Disclaimer: Last I checked, I'm not a gazillionaire. Therefore, not JK Rowling.
A/N: I'm trying to make my chapters longer! It's hard!!
HeavilyBrokenSpirit: Sad times like these add depth to the story! It'll make the rest even better! Hooray for happiness!
MorganMourning: ~Drum roll please~ YES! She is in this chapter!! I'm so excited to hear your thoughts on her! Please, leave nothing out on how you feel!
NightCrawlerFW: Aww, you're so kind. I spent a lot of time coming up with the name for the character, which you'll see in this chapter! I hope you approve!
Oxymoron8: I approve. Carry on. ~sigh~ young love, isn't it fantabulous?
Ladyinthetower: No hard feelings, dear. And don't worry. Gin isn't suicidal or anything unlike some people who will remain unnamed. ~coughcoughBELLAcough~ Nah, I'm just kidding. They're those books you love to hate and hate to love. Thanks for reviewing!
"What can I get for you?" I sighed, propping my hand on one hip, and sticking the tray under one arm so I could take out my notebook and pencil. The old wizard leered at me and waggled his eyebrows. I rolled my eyes for what felt like the hundredth time that night. I had heard it would be bad, but I didn't expect it to be that bad.
"I can think of a few things," he said, "but I'm not one for spectators, so why don't you start with getting me a mulled mead." I turned on my heel and returned to the bar.
"It's always hard your first night," said a witch sympathetically. She was another waitress, and I had seen her being poorly treated as well. One couldn't walk through this throng of people without getting their bum slapped; at least not if they were serving drinks. "I'm Penny," she said, and offered me her hand. I shook it, glad for an ally.
"Ginny," I said. "How long have you worked here?" She blew out a sigh and counted on her fingers.
"It'll be five years this June, so four years and seven months, just about." I felt my eyes go wide.
"Wow." Was all I managed to get out.
"Tell me about it," she said, and chuckled. "So why's a young thing like you working at this place. It's a decent pub, but not one most people choose to work at." I shrugged.
"I'm living with my brother in the area-"
"Not George Weasley!" She cried. I nodded sheepishly. She slapped my arm lightly. "He comes in here often. Well, he used to. He could flirt like you don't want to know- Oh, sorry. I guess you actually don't want to know." She blushed as I pulled a face.
"He is my brother."
"Let me just tell you, there was never anything going on between us. No, I'm a happily married woman, Ginny." She pulled out her wallet and showed me a family picture of her with a tall weedy man with a kind face, surrounded by children. "That there's my husband Rick, and there are my kids, Sherry, Kathy, Toby and Mike." I smiled down at the waving children.
"They're beautiful," I said earnestly and she beamed. She stowed her wallet back in her purse behind the bar and turned back to me.
"So what about you? You can't tell me that you're single, not a cutie pie like yourself." I grimaced and turned away. "Oh, bad break up?" she asked, patting my shoulder.
"You have no idea."
"Are you married?" She asked, and took my left hand. There on my fourth finger was the wedding ring Tom had given me. I drew my hand back sharply.
"Not anymore," I said, and she laughed.
"That's the spirit, girlie. Now you'd better get back to work or there'll be a scene." She gestured to the man at the table who was looking at me expectantly. I groaned and brought him his drink.
TTTTTTTTTTTTT
We apparated to the manor, and I glared up at it. My nemesis was in there, and I couldn't even kill him. Draco clapped me on the shoulder and I forced a smile for him. He had been a good mate for the past two days, and I owed him. I threw my bag off my shoulder and a house elf caught it before it hit the floor. I would act like my old arrogant self. I would do it for her. Gan was in the foyer waiting for us at the bottom of the stairs and I threw my arms wide when I saw him. He hugged me like we were brothers and I restrained from killing him.
"Tom, how's it going?" He asked. I wanted to punch all of his perfect teeth out of his handsome face.
"I have so much to thank you for!" I exclaimed.
"Like what?" He asked, confused.
"You took over so I don't need to worry about running that bedamned kingdom. He leaned forward.
"Stop lying to me!" He whispered coolly. It was an order, and I met it with silence. "Don't think that I don't know how much you hate me for ruining your little fairy tale life. I know how much you loved her, and I know you ended it to keep her safe. That was a good plan, because if you didn't, you see, I would have had to hurt her to get her away from you. You don't really understand the full situation here, mate." I snorted at the sarcasm there. "My father and I have been planning this since we met Ginevra. She has powers that no one else can match. Well, except for me. I know how well she worked at your right hand for your little organization, but in my empire, she will be my queen. She'll be the empress, the perfect wife, the perfect mother, and the most perfect partner. You didn't grasp fully how much damage she can do to the light side if you just point her in the right direction. Do you see what I mean? You didn't appreciate her full talents."
"If you actually knew her, you'd have noticed that she will never turn her back on her family." He burst out laughing at that.
"Tom, I hope you didn't mean that she'd come to me consciously. No, I intend to let her inner power do the thinking for her. Those black eyes?" he shuddered happily. "There's nothing more exquisite. Anyways, we're being very rude," he said straightening up. "I have someone I want you to meet." He laughed again, and put an arm around my shoulders, like we were friends. Draco watched us warily, his hand in his pocket, grasping his wand I guessed. Adelé was by his side, her eyes flicking from me to Draco and back again.
"Who am I meeting?" I asked coldly. He walked to the shadows under the stairs where the doors for the ballroom were, and took the hand of someone. He led her towards me. She moved with the grace of a dancer, as if she were floating along. Her hair fell to her shoulders in soft dark brown waves, and her vibrant green eyes watched me closely. I was instantly suspicious.
"Tom, this is Morica. A close friend of mine since I was a baby."
"It's nice a pleasure to meet you," she said without a trace of an accent, her voice low.
"I assure you, the pleasure is all mine," I said, and brushed her hand with my lips. She was in a black dress, which was rather inappropriate at this time of year, seeing as it was late January, but I reasoned that she had just come from a warmer climate. I gestured to Draco and Adelé, "That is my good friend Draco and his wife Adelé."
"Hello," she said without a smile, but she sized them up for a few seconds. "It's nice to meet you both." They didn't reply, uncomfortable with her stare. She turned back to me, and sized me up as well. The silence in the room brought tension along with it. Gan seemed to be totally comfortable, standing there grinning at our reaction to her.
"I'm sorry for your loss," she said. I looked at her questioningly. Certainly Gan hadn't told her that he was a power hungry git. "Your wife, I heard she was very beautiful." Gan's hand tightened on her shoulder.
"She is very beautiful, Morica dear." I sensed tension between them "you'll be meeting her soon." She turned her head to look at him fluently, and reminded me of a falcon with her effortless grace. "She'll be your friend." Morica laughed coldly.
"I highly doubt we'll ever be friends." She said. Her tone introduced a new idea to me, and I laughed aloud.
"Oh, don't tell me," I snickered to Gan. "She's jealous of your creepy fixation on Ginny?" Morica turned back to me slowly, her face calculating. She took a step towards me, and glared up into my face. She was very small, even tinier than Ginny, who had inherited her mother's short stature.
"You're being rude," she said. "And I want to like you Tom Riddle, I do. Very much. I think you'd want me to like you too." Her penetrating light eyes seemed unnatural for her skin tone. "I already don't like your wife, but she was very stupid for not remaining by your side." Adelé took a step forwards angrily, and Draco grabbed her arm, attempting to drag her back to his side. Morica's eyes snapped to her. "Oh I see, you don't like being insulted either. Maybe you should ask your master to be kinder to me." Gan stared at her.
"I am kind to you. We've been friends as long as I can remember.
"Not you," Morica said passively, stepping once more into his arm. "She won't take you as her lord. I expect if you keep her around then she'll kill us all in our sleep."
"As if she could," Gan said, grinning.
"Yes, yes, you're very powerful, we get it." She sighed. I stared at the little woman. It seemed as if she were the only one in the world who could get away with talking to Gan like that. Abruptly, she said, "I'm very tired, and going to bed. Excuse me." With which she darted up the stairs and out of sight.
"I must say, I'm exhausted as well," Gan said. "Settle yourselves in, alright? I daresay you don't need a tour of my manor?" I glared at his back as he went up the stairs. I turned on my heel and marched out the front door.
"Where're you going?" called Draco.
"Out." I replied shortly, and closed the huge doors behind myself. I had gotten a tip off a few days ago from one of the few I still trusted that Ginny was living in Diagon alley, and working at the Leakey Cauldron. I needed to see her right now; I thought that I had worked up enough stamina not to jump on her when I saw her. I quickly applied a short-term glamour spell to give myself long blond hair, blue eyes and I lost a few inches in height. It gave me two hours to watch her. It was a damn useful spell, but it only worked every few days because of some law that the ministry had put on it. I apparated into Diagon alley and strolled down the little street. I gazed into Weasley's Wizard Wheezes and it was full of people. I only saw one redhead, and unless Ginny had cut her hair and grown a foot since I'd last seen her, then I was guessing it was George. I continued down to the end of the road where the entrance to the pub was, and opened the back door quietly. It was almost full to the brim with loud, drunk wizards who laughed raucously at every joke their friends told. I nabbed a table and chair in a corner next to the front window and began scanning the room for her. I gasped quietly when I saw her carrying a tray to a table and as she bent down to place the plate on the table one of the younger wizards (he was only about forty-five) ran his hand over her backside. My knee jerked and I grasped my wand tightly. I glared in disbelief at the man, and he grinned cockily up at her. I expected her to slam the tray in his face and have done with it, but she just walked away.
A/N: Pronunciation guide:
MORICA - MORE-ICK-KA
Ta ta all!