Author's Note: OK, I won't say I'm on a roll here, but right now I'm having some ideas on how to go about continuing this fic so...well, here's the next chapter. And btw, now I'm changing Ginny's eyes to brown as opposed to when I said it was green in previous chapters. *smiles*

Disclaimer: Sadly enough HP doesn't belong to me...but the plot and other unknown characters are mine

Summary: Draco Malfoy turned a new leaf during his 7th year at Hogwarts. Now he works for the Ministry doing something for the good alongside his school days nemesis, Harry Potter. Enter Ginny Weasley, youngest sibling of Harry's best friend, as their new secretary. Hidden attraction surfaces and jealousy ensues.

Setting: 5 years after Hogwarts

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IX. Let's Clean House!

"My God, Malfoy!" Ginny exclaimed as soon as she stepped in to Draco's bachelor's pad. Her brown eyes were wide from disbelief as she stared at the dimly lit living room-cum-dining room (actually the dining was in the kitchen--she saw a small dining table in his somewhat spacious kitchen when he passed by the vestibule, but his living room had remnants of leftover meals so she just assumed that his living room also doubled up as his dining room). The curtains were drawn blocking out the gorgeous sun blazing all over the city outside. He had very few furniture (just a couple of armchairs and a leather loveseat sofa pushed up against the wall facing the window while the armchairs were pushed up against the wall adjacent to the window with a small side table between them) and very few very many clutter! She knew her hands were itching to pick-up pieces of paper lying on the floor, quills and ink bottles scattered on the wooden rectangular coffee. There was a tall bookshelf propped up against the wall opposite the armchairs. It too was in shambles.

"What?" Draco said defensively, his grey eyes glaring at the back of his red-haired assistant's head. "I told you my place was unkempt, but did you listen to me? No. So don't be complaining if it's a mess!"

Ginny whirled around so fast that if Draco hadn't harnessed his fast reflexes all thanks to playing Quidditch for the last six years of his years at Hogwarts she would've collided with him--and that would've been a pretty ugly sight to behold.

"When you told me your place was unkempt, I didn't expect it to be a pigsty!" she nearly yelled at him, her brown eyes bulging out of her sockets.

"Pigsty?!" Draco looked wildly offended. "Hell, Weasley! I know I haven't cleaned this place in a couple of days, but surely it isn't worse than what it looks!"

"Malfoy, I have six older brothers and not to mention one surrogate brother. I know what an unclean place looks like, and this," she turned a quick three-sixty degree before stopping to face him once again, "is not just 'unclean', Draco Malfoy. It's a damn pigsty!"

"Hey, hey, hey!" Draco took a step backwards, his hands raised and fending an incensed Ginny off. She looked like she was ready to jump him and beat the snot out of him all because he let his place be left slipshod. "Look, my place is always kept somewhat tidy, but the last couple of days...well, let's just say that I haven't done much housecleaning because Potter's damn project kept on staring me in the face and I have no idea what to do with it!" he explained.

"Even so! You cannot expect me to work in this...in this...dump!" Ginny let out an unlady-like snort and crossed her arms over her chest.

"And what do you suggest, hm?" he challenged.

At that Ginny's eyes started to sparkle. Somehow whatever she had in mind made Draco fear what she was thinking about.

~*~

Four and a half hours later Draco was silently--and audibly--cursing as he helped Ginny rearrange his entire one-bedroom bachelor's pad. He knew it was a bad idea right from the beginning when he agreed to use his place to meet up for today to finish up his work project that was due Monday at noon.

"Dammit, Ginny! Just what the hell exactly are you trying to do?!" Draco demanded irately when Ginny rearranged his living room furniture for the umpteenth time in the last two hundred and seventy minutes.

"Making your place look livable," she replied without giving him a backward glance. She was too busy moving one of the armchairs under the window while the other one moved closer to the vestibule and the side table that was between the two armchairs now rested on the corner of the wall with a small spotlight lampshade on top of it. It was black, of course. Ginny had this sudden urge to do some housecleaning and she wouldn't do anything else (like work on their project for example) until she was fully satisfied that she won't catch anything in what she aptly termed his place as a 'pigsty'.

"It was fine before you started moving everything around--not mention costing me a hefty two galleons and fifteen sickles worth of lampshade!" he snarled, sulking on the corner by the doorway from the vestibule.

Ginny stopped rearranging his furniture and whirled around to glare at him. "Don't be such a cheapskate, Malfoy. It's not you," she mocked.

"Oh really?" he challenged, raising an eyebrow and looking her up from head to foot.

"Yes, really," she nodded. "Now look, I will not be able to concentrate working on that project if your place remained as disorganized and as dirty as it was earlier. Now it looked livable," she pointed out.

"To you, but not to me, Weasley," he pushed himself away from the wall and stepped into his living room. Ginny opened the vertical blinds (she insisted on changing his old heavy drapery to blinds--"To give it a touch of something modern," she pointed out when he complained) to actually let some natural light in to his usually dark living room. The loveseat remained where it was, but this time she threw in a couple of square pillows with a checkered black and white pattern ("I will not put any damn girlie pillows on my sofa, Weasley,"). His coffee table was devoid of any clutter that was on it earlier. Now it was replaced with crystal clear geometric figurine placed right at the center of the table.

"Aw, come on, Malfoy. You have to at least admit it. This place is livable now," she insisted.

"Whatever," he shook his head in disapproval, but his grey eyes did a quick survey of the now bright room and couldn't help but be impressed--and, alright, glad--that someone finally decided to take charge of his living space and make it more homey.

Ginny just rolled her eyes at him and went back to finalizing the final touch she thought of adding to the armchair under the window. Each armchair now had its own square checkered black and white pattern pillow. She even conjured a handmade afghan for his loveseat (it was still a checkered black and white pattern) to finish it off. His floor to ceiling bookshelf that was almost devoid of any books (except for the selected few he purchased throughout the years) was moved near the wall by the window and beside she placed a floor lamp that was nearly wrapped with an all white Japanese paper (crumpled for style) to cast a light shade into the room when turned on.

While Ginny busied herself with inspecting her work, Draco stepped out of the living room and into the kitchen to prepare them something to drink. A quick glance at the wall clock over the kitchen doorway from the vestibule indicated that it was already way past lunchtime and he was getting hungry. He doesn't know about Ginny, but he could sure do with some food before putting on the final touches for the project presentation he and Potter had to submit to the committee on Monday. He conjured two glasses of iced tea and placed it on a tray.

"C'mon Ginny, break time," he called to his busy assistant when he reappeared back into the living room.

Ginny whirled around with a satisfied smile on her elfin face. Draco almost dropped the tray he was carrying when he was caught by surprise. Ginny whirling around to face him seemed to be done in slow motion, with her fiery red hair flying about behind her, making it look it was on fire against the ray of sunlight coming in from the open blinds. The sunlight also made it look like it had cast a halo over her head, making her look like an angel in disguise as a very seductive siren right at that very moment.

He knew he was attracted to her right from the very first day that he walked in to the reception area of his and Potter's office. He didn't knew it was her then, and now that he knew who she was, that didn't stop his libido from jumping and pulsating at the mere sight of her.

Oh hell, we better start doing some work here or else I'll be doing something else, he groaned inwardly while he tried his best to put on a brave smile as he offered her refreshments.

"Oh thank you! At least you know how to entertain your guests," she smiled as she took one of the two glasses on the tray. As soon as she had a drink in her hand she went towards one of the armchairs and plunked herself down, leaving with her a trail of her soft, womanly scent of orange and lemon cologne--or was it perfume? He wasn't certain. All he knew was that now, more than ever, those damn X-rated visions of Ginny Weasley that leapt into his mind before was resurfacing once again...

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to be continued...

A/N: Phew! I'm done another chapter! I hope you guys enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. (",)

hasapi: like what I already explained to you, I meant for Draco to keep on changing addressing Ginny from her first name to her last name. It shows his irritation and exasperation when he's calling her 'Weasley' instead of 'Ginny'

fEEDLestEEx: yep, Ginny has brown eyes and I already made that correction here. When I first started this fic I wasn't really sure if she had brown or green eyes since I wasn't really that familiar with her description in the book, but after reading countless D/G fics (plus rereading the books as well) I soon found out that Ginny's true eye colour (",)

piper-h-99: here's the update!

Magic Girl2: well you hoped right *grins* they ended up choosing Draco's place instead *lol* but instead of them getting some work done on the project, Ginny took on a different project to do *lol*

Jessiebear: you're right. she didn't give in

Slytherin Child: *sheepish smile* I know quite a lot of people would be surprised 'coz it has been a while since I last updated this fic, but somehow I got inspired again to continue on with this story so here's another update...

Champagne: is this soon enough? hehehehe ;p

crystal magic: hmm...does my description of Draco's place up to par in his chapter?