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A/N: Sorry for the long delay. Do not desert me now! I don't know how long this is going to be, but please don't forget to REVIEW.

Above and Beyond

Chapter 5 - tick, tick… BOOM

How do I tell my family I'm going to be living and working at the Malfoy Manor indefinitely?

Ginny was still worried about approaching her family with the news. She knew for sure that Ron and Bill would take it very badly and she didn't know how she was going to plead her case. She fidgeted nervously, drumming a pencil on her desk, waiting for the clock to signal it was time to go home. She had already decided to accept the job, but if her family didn't agree she was afraid she would have to decline.

She shook her head, noting distantly that the clock had chimed 5pm. Her family shouldn't have any say in what she did as a job, should they? Besides she was a grown woman and they'd never had any problem with the decisions she'd made before. Her features were grim with determination as she left her small cubicle and moved towards the fireplaces to Floo home. She would just have to tough it out, because she was taking that job tomorrow.

'I'm home.' She called, stepping out of the fireplace and dusting soot off her robes.

'Hey, Ginny, we're in the living room.' She heard Hermione's voice drift over to her.

She headed in the direction of the voice and saw with not a little surprise that every member of her family was seated there. As if on cue her palms began to sweat and she began coming up with excuses, like she was young again and in some sort of trouble. Stop it, she told herself firmly. She was a grown woman not some wayward adolescent and no one was accusing her of anything.

'Evening, everyone.' She said to the room and moved to sit on the couch between Hermione and Harry. Ron was seated on the floor in front of Hermione with his head resting on her knees. Bill and Charlie were in front of the fire playing wizard's chess with Percy looking on, mildly interested. Fred and George were huddled in a corner, as usual, apparently playing with their favourite piece of merchandise: trick wands. Her parents were by the radio; Mrs. Weasley listening to the nightly report while Mr. Weasley listened to his Ipod.

'What's everyone doing here?' she whispered to Hermione.

'Oh, they're all sleeping over for Ron's birthday tomorrow. I didn't tell you?' Her brightness was a little too forced. Ginny suspected something was up.

'They've never slept over before, why now? Why everyone?' she persisted.

'Because I invited them.' Hermione snapped. Ginny leaned away from her, watching her curiously. She didn't understand her brisk tone. As she leaned away she brushed against Harry; he started back.

'Sorry.' She whispered. He nodded in response.

'Are you okay.' She asked him.

He smiled tiredly. 'I am. And I wish everyone would stop asking me that.'

Ginny smiled apologetically.

'How's work?' he asked, changing the subject.

'Work's-' Ginny hesitated 'Great,' She ended, 'Really great.' He nodded slowly, but flashing green eyes showed he didn't believe her. She hesitated again; she didn't want to tell him, though it would come out eventually, she couldn't tell him she'd voluntarily be working for his and Ron's high school nemesis. She wondered if eight years were enough to bury a grudge. With those three, she thought not. However her ramblings were interrupted by Bill calling across the room.

'Anything new at work, Gin?'

'Um,' she began sitting a little straighter. 'Yeah, actually. I have a new assignment.' All of the heads in the room turned to look at her. Oh dear, she thought. Her palms began sweating again. They were waiting for her to continue.

'I've been offered a job, as a bodyguard, to look after four children. I'll be staying with them and monitoring them for some time. You now how the agency is…' she trailed off. Some of the faces were beginning to look concerned.

'Indefinite.' She ended in a low voice.

'Are you sure you can handle being a bodyguard?' Charlie asked, his eyes scrutinizing her face.

Ginny gave a nervous laugh. 'Yes, Charlie, I'm pretty sure I can.'

'But for four children?' Ron asked looking slightly alarmed. Hermione looked at him sharply.

'What do you mean, Ronald?' she asked, glaring at him.

Ron looked bewildered. 'Well, four's a bit much isn't it?' Hermione glared at him further and he flinched but wisely decided to keep his mouth shut.

Ginny smiled; it was amusing the way Hermione kept Ron in line, though her friend seemed to be a bit crabbier recently. Then her smile was wiped off her face by Percy asking the question she'd most feared to hear.

'Where will you be working, Ginevra?'

Ginny drew a deep breath before replying.

'Malfoy Manor.' She said quickly, avoiding the eyes of everyone in the room; a hard feat considering there were ten pairs of eyes staring at her incredulously.

'Malfoy Manor? Blimey, isn't that where-'

'Where Malfoy lives, yes Ron. That is where Malfoy lives.' Harry's voice was low-pitched. Ginny shuddered, he sounded menacing. Then Hermione voiced the question they all wanted the answer to.

'Why?' she was eyeing Ginny as curiously as Ginny had been eyeing her before.

Ginny hesitated again. 'Because it's a good job, the pay's going to be more than I've ever gotten and-' she rushed on seeing they were about to interrupt. 'I want the chance to work with these children. Something is telling me to do this.'

'Yeah, like a sudden loss of common sense.' Fred interrupted. Ginny glared at him. He shrugged.

'Ginny, are you sure you want to go work for that- man.' Her mother asked gently. Ginny was sure her mother had been about to say Death Eater and was grateful she didn't.

'No.' it was Charlie who answered. Ginny started full-scale panicking. A quietly calm Charlie, as he was now was a lot more dangerous than a loud and angry one.

'Charlie,' her father said warningly. Suddenly Ginny's temper began to rise. What bloody right did they have to not want her to go? This was a job like any other! They didn't even know if he was a Death Eater! Harry and Hermione started giving each other shifty looks; they did not want to be in the room when the redheads exploded. Slowly they edged towards the door into the kitchen, stopping short when Ginny glared at them, then broke into a run to get the last few feet.

'Dad, you can't be serious. You expect us to let her go to that manor, by herself with that-' Charlie exploded

'With that what, Charlie Weasley? That Death Eater? Is that what you think of him?'

'Why are you defending him?' Percy asked calmly, cleaning his glasses 'Is there something that we don't know?' he stared up at her. Ginny stared back; she couldn't believe that Percy, of all persons, was insinuating that she had something with Malfoy.

'It doesn't matter.' Charlie said shortly 'You're not going.' She glared at Charlie and he glared back.

'Charlie, it's Ginny's choice.' Bill said attempting to calm him down, 'She's 24; we've got no say-'

'Got no say?' It was Ron's turn to fume. 'We've got no say in whether she goes off to live with a known-'

'- Suspected-' Ginny hissed. Ron barely spared her a glance.

'- Death Eater.' he finished firmly.

Charlie nodded his agreement to what Ron was saying. Bill looked dubious; Percy was content with simply staring at Ginny as though trying to decipher something from her facial expressions. The twins over in the corner had given up on the trick wands and were watching the exchange with identical expressions of amusement. Ginny glared at them too for good measure.

It was Arthur's turn to wipe his glasses.

'Dear,' he said turning to his wife 'It really is up to her.'

Molly nodded and Bill looked greatly relieved. Charlie and Ron, however, continued to splutter.

'Mum, you can't- '

'You're being unreasonable- '

'What if something happens?'

'We can't trust a Malfoy!'

Mrs. Weasley stopped them both with a silencing glare (similar to a Silencing charm but without the use of a wand).

'Ginny can take care of herself. She's not stupid enough to go into this unprepared. I trust her.' She ended simply. Ginny sent her mother a grateful look and Molly smiled warmly.

Charlie and Ron collapsed into disgruntled silence. Bill crossed the room and gave her a big hug, whispering 'Good luck' in her ear. She hugged him back, grateful for his support. The twins followed Molly into the kitchen, presumably to tell Harry and Hermione that it was safe to come back in. Sure enough, a few seconds later they poked their heads into the room before walking in. She smiled nervously at them. Hermione smiled brightly back but Harry just stared at her. He looks angry, Ginny thought, and almost smirked at the idea. Why was that so amusing to her?

Harry said nothing to her for the rest of the night; neither did Ron or Charlie. It was only when she started to worry that they would never speak to her again that Charlie came up to her after dinner and apologized, though not in so many words.

'Gin, I don't like it.' she was tempted to put her hands on her hips, in her best imitation of Molly Weasley.

'I don't like it, but I respect the fact that's it's your life and you get to choose what you want to do. So I guess I really can't stop you.'

She hugged him.

'Thank you, Charlie.' She wanted to add 'For finally seeing reason' but restrained herself. The important thing was he wasn't mad at her anymore. Ron, however, was still seeing red and Ginny could only hope Hermione would make him see reason. She knew her friend was clever enough to get her brother around, she could only hope it was soon enough. She still hadn't told them she'd be starting tomorrow and somehow she didn't think an owl would cut it.

She waited until after dinner, when everyone was almost sufficiently calmed by the Butterbeer, to break the worse news. She also tried to get her parents alone in private without making it seem too obvious. She didn't want a repeat of what had happened a few hours ago. It was just her bad luck that they were in the centre of the room.

'Er- Mum.' She attempted to whisper.

'Yes, Ginny?' her mother replied, distracted. She was supervising a pair of knitting needles that were clicking away midair.

'My new job starts… tomorrow.' Ginny closed her eyes in anticipation of the outburst; her mother's outrage at being separated from her daughter for so long, so soon. It never came.

The knitting needles stopped clicking. Ginny chanced a peek. Mr. Weasley was now looking at his wife curiously. Her face had lost colour then flooded with red, as it usually did when she was angry. She pursed her lips, but didn't say anything. Then:

'You're going to miss Ron's birthday?' she asked in a would-be calm voice.

'Erm, yes?' was all Ginny could manage. She was fairly certain sparks would soon shoot out of the end of her mother's wand, but then remembered adults usually had more control over their magic than children or adolescents.

She nodded once, briskly. Ginny looked around covertly, the others were still in their little groups and hadn't heard what she'd told Molly. Good, she thought, it's better they don't know till I'm safely there.

She felt bad about doing this to her mother. She wasn't really doing anything bad, but her mother had a deep bond with all her children. She had been barely able to stand the estrangement from Percy and still frequently got weepy when one reminded her that both Bill and Charlie lived abroad. She was actually still trying to convince Ron and Hermione to find a nice house in the surrounding village of Ottery, St. Catchpole.

'I'm leaving, Mum.' She said finally, giving her mother a quick peck on the cheek. She was still being so stoically distant. Ginny had gotten as far as the back door when she came running behind her.

'Ginny, oh Ginny, I'm so sorry. It's just you're going off to this house to live with such a dangerous man and you're leaving so soon. And now you're to miss Ron's party. You've never missed so much as one birthday party in this house. Are you growing up and leaving us behind?' she was almost in tears by the end of this speech.

Ginny wanted to kick herself for being such a horrible person. Then she saw her brothers' angry faces behind her mother in the kitchen, and could kick her mother for having such a loud mouth. She spared her mother a saccharine sweet smile.

'No, Mum, I'm not leaving you behind. I would never leave you like that.' Not without a note, anyways, she added to herself. Her brothers began advancing slowly into the kitchen as if stalking prey.

'Bye, Mum! I'll owl every other day and Floo as often as I can.' She almost giggled as she hopped onto the porch and Disapparated. Magic was so handy for quick getaways.