Author's Note: I meant to post this earlier but college tends to suck the life of out a slacker (me).
3: Of Bad Days and Transvestites
"Blast it!" Ginny growled and felt for her wand that she thought she had left on the nightstand. Her hand felt the long familiar wood of her wand and she flicked it at the bells over her head. The stopped jingling immediately and Ginny pulled the pillow over her face. "Stupid ferret thinking he can just order me to his fancy offices and order me to work, stupid bleached headed maggot." She muttered and winced when the bells began to jingle again.
"Alright, I'm up!" She yelled.
"That's good to hear."
Ginny shrieked and sat up, tossing the pillow at the familiar voice.
"Harry! What are you doing here? You scared the hell out of me!" Ginny shook her bright red hair and realized she was in a skimpy white tank top.
"I'm actually delivering a message from Luna, she says she arrived at your shop and she'll be glad to look after it, and to let you know that you should probably put some garlic on your door since the Ministry's recently leaked something about a storm of ravenous Vampires."
"Come again?" Ginny blinked when Harry laughed.
"Seriously. She said she would have sent you an owl, but doesn't trust the pixies they have sent after her." Harry said, trying to keep his face solemn.
"You're joking." Ginny sighed and slid out of bed. "Thanks Harry."
"Are you really working for Malfoy?" Harry asked, appreciating the view and she bent over to find her slippers.
"What? Luna, you big mouthed- Yes, I'm working for Malfoy. It's a temporary sentence. He expects me to be there by seven." Ginny said and missed the top of the bed by millimeters as she shot up.
"Ten you better hit that dusty trail. It's six forty."
"Shut up! Oh no!" Ginny howled and pushed past Harry into the bathroom. Chuckling to himself, he slid the towel from the hook by her closet and hung it on the door handle of her bathroom, and disapparated after taking a quick look around.
"Unbelievable!" Ginny raged as she speed showered, washing her hair and face at the same time. Exactly five minutes later, Ginny emerged from the bathroom, wet and dripping, tripping over the towel and drying off as she hurried into her room for her clothes. She decided it was hopeless to look professional when everything she tried on looked as if she had just thrown it on. Deciding on a white button up blouse and a red skirt, and matching pumps, she threw her hair into a bun and slid on eyeliner as she brushed her teeth.
"I'm late!" She muttered quickly when she jammed her laptop and several random items into her messenger bag. At exactly six fifty-five, she appeared in from of the Malfoy Offices and strode in, her face livid.
She made a straight beeline to the elevator in a long, ground-eating stride and jammed herself in along with several annoyed executives when she bumped into four of them at the same time. Ginny's mouth was set in a hard, thin line when someone pushed past her, and the doors closed.
Needless to say, she was not in a cheery mood when the doors opened and she walked out of the elevator and into the main offices of Malfoy's company. She strode past the cubicles and didn't bother returning the puzzled stares of people already putting the program back together. She strode past closed in offices until she reached the on at the vary end. Her mouth pulled into a snarl at the name glued on the glass in a fine, bold script.
Draco Malfoy
She pushed open the door and stared at the tall, statuesque blonde in a blood red suit sitting at a fancy glass topped desk, a fingernail filer held to her delicate perfect hands.
"Where is he?" She asked, trying to keep her voice civil when the blonde's perfect mouth puckered in distaste at Ginny's outfit and hair. The blonde set down the nail filer and opened her mouth to reply, her eyes still on Ginny's attire.
"Your name?" The voice was high and throaty. It was a definite candidate for the award for Best Phone Sex. Ginny opened her mouth to say something incredibly rude when she felt a presence behind her. Gritting her teeth, she tensed,
"You're two minutes late, Weasley." The drawling voice made her teeth clench.
"Should have let him fry." She seethed, her voice low.
"What was that?" Malfoy inquired, his eyebrows rising when he saw the furious look on her face.
"Nothing. I said good morning." She snapped and glared.
"I see. You're two minutes late."
"I heard you the first time." Ginny bit her tongue at the urge to add a few of the obscenities she was thinking of.
"A reason?" Malfoy inquired, and was surprised the top of her head didn't blow off.
"Bad morning." She bit out.
"Ah. I hope it wont happen again?" Why did he enjoy the death look she sent his way? Or the way her hand fisted around the crystal handle to his office? He sent her a smile that made her eyes blacken.
"It won't." She ground her teeth. Oh how she wished she could punch that amused smile from his face? She could almost see it, her fist shooting out and sending him sprawling. She smiled in satisfaction.
"I know you're thinking of the best way to cause my immediate pain, Weasley." Draco added.
"You have no idea." She muttered darkly.
"I've placed your office right next to mine. It's an open office." He continued as thought she had never spoken. Draco motioned to the door-less office right next to his and Ginny saw an Apple computer already set up, as well as a phone and a pink stack of post-its.
"Uh huh."
Ginny turned around. Her office was at the very corner of the huge room, and she could count the cubicles that sat in front of her and Draco's office. Her mind processed the muted talk and the sound of keyboards.
"That's Jack's office, you can go to him or me if you have any questions."
"I have one." Ginny stared all the people who seemed intently focused.
"Yes?"
"What the hell am I supposed to be doing?" Ginny asked, and turned to Draco.
"I thought that'd be quite obvious." Draco said mildly.
"I'm not telepathic." She snarled.
"Right. Shame. The goal is simple. Recreate Malfoy Security in three months."
"Three months? You're crazy." Ginny exclaimed and stared. It took over a year to develop the actual base and some of the branches of the program. To expect the whole thing in three months was just insane.
"I've got fifty – fifty one- people working on it." He said as if that solved it. "I'll be in my office." With that he turned and walked into the office.
Ginny stood there for a moment, gauging her options, since this was after all, her fault. "Malfoy!" She called and strode into the office, and saw him see him standing too close to the blonde, his hand on her skinny shoulder, and a purely male smile across his features. You look perfect together, Ginny thought and stepped close enough to hear what the blonde was saying.
"I thought you only hired people have taste, Draco. Did you see her hair?" The blonde purred, her face turned away from Ginny, and flashed perfect whites in a seductive smile at Malfoy, who chuckled, his hand rubbing her shoulder. Ginny's temper flared, and she tried to picture the best way to shave the blonde's hair.
"Be nice, Jessica." He said and spotted Ginny standing five feet away, her mouth curled at the blonde. Rusty spoons, she thought.
"Ginny, this is Jessica, my secretary. Jessica, Ginny."
"Jessica." Ginny said slowly. "Did you know you share your name with countless and countless of transvestites?" She asked, and was pleased to see the blonde's perfect creamy skin tinge red in anger. "I can see that you're busy, Mr. Malfoy, I'll came back when you're … free." Ginny said and turned on her heel, and shot Jessica a wide smile, but made sure the Weasley evilness showed in her eyes.
"This is preposterous." Ginny muttered as she walked back into her office. She didn't know why she had felt that telltale flame of jealousy when she had seen Draco – Malfoy- slobbering all over Jessica the Transvestite. She sat in the comfortable black leather chair in front of her glass desk and stared and looked around. Her gaze snapped to the phone and she stared dubiously at it. She picked it up, a wary expression on her face.
"Hello?"
"Ginny?" The dreamy voice asked slowly.
"Luna?" Ginny demanded and sat up straight, worry immediately flaring. "What's wrong? Is everything at the shop okay? Don't tell me! Oh wait, yes! Tell me!"
"Everything's fine, I just wanted to ask you how your new job's going." Luna said serenely, smiling at a group of boys who were staring at Luna.
"Everything's …as okay as it can get." Ginny said and rolled her eyes. She leaned back and let the chair fall back until she was almost horizontal. "How's the shop?"
"Great. You have a lot of people coming. When can I have lunch?" Luna said, and Ginny heard the noise of her antique cash register and her heart warmed. She missed her shop.
"Anytime. Around 12 preferably, people always go get their lunch by then and rarely go into the shop. How's Romilda holding up the café?" Ginny asked and moved the mouse, pleased to see all the programs she needed were in the Dock.
"Fine. Better than me. She keeps sending dirty looks my way, though, I'm going to see if its because her socks don't match." Luna said and Ginny laughed.
"Alright, call me if you have any problems, okay? Thanks again Luna."
"It's quite alright. Bye, Gin."
"Bye." Ginny said smiling, her mood lifted.
Ginny hung up the phone, and surveyed huge screen. Less than ten seconds later, windows popped up and she was surveying fifty windows, each one working of different parts of the core. The actual base itself was missing. When she inquired, she received a very simple 'that's your job, Miss. Weasley.' Sighing, she wiggled her fingers began to type furiously.
III
"Bloody Malfoy." Ginny muttered, pouring a cup of hot, steamy coffee in a mug from the lounge. The clock said it was one, which was lunchtime, which meant that her day was soon over. Ginny didn't remember the last time she had sat for more than two hours spiting out code. Her fingers were numb, and her eyes hurt from staring so intently at the screen so Ginny rubbed them vigorously, blowing out a breath.
She leaned against the pretty cornflower blue counter and sipped her coffee, her mind wandering. Malfoy had walked in a few times while she had been working; standing behind her, not saying a word and leaving a few minutes later.
Ginny suppressed the shiver that rippled though her system. Every time he had walked in her muscles had tensed, and she was electrifyingly aware of his presence. She picked up a scone from the small silver platter and nibbled, silently. She didn't hear Malfoy come in.
He didn't move. Her eyes were distant; a small line between her brows told him that she was thinking. The fire truck red skirt, and ankle-strapped blood red pumps had never seemed so sexy to him.
"Stop it." Her voice made his eyes snap from her neck to her eyes. Her jaw was set and her eyes defiant.
"Stop what?"
"Staring. It's unnerving." Ginny said and swallowed. She had seen the hunger in his eyes and it had scared her in a primal level that if she didn't already loathe him, she would have jumped him.
"Unnerving?" Annoyance flashed across her face.
"Yes. That's annoying." She ground out.
"Annoying?"
"Yes. That!" She resisted the urge to stomp her foot. "Stop repeating everything I say, I'm not a child."
"No. No, you aren't." His gaze was fixed intensely on her neck, and his voice was deeper. Ginny swallowed when he seemed to float towards her, and her fingers shook when his hand cupped the back of her neck. Her knees weakened, but she stayed perfectly still, watching his eyes – lips- come closer to hers. Oh, dear Merlin, she thought, and her eyes slid partway closed when his lips teased hers.
Her fingers were now limp and the coffee cup slid from them and shattered between them. Ginny snapped back, her eyes wide, and she pulled out her wand, her breathing heavy.
"Scourgify!" She cried, and the black puddle, and remains of the mug disappeared. She flicked her wand and the droplets disappeared from his and her shoes.
"Weasley." Draco began, but stopped when she leveled a cool face to him.
"Yes?" She replied blandly, thanking Merlin that he couldn't hear her heart pounding.
"Nothing." He said and stood stock still a she slid around him, her heels making no noise on the carpeted floors. "I'd like to try that again." He said softly.
R/R!