Abstract: Featuring Ginny Weasley as graduate student in training, and an icy blond Slytherin as her supervisor. Toss in a couple of science jokes or nerdy pick-up lines, and there's the perfect protocol for passion. (Er…)
Rating: Naughty, for some eventual smutfilled action
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Chapter 2: Materials and Methods
Ginny was going to snag that PhD, and dangnabbed it if Draco Malfoy was getting in her way. Now, if only she knew where that dratted Primary Investigator kept the HCl…
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Ginny had dragged herself into the lab the next morning, bright and early, arriving at 7:35am. To her vague and coffee-hazed surprised, everyone in the lab was there, and already in the middle of discussing a paper. Ginny plopped down in a chair. She'd stayed up till 2:30 in the morning just reading all of the background material Malfoy had shoved at her, and now she was expected to join in the discussion? She felt flustered, then saw Rob pulling out a maniacal computeristic term. She couldn't let a scraggly Harry-Potter-look-alike beat her at research, could she?
Ginny immediately leapt into the debate. "And yes, isn't the life cycle beautiful? I mean, those viruses…." She was surging like a tiger…crowing like a rooster…
…staring like a deer in the headlights?
Everyone was blinking at her. Including the aforementioned scraggly Harry-Potter-Asian-look-alike. Finally, Malfoy drawled, "Weasley, we studied the 'beautiful' life cycle of the virus last week. This week's focus is the computational aspect of microbial genetics. Something that was quite lacking on that extensive resumé of yours, if I remember correctly?"
Ginny's mouth snapped shut. Having lived in a magic-filled world, she had not needed any fluffy technological devices. She barely knew how to type. She shook her head. "I'm sorry, Professor."
Malfoy looked startled at the apology. Then the sneer returned. "Just see that you actually catch up with the rest of the lab before jumping in head first, Weasley. Next time, we won't be so kind."
Next time? At least there would be a next time, Ginny thought ruefully. The rest of the meeting went smoothly. Most of the lab promptly forgot about Ginny's awkward first foray into their discussion, and introduced themselves to her after the meeting. Shaunna, a fourth-year graduate student, was a brunette with almond-shaped eyes, half Chinese and half Irish. Beaker, the resident post-doc, was short, with a large nose and gangly arms. Kristine was a cute butterball of fun, with hexagonal glasses. Rob, of course, looked like Harry-Potter-turned-emo-computer-geek. Mark, a third-year, had a beard, and put his long brown hair in a ponytail. As Ginny was pondering whom would be the best person to ask for advice, she felt a strong and authoritative hand on her shoulder. "My office, Weasley. Now."
She turned and meekly followed her PI back to his office. The secretary shot her a dark-eyed look, then fluttered her eyelashes and winked. Ginny almost gasped in surprise. Was the secretary flirting with her? And did she look…familiar, somehow?
They'd arrived at the professorial inner sanctum. Malfoy turned on her irritably. "I don't know how you got along in Sally Honeycomb's lab. Did you even read the assigned paper?"
Ginny was taken aback. She had read every single paper he'd given her, and it had taken her most of the night to do it. She fired back, "I read a paper. You didn't give me the exact paper for the lab meeting in the brief 'interview' we had, so I called up Rob late last night and asked him what you'd be talking about today and he said to search for the author on PubMed. I read the poster outside your office yesterday, and it was all about the viral life cycle. I came to the somewhat incorrect but inherently logical conclusion that, since that was a recent experiment, that's what we'd be talking about. It's not my fault that there are so many bloody papers by bloody D Malfoy that I got the wrong one!"
Malfoy looked like he was about to explode. Ginny looked at him worriedly. He must have been through a lot, transitioning from wizard to Muggle. What if he was about to have a heart attack? Too much stress around the place? It really wasn't in good form to blame a professor for her own lack of sense… What if he sacked her? What if he told every other professor at MIT about her hardheaded temper-prone ways? What if
…he burst out laughing?
Ginny was surprised at first, then chagrined, then just plain insulted. "I'm so glad that you find me so amusing, Professor Malfoy," she remarked dryly.
"Ah, Weasley," came the droll reply. "You certainly put the 'fun' in 'dysfunctional.' I'm but thankful that you can't use your wand here. I'm quite sure that you'd have given me a hernia otherwise. Now, come," and he crooked his finger, "let's find you something to do around here, shall we?"
He'd crooked his finger at her. Ginny refused to think about any implications of that somewhat innocent gesture. Why did Draco Malfoy have to practically ooze sex appeal?
…Ooze sex appeal? Ooze, yes, since he was a slimy bastard – but sex appeal? Not a chance! Though, now that she thought about it, not that she wanted to think about it, he looked pretty good for his twenty-some-odd years. She wondered how he'd become a PI at such a young age, actually – most of the permanent faculty at a prestigious university were well in their forties.
"I'm here because I'm good at what I do, Weasley." He seemed to be reading her mind. "Now, you can only stay here if you're good at what you do." Oh. Perhaps it was just a continuation of the lecture, after all.
He showed her around his lab, then assigned her a quick task. She finished it easily. (PCR? Pfft! Piece of Cake, Really.) Resisting the urge to yell, "Malfoy! I'm done!", she instead scampered over to the other students and post-doctoral fellows in the lab, striking up amiable conversations and asking them to explain various aspects of their projects to her.
In the afternoon, she was counting bacteria on Petri dishes at the desk assigned to her. "Aren't you done yet?" came a growl over her left shoulder.
Squashing her gut response to shriek, Ginny instead hurled the plate at the intruder. No sane person growled like that. She caught a glimpse of white-blond hair and silver eyes as the lid flew open. Horrifying visions of her PI drenched in bacterial media flew before Ginny's eyes. Her eyelids slammed shut. She gulped. Oh dear…
Oh, dear…
Ahem Oh dear?
She opened her eyes. Malfoy was still standing in front of her, immaculate as always. Between his right thumb and forefinger, he held the fragile plate. Tapping it once on the counter, he remarked mildly, "Weasley, you really do need to figure out how to control that blasted temper of yours." Raking his eyes over her lab bench, he turned a half-smirk her way. "If I had given you anything remotely lethal, it would have been quite disastrous. But in general, good work. You're done for the day. I expect to see you bright and early tomorrow morning." With that, he turned on his heel and walked out.
Ginny gaped after his retreating figure. Why did she always seem to royally flummox herself in front of her PI? Well… perhaps he had at least a grudging respect for her by now. After all, didn't she have lightning-quick reflexes, dedicated working habits, a sharp intellect? Or were those things at all obvious when she was flinging Petri dishes through the air? Ah well… a girl could hope.
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Soon, Ginny had signed on officially to work in the lab, and began researching for her thesis. Every day after classes, she would pop into lab, greet Rob and Shaunna with "Hey, baby – wanna test the 'k' of my bedsprings?" or some other nerdy pick-up line, then dive into the experimental world.
"Hey, baby," Rob said one day, sidling up to her, "Are you a laser? You get my photons all excited!"
Ginny giggled. Shaunna grinned tolerantly, then handed Ginny a note.
Weasley –
Lunch, 1200p Today.
– DM
Ginny looked at her, puzzled. "It's from the PI," Shaunna said, shrugging.
"But it's an invite for lunch," Ginny said.
"Ah," Rob broke in. "He usually has cycle of lunch with everyone working in the lab, one-on-one, once every one to two weeks, depending on how their research is going. I guess since you're officially enrolled in our lab, you're now on the Malfoy lunch-date list." He smacked his lips. "And man… the guy really has good taste. Last week, he took me to this fantastic Italian place –"
"Why, Robert," came a cool voice as the PI himself swept past, "I had no idea you took such… enjoyment in these lunches."
Rob immediately blanched, apologized profusely, then hurried away with a stricken look on his face. Rather than her usual reflex to be angry at the professor's flippant words, Ginny merely felt slightly amused. She'd seen an incredible change from the snotty spoiled brat she'd known at Hogwarts; Draco Malfoy was now a brilliant PI with astounding research and a very much deserved PhD. He was quite adept at networking; in fact, after a departmental dinner, he had announced that the lab would move to a much bigger research space way ahead of schedule. He always had tons of money coming in from grants, though she suspected that he used his own personal funds for all of the furniture and books and gadgets in his office. Ginny had also seen his patience while he tutored new students, herself included. Even if he radiated a chilly aloofness, he had a knack for explaining various complicated principles, and his students all admired him. Of course, that admiration might also have been due to his quick wit and classic good looks, Ginny thought wryly. Not that she thought he was hot or anything, but a lot of gals in his classes openly swooned.
And now, she had a lunch date with him. Now, if only she could produce some results before then…
(Note#1: PubMed – one of the most thorough search engines for scientific papers: www . pubmed . com)
(Note#2: PCR "polymerase chain reaction"; it's used to amplify copies of the piece(s) of DNA that you need for an experiment. A Petri dish is normally used for growing bacteria; it's a clear plastic disc-shaped dish with a lid.)
(Note#3: Nerdy Pick-Up Lines: One of the best collections of pick-up lines in general is on "Ask the Beaver," a site run by MIT students on dating/relationship advice. Check it out: http / askthebeaver . blogspot . com / 2005 / 01 / q5-pick-up-lines20 . html
(Minus the spacing, that is.)
Uber-Special Thank You to you lovely reviewers! Ya'll Rock (and that doesn't mean just igneous…)