.
"What's between you and Weasley? Falls between you and Weasley? I have nothing nor will I have anything to do with it. Yes, the girl works for me. I don't deny it but why should I? What she's done or is doing?" He chuckled. "Well, I don't see how any of that is your business."
Blaise's eyes narrowed even further on his. "It is when you've been following behind me like some urchin mutt." He placed his hands defensively on Draco's desk. "I don't know what you're playing at Malfoy, but trust me. I'll make it my business to find out."
Draco's eyes wandered to the tan hands that rested on his desk to the slitted eyes of his old schoolmate. He stood to his full height which fell just short of Blaise's. His hands positioned to mirror the former Slytherin. "You do that." He sneered and his hand went for the silverbell that lay dormant on his desk.
Blaise deep eyes followed and before Draco could summon a house-elf he was gone in a swish of gray cloaks.
Draco wrapped his fingers tightly around the antique silverbell. His temper getting the best of him, and he hurled the tiny chime into the stone of his fireplace. A toll that could have only been made by a large Chinese bong rang through the castle. Soon his office was filled with cooks, butlers, valets, tiny elves, and every other servant employed at Malfoy Manor.
At least I have control over one thing. He thought bitterly.
A/N: Okay, well this wasn't exactly the greatest chapter I've written but I'm hoping it showed a little more of the character's depth. If not, well then tell me what I did wrong in the review, okay.
Well in the next chapter: We'll have: Draco at optimum evil. A new character whose pivotal to the sub-plot. Hermione starts figuring things out. Draco and Ginny get even CLOSER. And we have dancing: Ginny and Colin.
Lyrics from songs that will influence the story: (Points if you guess which songs)
"A heart so big God wouldn't let it live"
"Somewhere in this darkness there's a life that I can't find."
"Turn your pretty redhead babe and forget that I exist."
Review's:
Vuru Neno- Well I'm glad you hopped aboard. I'll try and keep you happy. Having a critic will keep me on my toes. NightSpirit-Well Ash Wednesday's March 5th, but I got a chapter out anyway. Thanks so much for the review. Evon-Thanks for the encouragement, and thanks for the review. MagicGirl2- Well you have to wait to see exactly what Draco needs from her. J/L means James/Lily. Blaze-fury- Aren't mental filing cabinets cool as well as troll eating demons. Thanks for the review it was really sweet. NC-kat2002-Thanks and to answer your question, HP is nothing short of an obsession for me, so it will be greatly tempting. Katrina-Thanks Percy's not exactly hard to write. Pompous jerk. (Sorry Percy fans but he is.) Last but most definitely not least: VirtualFaerie- You know you rock, so there's no real reason for me to even comment. Sunburn Draco completely sprung from your sweet review. Thanks for absolutely everything.