DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything except the story.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Written in response to the "48 Hours" challenge thrown out by Cheelalaucha in the forums. This story is quite AU, as I have omitted the fact that the Wizarding World is threatened by Lord Voldemort. The students are just leaving a quite ordinary life- well, as ordinary as magic can be.
For someone who is as cooking-challenged as me, making pancakes is definitely not as easy as it looks or sounds. The pancake I tried to make from scratch looked like scrambled eggs because I have no idea how to flip the damn thing.
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"I'm hungry," Malfoy announced suddenly.
The two of them had been resting on separate couches, not saying a word to each other at all after the fight. The fight had allowed the both of them- or at least Ginny, to get rid of whatever stress and frustrations she had. Malfoy had only put his shirt on again after making Ginny look like a human-tomato hybrid for a few more minutes. Making a silent truce, neither of them made a peep while they had that moment of quietude.
Malfoy was completely sprawled over his couch. He was sleeping on his, with one hand on his stomach and the other dropping onto the floor. He had one long leg stretched across one arm rest and another hooked over the back of the chair. Ginny could not believe that the Malfoy was showing her such an unguarded pose.
His face looked oddly blank while he took his nap, like a piece of still painting, which was a contradiction to his body posture. While his body laid in such a way that seemed ungainly for a Malfoy, his face retained the ever-regal look of a Malfoy. His hair was tousled and his fringe covered his forehead, making him even more handsome in Ginny's opinion.
'It is not humanly possible for someone to look that good even while they are sleeping.' Ginny grumbled.
She herself knew what she looked like in sleep- thanks to Fred and George. They had enjoyed taking pictures of her while she was asleep, then teasing her with pictures that made her look like a, to quote the twins, 'a pig in bed'. Ginny gritted her teeth at the memories.
Ginny was laying one her side, in what is known as the shrimp pose, using one hand as her pillow, her legs drawn close to her body so that she could fit her entire body within the two-seater.
When Malfoy suddenly spoke without opening his eyes, Ginny felt a sudden rush of blood through her body. She wondered if Malfoy had truly been asleep or had he been faking it. She wondered if he had known she had been staring at him.
"You're the one with the wand. Conjure something up yourself."
"Hm," Malfoy said. "What do you want to eat?"
Ginny suddenly felt a craving for her mother's delicious homemade pancakes with heaps of the maple syrup her mother would set out for breakfast on some days.
"Pancakes," Ginny said, her mouth watering at the thought.
Malfoy suddenly swung himself onto an upright position on the couch in one smooth move, surprising Ginny with that sudden move. He took up his wand and pointed it at the table in between them. He had intended to conjure up the pancakes from the house-elves' kitchens below but what appeared had Malfoy and Ginny stunned for a moment.
"Malfoy," Ginny said at last. "Is your wand broken?"
On the table sat the things they needed to make pancakes, not the pancakes itself. There was a huge, butter-yellow porcelain bowl, a small bronze scale, a bag of self-raising flour, a smaller bag of sugar, a carton of eggs, a bottle of vanilla essence, a jug of fresh milk, and a wooden spatula. There was even butter, maple syrup, honey, jam, ice cream and peanut butter- every possible thing to eat pancakes with. Neither stove nor pan was to be seen however.
Malfoy did not answer as he frowned at his own wand. Shaking it slightly, he tried another spell.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" incanted Malfoy, pointing at the bag of sugar. Immediately the bag of sugar floated over to where he wanted it, which was inside the bowl.
"Diffindo!" Malfoy said, jabbing the bag of sugar. The bag immediately split open making the sugar spill out into the bowl.
"Hn," Malfoy grunted.
Ginny laughed at Malfoy's expression. The poor boy was looking confusedly at his own wand. She watched as he tried once more to conjure up the pancakes they wanted. She chuckled when she saw how much concentration he was giving to execute the spell. She burst out laughing when once again; the same ingredients appeared in front of him, this time in bigger quantities.
Ginny's laughter finally died down enough for her to notice that Malfoy was glaring at her. And there was a piece of parchment stuck to the new, bigger sack of flour. She reached over and removed it from the sack.
"We is very sorry but currently we house-elves are busy preparing for the Christmas dinner. We is very sorry but we hope you will enjoy the scrumptious dinner we will have prepared for you on Christmas night," Ginny read out.
Malfoy stared at Ginny blankly. "What are we going to do now?"
Ginny turned to look at Malfoy, with an equally blank stare. "Cook, of course."
Malfoy's stare turned into one of disbelief. "Hell, no. You don't expect a Malfoy to cook, do you?"
"Merlin, no. I don't want to die of food poisoning," Ginny said.
"What!" Malfoy said.
Ginny gave him a look. "I'll cook."
"Can I try?" Malfoy asked.
Ginny gave him a long look before deciding that she was not that hungry just yet. "Fine. Come on."
She started sorting out the ingredients, putting aside the ones she'd need to make the pancakes from the one she would use to eat the pancakes with, pointing them out to Malfoy.
"You use these to make the pancakes," Ginny said, indicating the items. "You use this much for about six pancakes. Put them all into this bowl and then you mix it. Here, you try it."
Ginny handled the bowl of half-mixed ingredients over to Malfoy. She rolled her eyes when he merely used the wooden spoon to go round and round inside the bowl.
"You have to take the bits on the sides as well and mix it in," Ginny instructed, taking the bowl from him to demonstrate. "Don't just stir it like that."
Malfoy watched with amazement in his eyes as he watched Ginny whip the batter with an expert hand. "Let me try!"
Ginny handled the bowl over again and watched with stifled giggles as Malfoy tried to copy her style of whipping the batter. He ended up wasting bits of the batter as they flew out of the bowl when he became over-enthusiastic about it. He frowned as he realised that he was making quite a mess on himself.
"How come it's not like how you did it?" Malfoy asked, his eyebrows knitted as he glared at the bowl.
Ginny laughed. "You need practice. Come on, let me do it. At this rate you won't be eating anything."
"But-" Malfoy started.
"If you're hungry, shut up and conjure me some extra bowls and plates," Ginny ordered.
Malfoy glared at her balefully before doing as she had ordered. "Why am I taking orders from a Weasley?"
"Because you want to eat and I'm the one who knows how to cook here," Ginny said without batting an eyelash.
Ginny measured extra ingredients to make up for the batter that Malfoy had spilt. Malfoy watched enviously as she did everything speedily but perfectly. Satisfied with the batter, she turned to look expectantly at Malfoy.
"Well?"
"Well what?"
"You want to eat batter?" Ginny asked, rolling her eyes. "Pan and fire, boy."
"Boy? Show me some respect, if not for my Malfoy name then at least for the fact that I'm older than you by a year," Malfoy said, miffed.
However, he made the pan and fire materialise without any more prodding. Ginny noticed that Malfoy had conjured the exact type of bluebell flames that she thought had been a specialty of Hermione's all this while.
"Smells good," Malfoy commented.
"Of course," Ginny replied.
She expertly flipped the pancakes on the pan, making sure that they were cooked entirely before tossing them onto the plates with precise skill. After making a substantial amount, Ginny indicated that Malfoy should now put out the fire, which he did without much fuss.
"All done," Ginny announced.
They moved over to another table to eat, leaving behind the cooking items for the moment. Ginny raised an eyebrow at Malfoy when she saw him conjuring up settings for the table. There was a red tablecloth, napkins, dining plates, cutlery, glasses filled with water from the Aguamenti spell and even a small lighted candle.
"Extravagant, aren't we?" Ginny commented.
"Malfoy," Malfoy said, shrugging.
"I'm wondering where all this came from," Ginny said, giving him a questioning look.
"Secret," Malfoy said, with a mock-serious face.
Ginny rolled her eyes at his childishness. "Tuck in," Ginny invited.
"Gladly," Malfoy said, inhaling the tantalising aroma of the pancakes.
Ginny watched as he pondered over what to eat his pancakes with. Her eyes widened when she saw him drowning his pancake in honey.
"You like things very sweet huh?"
"I like you sweet. Mm, sweet Ginny."
Ginny threw her napkin at him, making Malfoy laugh.
"Oh, sweet, sweet Ginny," Malfoy sang.
Ginny glared at him.
"My sweet, sweet Ginny, why won't you come to me?" Malfoy continued.
Ginny raised her knife, giving him a murderous look. "I can do a lot of damage with this."
Malfoy lifted his hands in a sign of surrender. "Fine, fine."
Malfoy took a bite of his pancake. "Mm, this is good."
"You should try the one my mother makes. It's even better."
"Heavenly."
"Exactly."
They continued eating in silence, the only sound in their room was the clinking sounds of the cutlery against the plate. When they've had their fill, the both of them just sat back and stared across at each other. Ginny was feeling rather languidly sleepy since she was now contentedly full and warm.
Then Malfoy sang ala opera singers, "And my sweet Ginny won't come to me."
Thump. The sound of a pillow hitting something hard could be heard.
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To be continued…