Chapter 20: The Pensieve

Ginny realized that Ron had been right and decided to take Hermione's advice, end the charade. She made up her mind to go see Draco and break up with him, if that was still necessary.

So on Monday after her practice let out she went on her way. Deciding that at this time of day he'd be at work she apparated to Hogsmeade and from there walked to Draco's company. The building which lay at the edge of town was a large brick faced building that seemed to have been built in the 1700s. She walked inside and it was like taking a trip back in time, everything was beautiful and she couldn't help but gape as she walked up to the large, mahogany desk in the back.

"Hello, welcome to Malfoy Enterprises, how may I help you?" Asked a pretty woman who appeared to be in her fifties.

"I wanted to speak with Draco Malfoy." Ginny said nervously, she had a sneaking suspicion that the receptionist was going to laugh at her and show her the door.

"What's your name ma'am?"

"Ginny, Ginevra Weasley." The receptionist smiled at her and looked down at a list of-Ginny assumed- people allowed to speak to Draco.

She was just about to turn around to save herself from the embarrassment of being laughed at when the woman spoke up and said, "Ms. Weasley take the lift to the top floor and make a right when you step out. You can't miss it."

Ginny nodded unable to say anything. She walked into the elevator, I must be better at this seducing thing than I thought; she ignored the pang of guilt and shame that hit her and stepped out of the lift. When she walked into the door the receptionist had indicated she saw a large waiting room. The room was decorated to look like a lounge and reminded Ginny of one of the rooms in the Manor. On one side of the room sat a large fireplace, near the only other door in the room sat a desk, behind which sat a beautiful blonde typing. At the sight of her Ginny couldn't stop herself from straightening her back and lifting her chin. It was difficult for her to stop herself from seeing images of them together making fun of her family, Harry, her. She almost turned around but the secretary smiled at her and said, "Hi Ginevra."

Ginny was thrown by the familiarity that the blonde seemed to have with her and spoke up, "Is Draco here?"

"No, but you can wait in his office he should be along in a few minutes." She said smiling.

Ginny walked into Draco's office and was impressed by its size. The office was decorated in an old style with strong woods and leather, giving it a very masculine and intimidating feel. Ginny walked around looking at his large collection of books on one shelf sat a small television attached to what appeared to be an earlier version of the Electrifier. Ginny tapped it with her wand and turned on the set. No matter which channel she turned to or which way she set the antennae it wouldn't work. The magical interference was too high. She was so glad she lived in a muggle building, poor Draco.

She turned it off and stepped towards his desk. She sat on his chair which was so comfortable she believed she could drift off to sleep just sitting there. She looked on the desk and saw a picture of his parent looking as haughty as ever, but if you watched it long enough they smiled and waved. Ginny noticed another frame facing down and picked it up to be faced with herself. She remembered the day at the fair when a strange blonde man who'd seemed to know them had forced them to buys two pictures, Ginny had the one of Draco in her house. Ginny studied the picture and laughed at how picture Ginny tried to stop the wind from blowing her hair in her face. She hadn't ever looked so beautiful in a picture before, that Happy. What am I doing here?

She leaned back on the chair and the door suddenly opened, the secretary walking in gracefully. Ginny frowned at the length of the skirt and tried to smile.

"Ginny, would you like something to drink? Draco's running a little late." Ginny shook her head and the secretary walked out again. Ginny looked at the papers stacked neatly on the desk and saw that they were reports she was about to look away when a heading attracted her eyes: Maleficent Merchandise Quarterly Sales. There was a list of all the items sold among them a few Dark Arts books and items and a potion that she knew was banned in ten countries apparently Bulgaria wasn't one of them. He lied to me.

There were similar reports from stores in China, Switzerland and India. Ginny felt betrayed somehow but she suppressed the feeling put the papers back and continued her exploration now determined to find something incriminating. A drawer at the bottom of the desk was partially open, a silver glow escaped it and she opened it to see a pensive. She was about to open it when she paused, you can't just go invading his privacy.

It's a little late for that isn't it?
No, that was different they were sitting there.

He's already lied about the stores; it's my right to find what other secrets he has.

It's wrong.

What if he's sleeping with that blonde bimbo?

…Do it!

Ginny reached out her hand and touched the thick liquid only to be pulled harshly inside. Ginny suddenly found herself standing outside of a large white house. There were several other houses nearby although some of them were much larger and there were trees there wasn't anything else happening that is until a black car turned the corner and drove right through her. Inside the car were a woman in a blue shirt and jeans driving and in the back seat sat a boy, who must have been about sixteen, he had dark brown hair and black eyes and was handsome, but there was something familiar about his face. Next to him sat a woman that looked a lot like the boy, she sat straight and had a slight look of disgust in her features as she looked outside the window, besides this she quite beautiful. The car stopped and they stepped out.

"You've got the wrong house!" The beautiful woman said looking up in disgust.

The driver got out of the car and moved to the trunk. She removed everything and began to carry some of the suitcases inside. The boy followed her in moving uncomfortably in his jeans.

"Don't you ignore me!" The beautiful woman said following her inside.

"I've got the right house!" The woman, an American, yelled halfway up the stairs. The boy was no where to be seen and Ginny looked around the house in awe. She moved into the front room and found him staring at a large television in confusion. She realized he must be Draco under some sort of disguise and asked him, "Wish you'd taken Muggle Studies now don't you?"

He stood up and walked over to a stereo and pushed the red power button, suddenly music blasted out. "Wicked!"

"Stay humble stay low blow like Hootie
True pimp niggaz spend no dough on the booty
And then ya yell there go Mase there go your cutie

I don't know what, they want from me
It's like the more money we come across
The more problems we see"

"So that's why you like this song!" Ginny exclaimed.

"Turn that thing off!" The woman ran in and to the radio, she pushed the button and turned on Draco, "I'm having enough of a time with your mother I don't need that crap killing my ear drums!"

"You're our servant! How dare you speak that way to me!"

"Yeah well get used to it, I'm only doing this as a favor to Dumbledore," she said.

Draco's former haughty look was gone and replaced with one akin to regret but it quickly changed and he was back, "well, tell me how to work that thing!" He said pointing to the television, "what is it anyway?"

"It's a TV." She said picking up a control from the coffee table, she showed him the large button at the top and pressed it. It turned on to a commercial for Always not a good first impression but the woman quickly changed it to ESPN and handing him the control showing him the buttons for channel and volume. "This is the sports channel." She said and walked out of the room, Ginny heard her muttered, "that ought to keep him out of the way for a bit."

Draco and his intense inspection of the television soon faded away in darkness until Ginny was riding beside Draco in a car. He was listening to the radio and was singing along, badly.

"Every step I take, every move I make
Every single day, every time I pray
I'll be missing you
Thinkin of the day, when you went away
What a life to take, what a bond to break
I'll be missing yoooooooooooooooooooooooooou"

Ginny looked out of the car to the trees, she really loved autumn, the trees looked amazing and although it didn't look like it would rain there was the slightest tint of grey to the sky that made it seem very romantic. Suddenly the car jerked and Draco yelled out of the window, "What in blazes are you doing?"

"I'm crossing the street, what the hell do you think you're doing?" A lightly tanned girl yelled standing up straight a book in her hand.

"It's called driving, look it up sometime, you dirty muggle!" Draco yelled impatiently.

"What did you just call me you fucking bastard?" Ginny saw the girl come up to the car window her dark brown hair getting whipped in front of her face.

"Forget it!" Draco suddenly said remembering how he'd slipped.

"Just as I thought!" The girl said, "like all men you've chickened out!"

"What's chickens got to do with anything?" Draco asked bemused.

The girl looked at him and opened her mouth to speak when she seemed to remember something she brought her had to her face and "you've made me miss my bus!"

"I wasn't the one resting in the middle of the street." He said and rolled up his window he was going to start driving again when the passenger door opened. Ginny scrambled to the back of the car and the girl sat inside.

"I dropped my book," she said placing the book on the dashboard, "you're giving me a ride to class."

Draco looked at her bemusedly but upon noticing the time he started to drive again. "I'm not driving you anywhere when I get to my destination you will get out of the car and find your own way wherever it is you're going."

"I'm in your class you dimwit!" She said buckling her seatbelt.

"I've never seen you." He said in disbelief.

"Of course you haven't, you're too busy making sure you don't come into contact with anyone to look around a bit," she said, "it isn't hard though to spot a Brit with a stick up his ass."

Ginny saw Draco's knuckles whiten as he held the wheel even harder. "You will refrain from speaking to me while in this car."

"Fine," she said and switched the radio station and started to sing along, all the while either ignoring or not noticing how his grip had tightened even more and how hard his jaw was set.

"And I don't know why you couldn't just stay with me.
You couldn't stand to be near me,
When my face don't seem to want to shine,
'Cause it's a little bit dirty.
Well, don't just stand there, say nice things to me,
'Cause I've been cheated, I've been wronged,
And you, you don't know me,
Yeah, well, I can't change.
I won't do anything at all."

The lyrics stayed with her as the memory faded out and a new one began. She saw as Draco, whose name was Titus Bucco, became friends with the girl, whose name turned out to be Inez Rodriguez. She saw as slowly he began to make other friends as he became the Draco she knew and not the one she remembered.

Inez sat there looking at Draco with a look of disbelief on her face. Draco kneeled in front of her holding out a ring looking scared. Ginny quickly caught on to what was happening and couldn't help the wave of jealousy that coursed through her. Then just as Ginny was trying to think of a way to get out of this memory she heard Inez laugh. She turned back to see the young woman hysterical.

Draco looked confused and slowly put down the ring. "What's so funny?"

"You!" She said and then controlling herself began to explain, "Draco honey, I love you, but I'm not in love with you and your not in love with me, we're not even dating!" She said and Ginny remembered that Hermione had had a similar objection. "I will not marry you so that you can go back to your magical world with proof that you've changed."

"That's not it!" He cried indignantly. "I'll admit I'm not in love with you, but you are always saying how there are more important things in a marriage than love, like friendship and communication and loyalty and I know you'd be a good wife."

"That's true," she said smiling although tears were brimming in her eyes, "but I never meant it. I want to be in love. I want you to be in love." She said pulling him forward and hugging him. "Even if I said yes, I wouldn't fit in your world and I'd still be a muggle and as fine as you are with that fact I know that a part of you will always resent that I'm not a witch."

"I don't think that way anymore," he said vehemently.

"No, but your heart does." She said then smiled widely and said, "Now get up before you ruin my appetite." She let go of him and turned to a table full of food. "I knew you were up to something when you replaced our usual burgers with pasta."

Ginny looked around the dark swirl thinking that she was moving into another memory but instead felt herself float up until she was suddenly sitting in Draco's office again and beside her stood Draco. She attempted to smile but he seemed so angry that it died in a grimace.

"So, you're spying on me now?" He asked.

"You wanted me to care," she said turning around her gaze falling on the papers on his desk, "liars don't deserve privacy."

"What exactly did I lie to you about? You yourself just saw every major moment in my life just as I'd told it to you." He said smug in his certainty.

"The store. You still have opened ones and they still sell Dark Arts objects." She said handing him the reports.

"Well, at least you were thorough in your search." He said placing them back down on the desk dismissively. "I meant in Britain; it's illegal in Britain."

"But you didn't say that. You knew I would assume it meant everywhere."

"It's not my fault what you assume Ginny."

"Of course not, because you Slytherins are all about manipulation and half truths."

"There you go again with the damn Slytherin thing!" He leaned over the chair his face close to hers, his grey eyes boring into her own, "We are not in Hogwarts, you are not a goody-two-shoes Gryffindor and I'm not an evil, death eater Slytherin. Grow up Ginevra! Let go of all those silly fears and dreams and grow up!" He straightened and leaned against the desk, rubbing his temple.

Ginny stood his words sinking in, who does he fucking think he is? She moved towards the door.

"Come on Ginny, I'm sorry. Don't leave like this." He pleaded.

"Bye, Draco." She said and walked out of the office letting the door close behind her.

"Ginny!"

A/N: Monday, May 16, 2004. The lyrics are from Mo Money Mo Problems by Notorious B.I.G. I remember that was all you could hear on the radio in 1997, no matter what station you turned to! And I love I'll be Missing You (by Puff Daddy)! The last song is from Push by Matchbox Twenty and its one my favourite songs of all time! All the songs were popular in 1997. Bucco was a Roman name it meant fool! Just in case it doesn't show up in the rest of the story, Narcissa's cover name was Lucia Bucco. Also, I don't think I'll get to explain it in the story but Draco is in a county college, working on a associates degree in business (he had forged documents for admissions, transcripts, etc. Everything had been worked out well in advance by Dumbledore who (in my little world) was going to offer him the option of hiding out eventually.)