By the end of the day on Thursday, Draco regretted his agreement with Ginny to help her. She stopped by his office late in the afternoon and extended a parchment to him.
Looking up from his desk, he raised his eyebrows. "I thought you'd already completed the parchments for today," he said. "Did you forget something?"
"Nope. Just holding you to your promise to help me write a letter to Harry." She smiled sweetly, and he knew she was trying to charm him.
He bit back a snide reply. "Right. Let's see it, then." He accepted the parchment. When he read what she'd written, he was torn between laughing and groaning. She'd been right; she had little skill in creating a letter designed to pique the interest of a potential lover.
"Ginny, this would be fantastic…if you were twelve. I swear I don't know what happens to you between work and home. Your written reports for me are excellent, and you clearly have a good grasp of the language. How is it possible for you to fail so miserably at this?"
She sighed dramatically. "I told you. I don't know what to say to him. Just thinking about it makes my brain all muddled."
"Here." Draco drew another piece of parchment from a drawer and picked up his quill. "What you need is to let him know you're interested, but you must have a witty way to do it." He thought for a moment then wrote,
I've wanted to say something since you arrived home, but I wasn't sure where to start. Every time we're together I feel as though I've been hit with a tongue-tie curse. It's your eyes, of course. Maybe if you closed them I could feel free to speak.
"There, see? You're telling him you're feeling anxious about seeing him again after all this time, but you want to make a go of things anyway. You've reminded him you love his eyes—just like the whole 'fresh pickled toad' thing. Now you can add a few words about how it's easier to write it than say it face to face." He held out the quill to her.
"Could you do it? You're much better at it than I am."
He huffed, but he agreed. "How about this?"
For the moment, I'm finding it easier to put it on parchment than in person. But perhaps we could have tea and
Ginny stopped him. "No, no. I'm not ready for a date yet. We need time to get to know each other. Say that we should keep writing for a while until we're both ready to talk."
Draco shook his head. "This is absolutely the weirdest thing I've ever done for an employee. Ginny, it's just Potter. Surely you can manage tea in the Ministry canteen?"
"Not yet. Please," she begged. "I promise I won't keep asking for your help forever. Just a little while longer."
"Fine." He flicked the parchment and siphoned the last sentence off the page. "What about this, then?"
Perhaps we could take some time to become reacquainted. Please write back to me and tell me what you think.
"There. Will that do?"
"Hm," Ginny said. "It needs something. A poem?"
Draco curled his lip in annoyance. "Certainly not one of your usual. How about haiku? Those are fairly easy, and they follow a specific structure. You could learn it, and it would prove you've come a long way since your fresh pickled toad days."
"Show me," she demanded.
"All right. Like this," Draco said, putting quill to parchment again.
Hidden inside me
a thousand butterflies rise—
I await your words.
"Perfect!" she exclaimed. "Now, how about a greeting?"
"And a signature line as well. What about 'Dearest Harry'? You could sign it something like, 'Your Only' and your name. What do you think?"
"Er."
Draco bit back a groan. "Now what?"
"I want to keep it anonymous."
He set down the quill and put his head in his hands. "This is ridiculous! I keep telling you, it's not that difficult. Why would you want to do it in secret? You have known Potter for—what, sixteen years or so? You're already doing everything in the most convoluted way possible. It would be best to simply tell him the truth."
Ginny rolled her eyes. "No. The mystery adds to the romance. Even I know that much."
Draco considered that for a moment. He had to admit she had a point, but even better, he realised it afforded him an opportunity. He set that aside and concentrated on answering Ginny without sounding too enthusiastic. "All right. I actually can't argue with that one. So, you'll send him a few anonymous letters and then tell him it's you once he's fallen madly in love?"
"Something like that, yes." She winked. "Perfect, yes?"
"I suppose. If it's meant to be all mysterious, what about just signing it 'your only', as I suggested before, but without your name?"
"I like it," she said, grinning. She turned the parchment towards herself and read over Draco's work. "Done. I'll owl it as soon as I get home."
"Actually, why don't you send it to his temporary office here?" he asked. "I'll show you how to turn it into an origami figure like the ones we use for memos. Fitting, with the haiku and all."
"Ooh! Can you make it into a swan?"
"Yes, of course. Here." He held out his hand, and she gave him the parchment. He tapped it with his wand, transforming it and setting it to flight.
"Thanks! That'll be just right. I'll ask you next week for help with another one, if he writes back." She grinned, and something about it annoyed him deeply. He hoped it wouldn't become a distraction at work. Or maybe he really hoped Potter wouldn't bother writing her back.
"Wonderful. Now, do you think you could leave me to finish my work in peace?" Draco gave what he thought was a look that plainly said their conversation was done and focussed his attention on his desk.
Ginny took the hint. "I'll see you tomorrow," she said, standing up.
"Right," Draco replied, not looking up from his parchments. "Tomorrow."
Once she had left and he was sure he was alone, he set down his quill and closed his eyes. He rubbed at his temples. He wanted to be happy for Ginny and Potter, but he was entirely incapable of mustering feelings of goodwill towards them. If only he could have signed his name to the bottom of the letter. He chided himself for having such a ridiculous notion and went on about finishing his task.
Draco hand-selected every member of his team of field workers to perform the complex spells required for Potter's house, and the whole team was assembled by the end of the week. He decided the best course of action would be to list all the charms needing removal with their counterspells then bring everyone to the house on a single day to take care of it all at once. That meant they could take apart any interwoven spells simultaneously, and it prevented any upsets in the delicate balance. There would be no chance for any spells to break down further in between visits.
After convening a meeting with the six of them, including himself and Ginny, he explained the situation. The only problem was when he briefed the team, he couldn't tell them where the house was. To his consternation, now that he was privy to the location, he became locked into the disintegrating spell. The first time he tried to provide the address, he needed Ginny's assistance removing the tongue-tie. He would need to have Potter tell them himself.
That brought up another question. Draco wondered how they could get an entire team of Curse-Breakers into the house. Even knowing the location, he hadn't been able to simply walk up to it and enter. When Potter had taken him, they'd used side-along Apparition. That would be impossible with five other people in tow. He wondered if they might be able to Apparate someplace in the vicinity of the house and have Potter bring them in one or two at a time from there. It seemed the most logical solution; he would ask Potter what he thought when they next saw one another.
On Monday, when Draco went to Potter's house to work, he took Ginny with him. Fortunately, now he'd been there, Draco didn't need to side-along. He did ask Potter to accompany them to make sure they had a comprehensive list of the necessary spells and to discuss the problem of convening the team for their removal. Potter agreed that Draco's solution seemed wisest, so that at least was settled.
When they arrived on the top step outside the front door, Draco wobbled a little, almost knocking into Ginny and Harry. As he righted himself, he caught an odd shadow out of the corner of his eye. Something to the side of the house had moved. Draco turned to Potter, who was unlocking the door.
"Are there any spells or curses on the exterior of the house?" he asked.
Potter frowned. "Not that I'm aware of. Why?"
"Thought I saw something similar to the spectre in the entry. Must have been an animal of some sort, though."
"I assume so. This neighbourhood is crawling with strays of various kinds, magical and Muggle." He let them inside.
They worked on the house for more than two hours, cataloging everything they needed to repair, remove, or reverse. When they were through, Potter invited them to stay for something to eat before returning to the Ministry. As usual, Ginny was quiet during their meal, content to let Draco carry the conversation. He kept it light, trying to draw her in with talk about the latest Quidditch scores and the recent in-game fight that had broken out between a pair of players who had apparently had a nasty break-up. Ginny only half-heartedly put in a word or two here and there. Puzzled, Draco concentrated on the conversation with Potter, and as usual found himself swept up in it to the exclusion of all else—Ginny and her odd behavior included.
When they were through, Ginny said she would take care of the report and getting everything organised so Draco could focus on researching the necessary counter-curses. He would have left too, but before he could, Potter stopped him.
"Do you have any idea why Ginny is acting so weird lately? She hardly talks to me when we're working on my house. I feel like I'm back to being twelve years old all over again. I'm half expecting something to come at me singing about the colour of my eyes."
Once again, Draco was frustrated at being in the middle of Ginny and Potter's relationship drama. Naturally, he could explain Ginny's behavior perfectly, but he chose not to do so. He valued her as an employee and a friend, and he didn't care to break her trust. "I don't know," he said with a shrug.
Potter raised his eyebrows. "You work with her. She hasn't said anything to you?"
Draco tilted his head, trying to appear casual. He decided a tiny bit of truth might lend credence to his plea of ignorance. "Not really. I know she's a bit nervous around you, but who isn't? I'm not sure the world knows how to react to your return just yet."
To Draco's relief, Potter laughed. "Other than the newly minted Aurors, you mean. They seem to think it's their aim in life to make things hell for me."
"Right. Well, they're merely taking over where I left off, you see," Draco replied.
Potter grinned, and it did marvellous—no, terribly inconvenient—things to Draco's stomach. He had a sudden flash of why Ginny always felt so off-kilter around Potter. If the swarm of pixies setting up camp in his chest was any indication, it was no wonder she couldn't put words together in front of him. He shook himself to get rid of the intrusive thoughts.
"Right, then. I should get back to work. I doubt we'll need to meet here again until we arrange a time to bring in the team, but if you want to check our progress you may stop by my office." He included a silent plea that Potter would choose to do so sooner rather than later.
"I'll do that." Potter hesitated. He lowered his eyes to the floor and said, "Would you like to join me—us, rather—for a drink after work? That is, if you don't have other plans."
Caught off-guard, Draco didn't answer immediately. If he hadn't known better, he might have thought Potter seemed a bit nervous himself, as though he were asking for a date. Draco collected himself in time to remember Potter was straight. "All right," he agreed. "I'll ask Ginny to come along as well."
"Er…why? I mean," Potter cleared his throat. "Does she usually accompany you after work?"
"Sometimes, yes," Draco said. "Maybe it will help her relax around you a little more."
"Ah. Good point. Fine, then. We'll see you at the Torchlight—say, around five-thirty?"
"Sounds like an excellent plan." Draco stepped outside and Apparated away, leaving Potter to whatever it was he still needed to do at the house.