Ginny woke up the next morning by herself. She smiled as she smelt the flower on the pillow next to her. She wrapped the white, linen sheet around her and skipped down the stairs to the kitchen, beaming. Nobody was in the kitchen. There was a cup of coffee on top of a scrap of paper. Ginny picked it up. "Ginny, I'm so sorry… for everything." It read. She scratched her head, confused. She sat down. What was he sorry for? She took a sip of the coffee. It was cold. She went back up to the room on top of the stairs. There was nothing in it. None of the newspapers he had saved. No clothes, no suitcases. Everything was gone. It was empty.
An owl tapped on the window. She went over and unattached the parcel tied to its leg. "Ginny, you need to come to the office," it read. She quickly showered and threw on some clean clothes before leaving. She arrived to her office, confused by all the commotion. People were walking around everywhere. Isn't it Sunday? She thought.
"Ginny! Thank god you're here," Gertrude said.
"What's going on?" she asked, confused.
"They're suing the company."
"Who? Who is? For how much?" she asked. Gertrude shrugged and was whisked away by some other people in the hall.
Ginny walked into her office to find a group of people already in it. Her file cabinet, where she kept all her important paperwork, was opened and papers were out all over the floor. "Miss Weasley. Pleasure to meet you," a man with a deep voice said, sticking out his hand.
"Who are all you? And what do you want?" she asked, looking around.
"Miss Weasley, we have opened an investigation to search your tax papers," a man said. She looked at him blankly. "We believe you have not been taxing your products correctly."
And with that Ginny was shoved out of her office, the door slammed in her face.
It took Ginny weeks to realize what was going on. She called all her staff, to ask them what happened, but they all had no idea. She couldn't understand how it happened. She couldn't figure out who had tipped off the authorities about those things and how they found out the information. The only person who had access to that information was her top consultant, who was being tried as well. All the tax information was kept in a basement in her house. Her business manager claimed he had no idea how it happened. He said everything was in order a couple of days earlier when he had checked, but it was too late for anything now. The authorities had already seized everything and made their conclusions.
Her case was tried before the Wizengamot and she was found guilty of withholding tax and stock information. Ginny who was sued for everything she had. She couldn't believe how this had all happened in a flash. She had to sell her house, her things, and even the company. She paid everyone and was left with nothing. She watched her flat auctioned off, along with her priceless antique furniture. She had to sell her company to another rising one, and she fell underneath the surface. She was left unemployed at her mother's already burdened house.
It wasn't until some months later that Ginny realized what had actually happened. She had been conned. She was conned by Mr. Draco Malfoy who was a master at deceiving. Putting the pieces together, she knew that was what happened. It all made sense. He had snuck through her things and planted in misleading evidence. He had tipped the authority, and he probably worked for the agency that sued her. How could she have been such a fool to think that he'd changed?
Years passed. Ginny got a job at the Leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley. She worked there and the pay was half-decent. She brought home money everyday to help out her mother, who was having trouble ever since her father had passed away. She would often daydream about how her life once was. She dreamed it would somehow go back to being the same, with the fame and the fortune. But she knew it never would. She knew that was just a dream. But for a part of her life, she lived a dream that was only a dream in some people's head. She was a critically acclaimed Robe maker and at the top of her career. She had everything and she lived a good life. She had everything, she realized, except for happiness. She realized she never was happy when she was rich. She never had what she had wanted. She never had enough. Until the times she was with Draco Malfoy.
Her life was better now, she thought. It was nice to be with her family more often. They made her happy. Sometimes she'd walk down the street to her old store to see what their new products looked like. She'd gaze at the displays and she'd smile and remember the good life. She'd smile and remember those few weeks that she was happy. But when the handsome face of a man with icy blue eyes and shiny blond hair entered her mind she had mixed feelings. Rage filled her but at the same time so did a sense of happiness.
After fifteen years of working, the old bar owner, Tom, who she worked for, died and left the bar to Ginny who had been working there for six years. After acquiring it, and running it for a few months, she realized she had missed being in charge of things, and felt some contentment with what she was doing. She felt her life begin to change, and although she did not have the money and the luxuries around her like she had, she had other things that made it all worthwhile.