As You Wish - Chapter 10
Draco and Ginny stood at the entrance to Narcissa's atrium, nervous to step back over the threshold into the manor.
"You know, we don't have to tour around the Manor, if you don't want to."
The genie looked up at her master. "Oh, no; I want to. Your mother has a point. This place is massive and I don't know what kind of weird shit your father has locked up around here."
Said master rolled his eyes. "I can assure you that any so-called 'weird shit' has since been confiscated by the Ministry. In fact, I believe your brother Bill was involved with the entire operation."
"Oh, that's right." Ginny narrowed her eyes as she recalled the memory. "I remember him telling the family about it at dinner one night. Outside of our family trip to Egypt before my second year, I had never seen Ron so excited to hear about what Bill did for work."
"You know what?" Draco began, pointing at his genie. "I'm going to be nice and not say anything mean about your brother."
"I am simply stunned at this recent development in your behavior. Look at how much you've grown," Ginny replied, pretending to dab at stray tears.
"All right, Weasley, enough of you being stunned. You wanted a tour, so I'll give you your tour."
With that, Draco stepped into the hallway and turned to his right, walking at a brisk pace. That last bit of conversation felt good to him. If he could share light-hearted barbs with Ginny it allowed him to pretend that everything was still relatively normal. It allowed him to feel as though he didn't have to dive head first into feelings that may not be reciprocated. The last 24 hours were a new experience for him and, while it felt nice to be a pillar of support for someone, he didn't want his genie to become reliant on him. He knew there would come a point where he couldn't pretend anymore, but it was nice to know that the moment wasn't happening anytime soon.
He led Ginny through the hallway, pointing out various facts about what they walked past:
"Behind this painting of my great-grandfather, Orion Malfoy, is the entrance to the dungeon. Don't worry; my mother blockaded it once she was finally here by herself."
"This hallway leads to the entrance to our garden maze. I think another one of your brothers — Charlie? — helped to relocate the dragon egg Voldemort had my father buy as some kind of weird contingency plan. Don't ask."
"This statue of Salazar Slytherin has a secret entrance to the kitchen behind it. Blaise and I used to use it whenever we were trying to sneak snacks during my parents' parties."
Save for the odd tidbits about Death Eaters, much of what Draco said about the Manor reminded Ginny of her own childhood. He snuck around under his parents' noses just like she did. He had friends come visit just like she did. He learned how to fly a broom with his father's help just like she did. So much of it felt normal. As they walked up the stairs in the foyer to begin their route through the second floor, she noticed her master pause before he reached the top. She looked up and was met with a large painting of Draco with his parents.
The Draco in the painting looked to be about the age he would have been when he started Hogwarts: still baby faced, having not quite grown into his features yet, with his platinum blond hair slicked back. He stood next to his mother, who was seated on a low-backed chair upholstered in emerald green velvet. Narcissa looked regal and distant, with her hands folded in her lap. She had given the painter a close-lipped smile, but her eyes gave away a kindness that belied her otherwise stoic expression. And, finally, there was Lucius. The Malfoy patriarch was commandeering even through the painting, his ever-present serpent cane held just far away enough from his body to show that it was not needed as a support device. His long hair was pulled back from his face, tied at the nape of his neck with a black ribbon. He was smirking, reminding Ginny of the smirk Draco was so fond of using even now.
What surprised Ginny, though, was the fact that the painting's subjects were immobile. She would have never suspected that a family whose patriarch was so proud in the purity of his blood would deign to have a family portrait done without the finishing magic.
"He said that this style of portrait was common for royalty. One of the few things he actually liked about Muggles. Would you believe me if I told you that we were happy here?"
The genie glanced at her master. He was looking up, but no longer at the painting. The admission about the painting was one that she wasn't expecting and, although she wanted to press him for more information about his childhood, being in his ancestral home after so long was already wearing on him. She could bring it up another day.
Draco began walking to the left of the painting, underneath his father's ever-present stare. The less time he spent looking at that accursed painting the better. He was surprised to see that his mother kept it up, but he figured that it reminded her of a simpler time with their small family. As much as he disliked Narcissa's insistence on staying at Malfoy Manor, he couldn't begrudge her of the positive memories she still had of the place.
The pair rounded the corner and Ginny noticed that much of the decor was now different from the rest of the Manor. There was cherry wood flooring where there had previously been polished marble. A plush green rug ran down the length of the hallway, muffling their steps as they continued forward. Instead of the Art Deco-style light fixtures that hung from the walls like torches were small overhead lights encircled with Tiffany glass. The differing colors overhead made the area feel warm and cozy. Ginny thought she could probably cuddle up on the floor for a quick nap.
Her master stopped about three doors down from the start of the hallway, standing in front of an open door to her right. He leaned against the doorway and ran the palm of his hand down his face. He then ran the same hand through his hair and, suddenly, Ginny realized what she was looking at. She stepped forward to stand next to him and linked one her arms with his.
"This is your room, isn't it?"
Draco's head snapped to his right to look at her. He was feeling everything all at once: guilt, pride, confusion, joy, despair, anger; a rush of emotions he thought he was able to move past. He could feel his jaw clench and he swallowed hard. He shouldn't have brought Ginny over to this part of the manor. It had been several years since he went to his old room of his own volition. Realizing that his mother kept it exactly as he left it all those years ago stirred a reaction in him that he wasn't expecting.
He brought himself and Ginny further into the room, leading her over to his old bed. He let go of her arm and sat down, sinking down into the pillowy bedding. Draco felt her weight sink down next to him and she placed her head on his shoulder. This is what he had been fearing: the familiarity, the comfort, the understanding. He had been feeling it far too often recently with her and he was concerned at what it meant. There was nothing overt between the two of them, so Draco rationalized that this could be what friends do for one another. Friends could provide comfort and companionship, and maybe Ginny's version of friendship was different from what he was used to. Blaise was definitely his friend, but his version of comfort was bringing over a bottle of alcohol and listening to Quidditch matches together. And that was okay. Maybe Draco just needed to adjust to a version of friendship that he never got to experience much growing up.
"I didn't realize she had kept it like this."
"It's okay; even when my brothers all moved away, my mum couldn't bring herself to change anything about their rooms. Parents can be like that sometimes."
"I'm sorry for unloading all of this on you."
"You don't need to apologize. I'm sure a lot happened here that makes coming back to your home tough. Like you told me yesterday, you don't need to tell me anything else if you don't want to."
"And I may tell you at some point. I actually did like having my own wing."
That caught Ginny's attention. "What do you mean you have your own wing?" She sat up again and smacked Draco on the shoulder. "What the bloody hell did you need an entire wing for?"
Her reaction forced a chuckle out of him. "Oh, you know, stuff."
"What kind of stuff?"
"Stuff."
"For once can you quit being a little shit?"
Draco flopped onto his back, grinning. "If you must know, this room is my actual bedroom, but attached to it are my study and my bathroom. Across the hall is my childhood nursery and my library."
He felt Ginny rise from her spot on the bed and called out to her. Met with silence, he sat up and looked around. She was nowhere to be found in his bedroom. She couldn't have gone that far. Draco checked his bathroom and study before going across the hall to his library. The library wasn't massive by any means, just taking up two rooms, with books only up against the walls. The rest of the layout was spacious and open as he used it to practice spells, potions, and other sorts of self-assigned homework he liked to give himself if he found something interesting in his books. During school breaks, it was his hideout with Blaise, where they played wizard chess and listened to Quidditch matches.
But Ginny wasn't in the library either. Draco walked back out into the hallway and glanced at the door to his childhood nursery. It was slightly ajar. He opened it further to see her feeling the paint on the wall, touching the mural of the night sky near his old crib. His mother thought it would be cute to have the constellation he was named after painted just above. Ginny had her right arm folded up near her chest and Draco could tell that she was holding something. As he watched, she dropped her arm down and he saw that she was holding an old teddy bear of his. He walked up to stand next to her, then leaned down to grab the toy.
"Sweet Merlin, don't scare me like that!" She held a hand up to her chest and took a deep breath.
"Sorry," he mumbled. "I didn't think that I would find you in here."
"I had to see it for myself."
"See what? That I wasn't always like this?"
"I guess…" Ginny began to trail off. She turned to face him, grabbing ahold of the teddy bear again and bringing it up to waist level. "What changed?"
"I turned eleven and got what every young witch and wizard gets when they turn eleven. My father thought that was a good time to teach me about the real world, as he called it." Draco squeezed the stuffed animal. "At the time, it was easy to believe what my father had only implied was legitimate fact before I got my Hogwarts letter. I had never met any Weasleys, but if he's telling me they're that bad, then they must be. I had heard whispers about what Voldemort was like from my family: he was intelligent and powerful. I had no reason to believe that my father would lie to me, or he was simply wrong." He sighed. "It's incredible what distance and experience does for a person."
The pair stood in silence. Draco had let go of the bear and Ginny brought it up to her chest for a hug. It felt right to hug it and think she was still providing her master some level of comfort. She wasn't entirely sure if he would want that kind of physical contact.
"Is this a good time to mention that you were the most adorable little baby?" Ginny said it from behind the teddy bear, as she brought it up to her face.
Draco laughed and it felt good to hear it reverberate against the walls of the room. "I mean, it definitely helps to lighten the mood."
His genie walked to the other side of the room and brought over a framed photo of him. He smiled when she handed it over. He almost forgot how chunky he was as a baby. Narcissa ended up being one and done after Draco because she had gotten so big with him that she didn't want to deal with another pregnancy. Which was fine by her since his pink cheeks were cherubic and perfect for endless kisses. His legs had the best kind of baby rolls that his mother could blow raspberries on. In the photo Ginny brought over, he was smiling and laughing, clapping his little hands.
Seeing the photo reminded Ginny that at the end of the day, Draco was just a person, like everyone else she had ever encountered. And becoming a genie made her realize that people can be influenced to do very bad things if they believe it's for the greater good. Her master seemed to be one of those people. His actions as an adult spoke more for him than the ones he did as a child and maybe it really was time to bury the hatchet, as they sometimes say in the Muggle world.
"Thank you for showing me all of this."
"I think I needed to see it again. It gets easier every time, but I have had enough for one day."
"That is perfectly fair. I'm ready to leave when you are."
Draco placed his baby picture back on the dresser where Ginny originally found it. While his back was turned, he missed his genie waving a hand over his teddy bear; a small puff of red smoke indicating that it had been transported back to her room at his apartment. She always did like having a souvenir from her masters and she felt that this one was perfect for her current one. Her birthday was also coming up and, since she didn't always enjoy celebrating it with her masters, she treated it like a present to herself.
He held out a crooked arm when he turned back around, letting Ginny know that she could hook hers in.
As soon as she did, a faint pop! could be heard in Draco's old nursery, indicating that the pair had Apparated back to his home.
He was late.
Which was very unlike him. He was never late, even if it was okay to be fashionably so. At least, at this stage in his life, he was never late.
It had long been established that only she was allowed to show up late to, well, everything, if she really felt like it. It just looked better if she showed up late. It looked like she was taking time out of her legitimately busy schedule to meet with him. It looked like she was so committed to making things work this time around. It all looked so good for her.
And yet, Daphne Greengrass was shockingly on time for one of her dates with Draco and he was no where to be seen. It wasn't like she couldn't spin this to her advantage, if needed, but she did feel rather silly waiting outside the agreed upon restaurant for her "boyfriend".
While she always knew that the whole thing was a sham, there was a very, very small part of her that kind of wanted everything to actually work out between her and her Hogwarts-era ex. It simply made for the best story for the society pages and, yet again, it was another way for her to show Astoria who the better sister was.
But things shifted during the Ministry charity function. Her date seemed distracted and that same part of Daphne that wanted things to kind of work out was now telling her that Draco may have set his sights on someone else. Immediately, she thought it was that genie of his, but outside of their initial meeting, he hadn't mentioned that thing again. So maybe he found a way to get rid of that stupid fucking creature.
She shook her head thinking about the fact that Blaise bought Draco an actual genie. The man was beautiful and sweet, but his aloofness sometimes turned into obliviousness at the most inopportune times.
But if the genie was possibly no longer in the picture, then who could it be? Daphne pursed her lips together and squinted, lost in her thoughts.
"You know, Daph, if you keep up that face, you'll end up with just the most terrible of crow's feet."
"I really can count on you to say the right things, Astoria." The eldest Greengrass rolled her eyes and flicked her hair off of her shoulder. What the bleeding hell was her sister doing here?
"Has your precious boyfriend stood you up, darling?"
"No, he hasn't," Daphne replied tersely, her annoyance steadily increasing. "He's probably just busy with work and lost track of time. You know Draco would never cancel without a reason."
"Is there some major project coming up at his company?"
"Not that I know of. Why do you ask?"
"Oh, nothing. I just figured that since it's Saturday that Draco wouldn't be working," Astoria replied with a close-lipped smile.
Shit. In a moment of weakness, Daphne let her wits slip and she hated admitting that her sister may be on to something. Because, seriously. What in the ever-loving hell was taking Draco so long? She turned to finally look at Astoria before seeing something behind her.
"I'm terribly sorry, sweetheart, for keeping you. Will you ever forgive me?"
Daphne could feel her shoulders relax at the sound of that voice. And not a moment too soon because Astoria was looking entirely too pleased with herself for remembering what day of the week it was.
"Draco, darling, of course I can." As she walked past her sister, she made a point of bumping her left shoulder against Astoria's right, barreling through to reach her date. "You had me so worried! I thought something awful had happened." She linked arms with him and forced herself to stare straight ahead lest she see her sister rolling her eyes.
"I hate to interrupt your charming reunion, but I did want to ask you something, Draco." The youngest Greengrass stood behind the pair, waiting.
Daphne could feel herself suck her cheeks in as she looked down at the ground, wide-eyed and blinking, hoping that whatever it was that her sister was so curious about didn't take up a majority of the scheduled time she had with her date. Astoria has seen Daphne's social calendar, after all.
Blessedly, Draco looked down to her and could very easily tell how exasperated her sister was making her. "Maybe another time, Astoria."
"It'll only take a moment. I promise," she replied, crossing her heart with her left pointer finger.
Draco looked down at Daphne again. She didn't say anything, instead opting to wave around the hand that was linked with his arm. That seemed to be good enough.
"Alright, what's up?" he asked, turning around to face Astoria.
"Have you heard from Crystal recently? I've been trying to set up another lunch with her, but she hasn't responded to my last owl."
At the mention of Crystal's name, Draco felt his ears begin to burn. It would not do to get distracted at a time like this. "Crystal?" he asked, furrowing his brows as he rushed to think of some kind of plausible excuse. If it was too complicated, then Astoria would pick up on it and Ginny would have a hard time talking about it. No, it was best to keep things simple. "Oh, I think she mentioned having to deal with some business back in America. Didn't really elaborate on it too much."
It was now Astoria's turn to squint as her pursed her lips. Draco could feel a faint trickle of a cold sweat pooling at the base of his spine. He said a silent prayer to whoever would listen that Astoria would just accept that answer. Finally, she sighed and he almost did the same in relief.
"Aw, that's no fun. I wish she would have replied to me at least," the younger Greengrass sister puckered her lips together, feeling childish.
"I'll be sure to pass along the sentiment. I'm sure she'll be back soon enough." He felt a tug on his arm and looked down to see Daphne motioning her head towards the restaurant.
"If you're done, Astoria, I do have a date, you know," Daphne said, pointedly.
"Right, date, whatever," Astoria replied, waving around a hand before walking away.
Daphne wheeled Draco towards the entrance of the building. "Draco, darling, I'm so glad you could make it today. We have so much to discuss!"
And there was a lot Daphne wanted to talk about with her faux boyfriend. Fauxfriend? She shook her head. Merlin, that sounded awful.
Most of it had to do with her parents' request to have Narcissa and Draco over for dinner. A little bit had to do with starting to plan for the winter event she wanted to host at Malfoy Manor. And then, just the teeniest, tiniest bit had to do with Draco's reaction to Crystal being mentioned. Her woman's intuition could tell that something was going on there. It was also telling her that Crystal's sudden appearance seemed to coincide a little too neatly with Draco coming to Daphne for his redemption arc. If she let her thoughts run wild, Daphne could think of so many strange possibilities for who Crystal really was, but for now, she couldn't let herself get distracted by such thoughts.
Draco was just a placeholder and a means to an end for her. It simply wouldn't do for her to get wrapped up in their manufactured romance.
Draco was half-heartedly listening to what Daphne was going on about.
There was something about him and his mother going to Daphne's home for dinner, which, yeah; he supposed that they were together long enough to warrant that. He also figured that the real reason was for Reginald Greengrass to have some kind of business discussion.
Once the date for that was settled, she moved on to this incredibly elaborate story about some kind of annual winter gala. He could feel his brain go on autopilot at that point, so it was easy for his thoughts to wander.
He felt bad about being late for his "date" with Daphne. Truly. He couldn't tell her the real reason why — that Ginny convinced him and Blaise to watch a kind of Muggle invention on her TV (?) called a movie and the one she had them watch involved some magic rings and wizards and elves and dwarves and, although Draco really identified with the blond elf and the story was solid, he and Blaise were having the toughest time getting over this depiction of magic — as she would get too suspicious again and his life already felt hectic enough as it was.
Every day that passed with his Ginny — wait, let's slow down there, mate — his genie's presence meant that he was growing accustomed to her being around. Last weekend did feel like a turning point in their friendship as they both revealed parts of themselves that they wouldn't have revealed were it not for their weird predicament. Draco rarely talked about his upbringing with anyone outside of Blaise and it felt nice to have someone who also could just listen. Time allowed her to listen without further judgement and Draco was grateful for it.
During the week, he found himself thinking more about what would happen if he wished for Ginny's freedom. He still had two wishes left and she had mentioned before in passing that she could only be free if a master wished for it. Would she still want to associate with him if she didn't forcibly have to? Her magical capabilities would go back to normal, but would she owl him to watch some magicked TV with her? Would she call him a friend?
His thoughts revealed a level of insecurity he hadn't felt since he was school-aged, back when the other Slytherins only befriended him because of who his father was. Each time it happened, he had to fight back with the thoughts that reminded him that Ginny didn't strike him as being like that. She was too genuine to ever react that way.
When this happened, Draco's brain also liked to push to the forefront those obnoxious feelings that he had for Ginny that were sometimes inappropriate for polite conversation and were delusional, to be perfectly honest. Lucius Malfoy would call upon the spirit of Sirius Black for the express purpose of finding out how to escape Azkaban so he could beat the ever-loving shite out of his son for having the audacity to think about those things. Which Draco kind of got a kick out of, but the rabbit hole in that part of his brain was far too dangerous in broad daylight. And he had already been doing such a great job at repressing all of it, so why stop now?
"So what do you think?"
He focused back in to see Daphne looking at him expectantly, clearly waiting for a reply. "You know I'm on board with whatever decisions you need to make." That seemed like a good response, right?
Daphne squealed in excitement. If she actually liked him in a romantic way, she would have kissed him from across the table. "You know, I wasn't sure if you would agree considering what I was asking about."
At that, Draco realized that maybe he should be paying closer attention to the conversation at hand. But he couldn't just outright ask Daphne what he had clearly agreed to. That would give everything away and, again, he really didn't want to have to explain himself.
"What gave you the idea in the first place?" Smooth, Draco. Very smooth.
His "girlfriend" shrugged. "Well, I figured that this winter gala I've been dying to host should really be the perfect culmination of everything that we've been working towards for you. And in order for it to just be the party of the season, I thought that we could put your genie to good use for it. I mean, you clearly haven't used all three of your wishes, and this event seemed like a good time to use one."
Oh, bleeding hell. That's what he agreed to? He might as well actually move back in and fulfill his mother's wishes because there was no way that Ginny would left him live. Was she contractually obligated? Yes, of course she was. But that wasn't the point. The point was that Ginny could find ways to bring her master this close to dying and still be within her rights as his genie. That damned Bottle could care less about his own wellbeing!
"Of course; that makes perfect sense," Draco replied, maintaining the facade while panicking internally.
"If you were to do this, though, I think I would have to meet her. You know, to discuss planning and what I'm envisioning," Daphne said this slowly and carefully, realizing that her date may have not fully thought out his answer.
"Right. Well, since I am her master, I can wish for it and she would have to do it. That's kind of the whole point." Daphne nodded in agreement. "But maybe the, shall we say, gentlemanly thing for me to do would be to at least discuss this with her so she's not blind-sided by the whole thing. Would that be alright with you, Daphne darling?"
Daphne nodded her head vigorously. Her mind was already racing with the possibilities of not just endless magic, but free endless magic. Her father wouldn't be able to scold her for her indulgences now and the thought was thrilling.
"That settles it, then. I will discuss this with my genie and I shall report back to you the night of the dinner with your parents. That may give her some time to mull everything order," Draco announced, moving to stand.
"Oh, yes, that works perfectly for me. I'll send an invite over to your mother for the date we agreed upon." Daphne moved to gather her things from the table in order to stand.
Her date walked over to her and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, as she had grown accustomed to for their little playdates.
"Lovely as always, Daphne." Seeing that she was satisfied with his goodbye, Draco bolted out of the restaurant, thinking that two weeks wasn't enough time to convince Ginny to go along with his next wish.
A/N - Thanks for reading! Please leave a review if you have the chance :)