Fic: Hospitality - 14/? - M - Draco/Ginny
Title: Hospitality
Author: humbuggirl
Pairing: Draco/Ginny
Rating: R (M) - eventually
Chapter Word Count: 5,062
Summary: “There was no snide quip though. No deliberately cutting comment. Ginny stared and then a second later the grey eyes rolled dramatically and turned away from her towards the tasteless curtains.” Post-war fic. Ginny was just plodding along, enduring her perfectly well-ordered normal life and dreaming that maybe something more interesting might come along. She just never thought that the ‘something’ might actually turn out to be a ‘someone’.
Spoilers: HBP
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
1: Paperwork
2: The Good Life
3: Cures and Conundrums
4: Escape, with Sandwiches
5: Night Owls
6: Bookworm
7: A Slytherin Sunday
8: Getting Better
9: History Class and French Lessons
10: Paint the Night with Colour
11: Sleep Softly
12: Blood and Lazy Bones
13: Case History
PART FOURTEEN: BUBBLES
Ginny’s first impression on waking up was that her neck was, once again, sore. She lay awkwardly, tightly twisted up in her bed sheets with her arms trapped by her sides. When she tried to move them, she discovered that she had to wriggle in order to work them loose. Only then was she able to reach up and rub the stiffness from the offending area of her anatomy.
The second thing that she became aware of was that there was the sound of water coming from her bathroom.
She sat up sharply in bed, her head spinning in the direction of the white bathroom door as she tried to clear the last lingering remnants of sleep away. Moving automatically, she reached for her wand, grabbing it from the bedside table. She clutched the thin rod of wood hard, continuing to listen carefully.
It was a struggle to think clearly, and she ended up frowning deeply whenever she tried to do so. Her mind simply had not been ready to wake up, and a glance towards her alarm clock proved that it was not even six o’clock yet, meaning that it was over an hour before she needed to get up in order to get ready for work. It took her a couple of seconds to think the matter through, but eventually Ginny realised that the reason she had woken was almost certainly because of the sounds coming from beyond the bathroom door. Even so, with that connection made, Ginny’s frown deepened, marring her features as she sleepily tried to remember whether she had gone out the night before and if there was a chance that she had ended up inviting someone back with her. The idea made her uncomfortable, but she had to admit that it might be possible - especially if she had managed to drink enough.
The more than she thought about it though, the more that Ginny realised she did not feel as if she had been drinking. Aside for the lingering sensation of sleepiness, her mind was clear and her mouth did not taste particularly sour. Holding onto those small discoveries, she sat for a moment longer and forced her mind to concentrate on the matter.
She was rewarded a second later when - rather abruptly - the memory of spending half the night lying awake in bed while pondering something came to her. Although, right at that moment, what that something might be was she could not immediately recall. What she did remember was that she had been desperate to go to sleep, and that she had spent half the night tossing and turning, sprawling across her bed and fighting with her bed sheets. Relief flickered through Ginny until she realised that she had yet to explain why there seemed to be water running in her bathroom. The knowledge that she had not gone out and dragged a man back with her almost made it worse, actually.
She shuffled to the edge of the bed, still keeping a firm grip on her wand. During the war, it had almost been considered a crime for a witch or wizard to sleep without their wand near by in case they were attacked. After all, the Death Eaters were not likely to sit around and wait while their enemy rubbed the sleep out of their eyes and armed themselves. Keeping her wand nearby was a habit that Ginny had never grown out of, and what was more she still had a tendency to instinctively reach for it whenever she was awoken unexpectedly.
The thought that someone would break into her apartment in order to use her bathroom seemed a little farfetched even to Ginny’s confused mind, but right at that moment she was not thinking clearly enough to register the fact. Instead, she acted on instinct by standing and creeping closer to the door in order to position her ear against the surface.
The sound of splashing filtered through the wood, confusing Ginny further. She frowned and then gave a small mental shrug as she decided to act sooner rather than later. Reaching for the door handle, she sucked in a deep breath before quickly opening it and stepping through, her wand at the ready.
The bathroom was ridiculously warm. Steam from the bathtub clouded the air, surprising Ginny momentarily before she managed to focus on the scene before her. Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open as she realised what she was looking at. Slamming her mouth shut, she swiftly turned away as a blush washed across her cheeks.
“What are you doing?” she exclaimed in shock.
There was a splash from the tub, and then Malfoy replied, “I’m taking a bath - or rather I was before you decided to burst into the room.”
Ginny blinked and belatedly noticed that, when she had turned around, she had inadvertently ended up looking right into the large mirror above the sink. It seemed to frame the image of Malfoy sitting in her small tub, the upper half of his body exposed above a thick layer of bubbles. Ginny tore her eyes away and then promptly had to fight the urge to turn them back again as her curious nature once more raised its head. Malfoy was naked in there and, while she told herself firmly that she did not exactly want to see him in such a state, there was a sort of morbid curiosity taking hold of her that made her want to look.
She gritted her teeth, determined not to give in to the urge to gawp at him. Instead, she demanded, “Is that my bath foam?”
“Well it’s not exactly going to be mine, is it?” he replied somewhat sarcastically. There was a pause, during which Ginny found that she could not think of anything to say, and then he added, “Was there a reason that you decided to come barging in here, or were you just trying to get an eyeful?”
“I was not trying to get an eyeful!” she protested, shooting him a glare through the mirror.
Malfoy met her eyes and raised a questioning eyebrow. “Then what were you doing exactly?”
“I… I… You woke me up,” she stumbled, feeling flustered. It was ridiculous really, if anyone should have been feeling embarrassed then it should have been Malfoy. After all, he was the one sat naked in the bathtub. At least she had clothes on.
“I could hardly sleep with you splashing around in here,” she continued.
“You seemed to be pretty soundly asleep when I cut through the room on the way here,” he observed, still holding her gaze.
Shaking off any and all thoughts that involved Malfoy being in her bedroom while she slept - of him possibly even watching her while she slept - Ginny scowled at him and said, “Which is the perfect example of how loud you must have been in here.”
Malfoy sighed and leaned back against the side of the tub, exposing more of his torso in the process. Ginny suddenly found herself extremely thankful for the bubbles, since she had the sneaking suspicion that if they had not been there then she would have been treated to an eyeful of him whether she wanted it or not.
“Which still doesn’t explain why you decided to come bursting through the door,” Malfoy pointed out. “I seriously doubt this is how you usually treat your guests.”
Ginny sucked in a deep breath. “I forgot that you were here, okay? I was half asleep and I thought that someone had broken into the flat.”
The look on Malfoy’s face suggested that he far from believed her. Ginny could not blame him. Not really. Now that she had said it aloud, it did sound rather foolish. The realisation made her shake herself, and she quickly turned towards the bathroom door in an attempt to exit the room.
“Leaving so soon?” Malfoy called from the tub. “Aren’t you going to offer to wash my back?”
Ginny grunted an unintelligible reply in his direction and slammed the bathroom door as she left. Even with the sound of the resulting bang it made, she could still hear a chuckle erupt from between Malfoy’s lips.
Stomping around the room, dragging out clothes as she did so, Ginny considered her disastrous start to the day and realised that it was quite possible that it was all her fault. After all, she was the one who had lay there half the night wondering whether she had done the right thing by inviting him to stay with her. If she had not done that then she would have slept well and she would never have made the mistake of walking in on Malfoy. Of course, her lack of sleep was actually because of him so ultimately, she supposed, it was actually all Malfoy’s fault.
Everything lately seemed to be his fault.
It was during her late night and early morning contemplations that Ginny had come to the conclusion that she had to think of a way to keep him at her flat. Until she figured out precisely what was going on with him, she knew that she would never get a moment’s peace. Even if she was not being driven on by curiosity then she knew that Hermione would never let the issue rest. Of course now she was faced with the problem of how to do that without setting off any alarms in Malfoy’s head. Since she had seen nothing to indicate that Malfoy’s innate intelligence was in the least diminished by his illness, or by the years that had passed since they had last been at school together, Ginny doubted that it was going to be an easy task. If she attempted anything too obvious then he was immediately going to know she was up to something.
She frowned, dragging out a drawer and plucking at the pile of underwear inside.
Now that her shock at finding Malfoy had passed, she was starting to feel tired again. Her eyes drifted towards the bathroom door and she thought longingly of taking a nice hot shower like she normally would have done before heading to work. Malfoy was still firmly entrenched in there, however, and he certainly had not given an indication that he was even going to consider moving any time soon. The thought of going back and asking Malfoy how long he was planning on being was somewhat daunting - no doubt he would come up some witty biting reply that would leave her feeling like a fool again. He obviously did not care that it was her bathroom to begin with.
Abruptly, she realised that she had been left with another dilemma. There was nowhere that she could now change where she could guarantee that she would be safe from an unwanted intrusion by Malfoy. It was bad enough that he had seen her while she was asleep - while she was at her most vulnerable. The thought that she might end up exposing herself while she was getting change was mortifying.
Mildly angry at herself for getting embarrassed, Ginny straightened her bed and dumped her work clothes on top of the cover. She supposed that she had no option but to wait until Malfoy decided to emerge but that did not mean that she had to sit around and wait for him to do so. After all, she had to actually eat before leaving for work and if Malfoy ended up spending another hour in the bathroom then she would find herself pressed to find the time to do so even though she had woken up early.
Besides, there were other things that she was going to have to do - things that occurred to her while she had been tossing and turning in bed during the night. Since going to work was unavoidable, she had decided that before she left the flat then a little housekeeping was going to be necessary. It would, she thought, give her the opportunity to hide anything that she did not like the idea of Malfoy pawing - hopefully without arousing the man’s suspicion.
A smile flickered onto her lips. Perhaps Malfoy hogging the bathroom would turn out to be a good thing.
~ O ~
Head down, Ginny marched hastily towards her desk. It was still early, and out of the corner of her eye she could see that the office was still mostly empty. However, Ginny instinctively knew that Agnes was already seated at her desk. She could feel the woman’s beady little eyes watching her as she approached, making the fine hairs at the back of Ginny’s neck stand to attention. Silently, she told herself that there was no way that the woman could possibly scold her for missing work the other day. She had, after all, reported in sick and she knew that Hermione would confirm her story if asked to do so. Unfortunately, that did not stop the sinking feeling that had started to form in the pit of her stomach.
A quick glance in the other woman’s direction revealed that Agnes was indeed staring, rather stonily, at Ginny. Apparently she was either still harbouring a grudge from the previous day or Ginny had managed to do something else to irritate her in the few seconds that she had been in the room. Ginny fixed a small smile on her face and directed it towards Agnes who looked momentarily baffled by the younger woman’s cheerful expression. She quickly reacquired her serious face, however, and looked meaningfully towards Ginny’s desk.
“We’re not supposed to receive personal mail at work,” she said coolly, her face twisted into a scowl. “That includes gifts. We can let it slide this once but next time it could be another matter.”
Surprised, Ginny’s head darted around in the direction of her desk. Sure enough, to her surprise, she saw yet another spectacular bouquet of flowers sat in the middle of it. She let out a small exclamation of excitement and pleasure, and quickly covered the remaining distance. Dropping her bag onto the seat, she reached out and ran her fingers over the dusky pink petals of one of the roses, mildly disappointed when she felt the characteristic tingle that suggested someone had placed a charm on the bouquet to preserve it. Natural flowers, she thought, were nicer. An ever-last charm somehow took away some of the charm.
“When did they get here?” she asked as she noticed a card tucked between the stems.
“Some man brought them yesterday,” Agnes replied, her words tinged with what sounded distinctly like a hint of distaste to Ginny.
“It was Blaise Zabini!” a new voice piped up from further down the room. Ginny glanced down to where one of her fellow office workers, Alma, was sat. The other girl’s eyes were sparkling excitedly. “He was oh so very disappointed to find out that you weren’t here,” she continued, blissfully unaware of the glares that Agnes was shooting in her direction. “He wanted to find out where you lived so that he could give you the flowers personally.”
“Obviously,” Agnes interrupted, “we didn’t tell him. It would be inappropriate to tell a strange man where an employee lived.”
“In other words most of us wanted to tell him but Agnes wouldn’t let us do so,” Alma said brightly. “They’re really beautiful, aren’t they?” she added, nodding towards the flowers.
Ginny silently agreed while glancing down at the card in her hand. Written in Blaise’s elegant script was a playful little note that thanked her for a pleasant evening. Underneath, written in a different pen, was a hastily written addendum wishing her a quick recovery and voicing his regrets that he had missed her. Ginny felt a momentary twinge of guilt as she realised she had inadvertently managed to drag Blaise into the fib that she had told the previous day. She dismissed the feeling as she noticed that, at the very end, he had written that he would owl her before the week was out, and furthermore that he hoped she would allow him to take her out again. Ginny’s cheeks glowed at the sight of the words and she had to fight the urge to race off to find an owl to send him a reply immediately.
“What does he say?” Alma asked.
Ginny raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t look already?”
“Nope,” the woman replied, glancing meaningfully towards Agnes as she did so. The implication was clear - Agnes had not allowed anyone to spend too much time making a fuss over the flowers after Blaise had left. Ginny somehow doubted that she would have had much luck stopping the others from fussing over them while he had been present.
“Just because employees should not receive personal mail or gifts at work it does not give anyone else the right to open them,” Agnes said stiffly.
Ginny peered at her for a moment in something akin to surprise and then said, “Thank you.”
The woman sniffed and turned away. “Just make sure you catch up on the work you didn’t do yesterday. Some of us had to stay late yesterday because we had to take up the slack.”
With a sigh, Ginny slumped onto her seat. It had apparently been too much to hope that Agnes would choose to be understanding.
She turned her attention back to her desk, nearly groaning as she realised just hold much of the desk the flowers and the glass vase they came in took up. It was undoubtedly a larger bunch than the last that Blaise had given her, and although Ginny knew that she should be happy about the fact, she could not help but feel a little embarrassed by it. Such ostentatious, showy displays of affection - or at least attention - should not impress her. The problem was that they did though.
Reaching for the card, she carefully tugged it out of the envelope and let a smile drift onto her lips as she read over the message that Blaise had jotted down inside. The way that he had written that he was sorry that he had missed her, and that he wanted to see her again, was typically elegant and charming. The thought was enough to fix the smile on her face for the rest of the morning.
~ O ~
Using her fork, Ginny prodded at the suspicious looking green mass in front of her. The canteen staff had labelled it as a garden salad but Ginny had her doubts - she had yet to come across anything other than lettuce. In truth she counted herself lucky - at least she could tell what was on her plate. The concoction that Hermione had chosen for lunch was even more unrecognisable. She had obviously been feeling brave when making her purchase.
“I heard that you had a surprise this morning,” Hermione said, the corners of her mouth curling up in amusement.
Ginny’s eyes widened and she looked up sharply from plate. “You’ve spoken to him, haven’t you?” she said. Leaning forwards slightly, she added, “Listen, whatever he said, it wasn’t like that.”
Hermione’s eyebrows rose. “I’ve no idea what you’re talking about. It sounds interesting, though, so why don’t you tell me about it?”
“Oh. So you haven’t been speaking to him?”
“Who?”
Ginny frowned at the genuine confusion on her friend’s face and then slowly shook her head. “No one,” she said and looked down at her food again.
“Ginny…” Hermione prompted, terrier-like. “Come on, you can tell me.”
The redhead bit her lip, wondering whether there was any at all chance that Hermione was going to let the matter drop. Recognising the stubbornness in the other woman’s voice, however, she realised that there was very little chance of that. Sucking in a deep breath, she said, “Malfoy - and you don’t really need to know anymore.”
“I should have guessed,” Hermione laughed, earning herself a glare from Ginny in the process. “I should imagine that things at your place must be getting quite interesting by now.”
“Getting interesting?” Ginny queried dryly. “Oh, no. Firstly, I wouldn’t use the word ‘interesting’ when ‘irritating’ would be so much more appropriate; and secondly, it began the moment that he stepped through the door.” She frowned as she realised that Hermione was still watching her with amusement shining in her eyes. “What?”
“Nothing.”
“Don’t start being evasive. I came clean - now it’s your turn.”
Hermione appeared uncertain. She scooped up some of her lunch, and said, “Well it’s just that you’re… Well, you’re looking better than you have in a while.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Ginny asked.
“I think that having Malfoy stay for a while is going to be good for you,” she said after pausing. At the outraged expression that appeared on Ginny’s features, she rolled her eyes.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Ginny told her. “We’ll probably end up killing each other.”
Hermione smiled knowingly and then said, “On the subject of Malfoy, how was he this morning?”
Ginny narrowed her eyes slightly, wondering whether her first intuition that Hermione had been speaking to her houseguest had been nearer the mark than the brunette had claimed. There had been something in her voice that seemed to hint at prior knowledge. Ginny chose not to linger on the notion. Instead, her thoughts flickered back to Malfoy that morning, and the sight of him in her bathtub. An uneasy mixture of embarrassment and concern flooded through her, leaving her cheeks flushed and her thoughts stuttering.
“He seemed okay,” she said finally.
“You made sure that he took his morning meds?” Hermione asked.
Ginny nodded. “I didn’t exactly stand over him while he took them but, yes, he took them.”
“You need to make sure, Ginny,” Hermione said seriously. “Remember that he walked out of hospital. He’s sneaky. He could easily pocket them while you’re not looking and then get rid of them later.”
“I can’t make him take them if he doesn’t want to,” Ginny pointed out while feeling slightly defensive.
“You’ve got to be persuasive,” Hermione replied. “And check every day to make sure that he’s taken the correct dosage.”
“You’re going to tell me that you want me to force them down his throat in a moment.”
Hermione shook her eyes. “That won’t be necessary. I know you, Ginny. You can be very persuasive when you want to be, and I know that you’ll figure out a way. As bizarre as it seems, Malfoy has apparently decided that he’s going to trust you.” At Ginny’s derisive snort, Hermione added, “It’s true. I never thought I would see the day but it’s true. Then again I never thought I would end up treating him either so perhaps I shouldn’t be quite that surprised.”
Ginny shook her head, remembering the look on Malfoy’s before she had left for work that morning. He had barely looked at her when she had said goodbye, but had grunted a reply instead. She had been struck by how easily he seemed to have fitted himself into her home. It was odd. Sat on her couch, still in Bill’s spare pyjamas, he had looked entirely too relaxed and strangely content. There had been an expression on his face that had made her feel almost awkward.
“There isn’t anything that I can do while I’m at work,” she said. “I’m not running home constantly just to make sure that he’s doing as he was told to. Hell, for all I know, he could have taken off again.”
“He won’t have,” Hermione said knowingly.
Ginny pushed her plate away. “I wouldn’t be so sure. He seemed awfully concerned that no one would find out that he was staying at my place. He might have decided to take off to make sure that no one did.”
“He did?” Hermione asked, sounding honestly confused. “That’s… odd.”
“Is it?” Ginny asked, looking up and studying the other woman’s face closely. She searched her features to see whether there was any clue that Hermione might know more than she was admitting to. Ginny did not like the idea that Hermione might be less than truthful, but she remembered all too clearly the way that her brother and his two friends had kept things from her in the past - things that were far more serious than anything that Malfoy might have got up to. She knew that Hermione would never knowingly put her in danger but there were other types of secret that she might choose to keep from her.
Hermione gritted her teeth. “I suppose not, considering who he is. But I honestly did not know that he had done anything recently. Not anything that he might be worried about, anyway.”
“You keep a close track of your patients’ private lives, do you?” Ginny asked a little tartly.
“Of course not,” Hermione said. “But with Malfoy… Well, he’s something of a special case isn’t he?” she admitted.
“I wouldn’t let him hear you say that.” She paused, drawing in a deep breath before continuing, “So, what do you know about Malfoy’s private life?”
Hermione hesitated and then very deliberately looked away. “I don’t really know anything, and even if I did, I don’t think that I could talk about it,” she said.
“Why? Is it covered by doctor-patient confidentiality?”
Hermione’s face creased with discomfort. “Well… sort of. I just wouldn’t feel right talking about anything I did know - not that I really know anything, anyway.” She settled back in her seat, reaching for her cup of coffee while still avoiding Ginny’s eyes.
The redhead resisted the urge to sigh in frustration, finally giving up on her food and pushing aside her plate. Realising that Hermione had registered her reaction, she licked her lips and said slowly, “If you want then I can Floo him to find out whether he’s okay.”
Once again, Hermione hesitated before speaking, “No, don’t bother. It’s not necessary.”
A wry smile curled Ginny’s lips. “Good,” she said. “Because I don’t need the extra embarrassment.”
Hermione laughed. “Embarrassment?”
“Oh, he just loves jumping on anything nice I try to do for him. He’s always got some witty little sarcastic comment ready to use.”
Obviously still amused, Hermione said, “I refuse to believe you don’t give back as good as you get.”
“I’m not going to let him get away with any cheap cracks if that’s what you mean.”
“I knew you could handle him.”
Ginny snorted. Of course she could handle Malfoy - she had tackled a lot worse than him in her time. Aloud, she said, “Can we talk about something else? I’ve already had enough of Malfoy to last a life time and he’s only been staying with me a couple of nights.”
“Okay,” Hermione said, once again placing her knife and fork down on her now empty plate. She pushed it away and reached for her coffee cup instead. “How about you tell me about those flowers I saw on your desk?”
“They were a gift,” she said, her lips automatically twitching into a small smile that continued to grow as she thought about Blaise. As yet, she had not found the chance to send him an owl. In fact, she had been meaning to hijack one of the hospital owls to carry her reply after she finished her lunch with Hermione. It was one of the reasons that she had agreed to go to the canteen instead of straying further a field where the food would have been more identifiable.
“Obviously.”
Ginny pursed her lips. “I don’t want to talk about it too much just yet,” she said. “I don’t know… It’s been so wonderful so far and I don’t want to risk jinxing it.”
“It’s serious then?”
“Maybe... Hopefully.” She flushed a little, remembering the way that he had kissed her on their date. “I really like him, Hermione. He just seems like a really great guy. He’s smart and charming, and sexy as hell.”
“Does he know about Malfoy staying with you yet?”
“Give me chance!” Ginny exclaimed with a burst of shocked laughter.
“Well, I should imagine that he would have some really interesting questions if he just turned up one day and found out that you’re living with another man.”
“I’m not - not really.”
“Yes, you are. At least that’s the way some might see it.”
Ginny scrunched her nose up, hating the fact that Hermione was probably right. She was going to have to start making explanations sooner or later - if not to Blaise, then at least to her neighbours. They would certainly want to know why there was a strange young man living in the building. However, that would be easy compared to explaining to Blaise how she happened to be living his old friend.
“I’ll tell him when the time is right. He doesn’t need to know right away, anyway,” she said finally. She let a teasing expression slip onto her face. “What about you? How is your love life at the moment? You never really told me how things went with your mystery man.”
Hermione smiled and lifted her coffee cup. She sipped, and then looked up at Ginny with a pleased little glint in her eyes as she did so. “They’re wonderful,” she said, echoing her friend. “We’re taking things slowly - which is good, because I don’t want to rush into anything too serious at the moment. But I can definitely see that there’s some potential developing. He’s so… sweet.”
Ginny smiled softly, feeling a warm glow settle in her chest. She could not remember the last time that Hermione had looked so happy, or the last time that they had both been in a relationship at the same time. “We should all get together,” she said spontaneously.
“Like a double date?”
“Yeah,” she said, nodding. “We could just have dinner or something - or eat at mine. It could be fun.”
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” At Ginny’s blank look, Hermione prompted, “Malfoy.”
“Oh, yeah. See? He’s already getting in the way.”
Hermione rolled her eyes. “We can eat at mine.”
“Really?”
“Yes. It sounds like a good idea actually.”
Ginny clapped her hands together. “Great. Well, just let me know when the best time is, and I’ll get in touch with mine to make the arrangements.”
PART FIFTEEN: CHARITABLE ACTS
Author: humbuggirl
Pairing: Draco/Ginny
Rating: R (M) - eventually
Chapter Word Count: 5,062
Summary: “There was no snide quip though. No deliberately cutting comment. Ginny stared and then a second later the grey eyes rolled dramatically and turned away from her towards the tasteless curtains.” Post-war fic. Ginny was just plodding along, enduring her perfectly well-ordered normal life and dreaming that maybe something more interesting might come along. She just never thought that the ‘something’ might actually turn out to be a ‘someone’.
Spoilers: HBP
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
1: Paperwork
2: The Good Life
3: Cures and Conundrums
4: Escape, with Sandwiches
5: Night Owls
6: Bookworm
7: A Slytherin Sunday
8: Getting Better
9: History Class and French Lessons
10: Paint the Night with Colour
11: Sleep Softly
12: Blood and Lazy Bones
13: Case History
PART FOURTEEN: BUBBLES
Ginny’s first impression on waking up was that her neck was, once again, sore. She lay awkwardly, tightly twisted up in her bed sheets with her arms trapped by her sides. When she tried to move them, she discovered that she had to wriggle in order to work them loose. Only then was she able to reach up and rub the stiffness from the offending area of her anatomy.
The second thing that she became aware of was that there was the sound of water coming from her bathroom.
She sat up sharply in bed, her head spinning in the direction of the white bathroom door as she tried to clear the last lingering remnants of sleep away. Moving automatically, she reached for her wand, grabbing it from the bedside table. She clutched the thin rod of wood hard, continuing to listen carefully.
It was a struggle to think clearly, and she ended up frowning deeply whenever she tried to do so. Her mind simply had not been ready to wake up, and a glance towards her alarm clock proved that it was not even six o’clock yet, meaning that it was over an hour before she needed to get up in order to get ready for work. It took her a couple of seconds to think the matter through, but eventually Ginny realised that the reason she had woken was almost certainly because of the sounds coming from beyond the bathroom door. Even so, with that connection made, Ginny’s frown deepened, marring her features as she sleepily tried to remember whether she had gone out the night before and if there was a chance that she had ended up inviting someone back with her. The idea made her uncomfortable, but she had to admit that it might be possible - especially if she had managed to drink enough.
The more than she thought about it though, the more that Ginny realised she did not feel as if she had been drinking. Aside for the lingering sensation of sleepiness, her mind was clear and her mouth did not taste particularly sour. Holding onto those small discoveries, she sat for a moment longer and forced her mind to concentrate on the matter.
She was rewarded a second later when - rather abruptly - the memory of spending half the night lying awake in bed while pondering something came to her. Although, right at that moment, what that something might be was she could not immediately recall. What she did remember was that she had been desperate to go to sleep, and that she had spent half the night tossing and turning, sprawling across her bed and fighting with her bed sheets. Relief flickered through Ginny until she realised that she had yet to explain why there seemed to be water running in her bathroom. The knowledge that she had not gone out and dragged a man back with her almost made it worse, actually.
She shuffled to the edge of the bed, still keeping a firm grip on her wand. During the war, it had almost been considered a crime for a witch or wizard to sleep without their wand near by in case they were attacked. After all, the Death Eaters were not likely to sit around and wait while their enemy rubbed the sleep out of their eyes and armed themselves. Keeping her wand nearby was a habit that Ginny had never grown out of, and what was more she still had a tendency to instinctively reach for it whenever she was awoken unexpectedly.
The thought that someone would break into her apartment in order to use her bathroom seemed a little farfetched even to Ginny’s confused mind, but right at that moment she was not thinking clearly enough to register the fact. Instead, she acted on instinct by standing and creeping closer to the door in order to position her ear against the surface.
The sound of splashing filtered through the wood, confusing Ginny further. She frowned and then gave a small mental shrug as she decided to act sooner rather than later. Reaching for the door handle, she sucked in a deep breath before quickly opening it and stepping through, her wand at the ready.
The bathroom was ridiculously warm. Steam from the bathtub clouded the air, surprising Ginny momentarily before she managed to focus on the scene before her. Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open as she realised what she was looking at. Slamming her mouth shut, she swiftly turned away as a blush washed across her cheeks.
“What are you doing?” she exclaimed in shock.
There was a splash from the tub, and then Malfoy replied, “I’m taking a bath - or rather I was before you decided to burst into the room.”
Ginny blinked and belatedly noticed that, when she had turned around, she had inadvertently ended up looking right into the large mirror above the sink. It seemed to frame the image of Malfoy sitting in her small tub, the upper half of his body exposed above a thick layer of bubbles. Ginny tore her eyes away and then promptly had to fight the urge to turn them back again as her curious nature once more raised its head. Malfoy was naked in there and, while she told herself firmly that she did not exactly want to see him in such a state, there was a sort of morbid curiosity taking hold of her that made her want to look.
She gritted her teeth, determined not to give in to the urge to gawp at him. Instead, she demanded, “Is that my bath foam?”
“Well it’s not exactly going to be mine, is it?” he replied somewhat sarcastically. There was a pause, during which Ginny found that she could not think of anything to say, and then he added, “Was there a reason that you decided to come barging in here, or were you just trying to get an eyeful?”
“I was not trying to get an eyeful!” she protested, shooting him a glare through the mirror.
Malfoy met her eyes and raised a questioning eyebrow. “Then what were you doing exactly?”
“I… I… You woke me up,” she stumbled, feeling flustered. It was ridiculous really, if anyone should have been feeling embarrassed then it should have been Malfoy. After all, he was the one sat naked in the bathtub. At least she had clothes on.
“I could hardly sleep with you splashing around in here,” she continued.
“You seemed to be pretty soundly asleep when I cut through the room on the way here,” he observed, still holding her gaze.
Shaking off any and all thoughts that involved Malfoy being in her bedroom while she slept - of him possibly even watching her while she slept - Ginny scowled at him and said, “Which is the perfect example of how loud you must have been in here.”
Malfoy sighed and leaned back against the side of the tub, exposing more of his torso in the process. Ginny suddenly found herself extremely thankful for the bubbles, since she had the sneaking suspicion that if they had not been there then she would have been treated to an eyeful of him whether she wanted it or not.
“Which still doesn’t explain why you decided to come bursting through the door,” Malfoy pointed out. “I seriously doubt this is how you usually treat your guests.”
Ginny sucked in a deep breath. “I forgot that you were here, okay? I was half asleep and I thought that someone had broken into the flat.”
The look on Malfoy’s face suggested that he far from believed her. Ginny could not blame him. Not really. Now that she had said it aloud, it did sound rather foolish. The realisation made her shake herself, and she quickly turned towards the bathroom door in an attempt to exit the room.
“Leaving so soon?” Malfoy called from the tub. “Aren’t you going to offer to wash my back?”
Ginny grunted an unintelligible reply in his direction and slammed the bathroom door as she left. Even with the sound of the resulting bang it made, she could still hear a chuckle erupt from between Malfoy’s lips.
Stomping around the room, dragging out clothes as she did so, Ginny considered her disastrous start to the day and realised that it was quite possible that it was all her fault. After all, she was the one who had lay there half the night wondering whether she had done the right thing by inviting him to stay with her. If she had not done that then she would have slept well and she would never have made the mistake of walking in on Malfoy. Of course, her lack of sleep was actually because of him so ultimately, she supposed, it was actually all Malfoy’s fault.
Everything lately seemed to be his fault.
It was during her late night and early morning contemplations that Ginny had come to the conclusion that she had to think of a way to keep him at her flat. Until she figured out precisely what was going on with him, she knew that she would never get a moment’s peace. Even if she was not being driven on by curiosity then she knew that Hermione would never let the issue rest. Of course now she was faced with the problem of how to do that without setting off any alarms in Malfoy’s head. Since she had seen nothing to indicate that Malfoy’s innate intelligence was in the least diminished by his illness, or by the years that had passed since they had last been at school together, Ginny doubted that it was going to be an easy task. If she attempted anything too obvious then he was immediately going to know she was up to something.
She frowned, dragging out a drawer and plucking at the pile of underwear inside.
Now that her shock at finding Malfoy had passed, she was starting to feel tired again. Her eyes drifted towards the bathroom door and she thought longingly of taking a nice hot shower like she normally would have done before heading to work. Malfoy was still firmly entrenched in there, however, and he certainly had not given an indication that he was even going to consider moving any time soon. The thought of going back and asking Malfoy how long he was planning on being was somewhat daunting - no doubt he would come up some witty biting reply that would leave her feeling like a fool again. He obviously did not care that it was her bathroom to begin with.
Abruptly, she realised that she had been left with another dilemma. There was nowhere that she could now change where she could guarantee that she would be safe from an unwanted intrusion by Malfoy. It was bad enough that he had seen her while she was asleep - while she was at her most vulnerable. The thought that she might end up exposing herself while she was getting change was mortifying.
Mildly angry at herself for getting embarrassed, Ginny straightened her bed and dumped her work clothes on top of the cover. She supposed that she had no option but to wait until Malfoy decided to emerge but that did not mean that she had to sit around and wait for him to do so. After all, she had to actually eat before leaving for work and if Malfoy ended up spending another hour in the bathroom then she would find herself pressed to find the time to do so even though she had woken up early.
Besides, there were other things that she was going to have to do - things that occurred to her while she had been tossing and turning in bed during the night. Since going to work was unavoidable, she had decided that before she left the flat then a little housekeeping was going to be necessary. It would, she thought, give her the opportunity to hide anything that she did not like the idea of Malfoy pawing - hopefully without arousing the man’s suspicion.
A smile flickered onto her lips. Perhaps Malfoy hogging the bathroom would turn out to be a good thing.
~ O ~
Head down, Ginny marched hastily towards her desk. It was still early, and out of the corner of her eye she could see that the office was still mostly empty. However, Ginny instinctively knew that Agnes was already seated at her desk. She could feel the woman’s beady little eyes watching her as she approached, making the fine hairs at the back of Ginny’s neck stand to attention. Silently, she told herself that there was no way that the woman could possibly scold her for missing work the other day. She had, after all, reported in sick and she knew that Hermione would confirm her story if asked to do so. Unfortunately, that did not stop the sinking feeling that had started to form in the pit of her stomach.
A quick glance in the other woman’s direction revealed that Agnes was indeed staring, rather stonily, at Ginny. Apparently she was either still harbouring a grudge from the previous day or Ginny had managed to do something else to irritate her in the few seconds that she had been in the room. Ginny fixed a small smile on her face and directed it towards Agnes who looked momentarily baffled by the younger woman’s cheerful expression. She quickly reacquired her serious face, however, and looked meaningfully towards Ginny’s desk.
“We’re not supposed to receive personal mail at work,” she said coolly, her face twisted into a scowl. “That includes gifts. We can let it slide this once but next time it could be another matter.”
Surprised, Ginny’s head darted around in the direction of her desk. Sure enough, to her surprise, she saw yet another spectacular bouquet of flowers sat in the middle of it. She let out a small exclamation of excitement and pleasure, and quickly covered the remaining distance. Dropping her bag onto the seat, she reached out and ran her fingers over the dusky pink petals of one of the roses, mildly disappointed when she felt the characteristic tingle that suggested someone had placed a charm on the bouquet to preserve it. Natural flowers, she thought, were nicer. An ever-last charm somehow took away some of the charm.
“When did they get here?” she asked as she noticed a card tucked between the stems.
“Some man brought them yesterday,” Agnes replied, her words tinged with what sounded distinctly like a hint of distaste to Ginny.
“It was Blaise Zabini!” a new voice piped up from further down the room. Ginny glanced down to where one of her fellow office workers, Alma, was sat. The other girl’s eyes were sparkling excitedly. “He was oh so very disappointed to find out that you weren’t here,” she continued, blissfully unaware of the glares that Agnes was shooting in her direction. “He wanted to find out where you lived so that he could give you the flowers personally.”
“Obviously,” Agnes interrupted, “we didn’t tell him. It would be inappropriate to tell a strange man where an employee lived.”
“In other words most of us wanted to tell him but Agnes wouldn’t let us do so,” Alma said brightly. “They’re really beautiful, aren’t they?” she added, nodding towards the flowers.
Ginny silently agreed while glancing down at the card in her hand. Written in Blaise’s elegant script was a playful little note that thanked her for a pleasant evening. Underneath, written in a different pen, was a hastily written addendum wishing her a quick recovery and voicing his regrets that he had missed her. Ginny felt a momentary twinge of guilt as she realised she had inadvertently managed to drag Blaise into the fib that she had told the previous day. She dismissed the feeling as she noticed that, at the very end, he had written that he would owl her before the week was out, and furthermore that he hoped she would allow him to take her out again. Ginny’s cheeks glowed at the sight of the words and she had to fight the urge to race off to find an owl to send him a reply immediately.
“What does he say?” Alma asked.
Ginny raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t look already?”
“Nope,” the woman replied, glancing meaningfully towards Agnes as she did so. The implication was clear - Agnes had not allowed anyone to spend too much time making a fuss over the flowers after Blaise had left. Ginny somehow doubted that she would have had much luck stopping the others from fussing over them while he had been present.
“Just because employees should not receive personal mail or gifts at work it does not give anyone else the right to open them,” Agnes said stiffly.
Ginny peered at her for a moment in something akin to surprise and then said, “Thank you.”
The woman sniffed and turned away. “Just make sure you catch up on the work you didn’t do yesterday. Some of us had to stay late yesterday because we had to take up the slack.”
With a sigh, Ginny slumped onto her seat. It had apparently been too much to hope that Agnes would choose to be understanding.
She turned her attention back to her desk, nearly groaning as she realised just hold much of the desk the flowers and the glass vase they came in took up. It was undoubtedly a larger bunch than the last that Blaise had given her, and although Ginny knew that she should be happy about the fact, she could not help but feel a little embarrassed by it. Such ostentatious, showy displays of affection - or at least attention - should not impress her. The problem was that they did though.
Reaching for the card, she carefully tugged it out of the envelope and let a smile drift onto her lips as she read over the message that Blaise had jotted down inside. The way that he had written that he was sorry that he had missed her, and that he wanted to see her again, was typically elegant and charming. The thought was enough to fix the smile on her face for the rest of the morning.
~ O ~
Using her fork, Ginny prodded at the suspicious looking green mass in front of her. The canteen staff had labelled it as a garden salad but Ginny had her doubts - she had yet to come across anything other than lettuce. In truth she counted herself lucky - at least she could tell what was on her plate. The concoction that Hermione had chosen for lunch was even more unrecognisable. She had obviously been feeling brave when making her purchase.
“I heard that you had a surprise this morning,” Hermione said, the corners of her mouth curling up in amusement.
Ginny’s eyes widened and she looked up sharply from plate. “You’ve spoken to him, haven’t you?” she said. Leaning forwards slightly, she added, “Listen, whatever he said, it wasn’t like that.”
Hermione’s eyebrows rose. “I’ve no idea what you’re talking about. It sounds interesting, though, so why don’t you tell me about it?”
“Oh. So you haven’t been speaking to him?”
“Who?”
Ginny frowned at the genuine confusion on her friend’s face and then slowly shook her head. “No one,” she said and looked down at her food again.
“Ginny…” Hermione prompted, terrier-like. “Come on, you can tell me.”
The redhead bit her lip, wondering whether there was any at all chance that Hermione was going to let the matter drop. Recognising the stubbornness in the other woman’s voice, however, she realised that there was very little chance of that. Sucking in a deep breath, she said, “Malfoy - and you don’t really need to know anymore.”
“I should have guessed,” Hermione laughed, earning herself a glare from Ginny in the process. “I should imagine that things at your place must be getting quite interesting by now.”
“Getting interesting?” Ginny queried dryly. “Oh, no. Firstly, I wouldn’t use the word ‘interesting’ when ‘irritating’ would be so much more appropriate; and secondly, it began the moment that he stepped through the door.” She frowned as she realised that Hermione was still watching her with amusement shining in her eyes. “What?”
“Nothing.”
“Don’t start being evasive. I came clean - now it’s your turn.”
Hermione appeared uncertain. She scooped up some of her lunch, and said, “Well it’s just that you’re… Well, you’re looking better than you have in a while.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Ginny asked.
“I think that having Malfoy stay for a while is going to be good for you,” she said after pausing. At the outraged expression that appeared on Ginny’s features, she rolled her eyes.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Ginny told her. “We’ll probably end up killing each other.”
Hermione smiled knowingly and then said, “On the subject of Malfoy, how was he this morning?”
Ginny narrowed her eyes slightly, wondering whether her first intuition that Hermione had been speaking to her houseguest had been nearer the mark than the brunette had claimed. There had been something in her voice that seemed to hint at prior knowledge. Ginny chose not to linger on the notion. Instead, her thoughts flickered back to Malfoy that morning, and the sight of him in her bathtub. An uneasy mixture of embarrassment and concern flooded through her, leaving her cheeks flushed and her thoughts stuttering.
“He seemed okay,” she said finally.
“You made sure that he took his morning meds?” Hermione asked.
Ginny nodded. “I didn’t exactly stand over him while he took them but, yes, he took them.”
“You need to make sure, Ginny,” Hermione said seriously. “Remember that he walked out of hospital. He’s sneaky. He could easily pocket them while you’re not looking and then get rid of them later.”
“I can’t make him take them if he doesn’t want to,” Ginny pointed out while feeling slightly defensive.
“You’ve got to be persuasive,” Hermione replied. “And check every day to make sure that he’s taken the correct dosage.”
“You’re going to tell me that you want me to force them down his throat in a moment.”
Hermione shook her eyes. “That won’t be necessary. I know you, Ginny. You can be very persuasive when you want to be, and I know that you’ll figure out a way. As bizarre as it seems, Malfoy has apparently decided that he’s going to trust you.” At Ginny’s derisive snort, Hermione added, “It’s true. I never thought I would see the day but it’s true. Then again I never thought I would end up treating him either so perhaps I shouldn’t be quite that surprised.”
Ginny shook her head, remembering the look on Malfoy’s before she had left for work that morning. He had barely looked at her when she had said goodbye, but had grunted a reply instead. She had been struck by how easily he seemed to have fitted himself into her home. It was odd. Sat on her couch, still in Bill’s spare pyjamas, he had looked entirely too relaxed and strangely content. There had been an expression on his face that had made her feel almost awkward.
“There isn’t anything that I can do while I’m at work,” she said. “I’m not running home constantly just to make sure that he’s doing as he was told to. Hell, for all I know, he could have taken off again.”
“He won’t have,” Hermione said knowingly.
Ginny pushed her plate away. “I wouldn’t be so sure. He seemed awfully concerned that no one would find out that he was staying at my place. He might have decided to take off to make sure that no one did.”
“He did?” Hermione asked, sounding honestly confused. “That’s… odd.”
“Is it?” Ginny asked, looking up and studying the other woman’s face closely. She searched her features to see whether there was any clue that Hermione might know more than she was admitting to. Ginny did not like the idea that Hermione might be less than truthful, but she remembered all too clearly the way that her brother and his two friends had kept things from her in the past - things that were far more serious than anything that Malfoy might have got up to. She knew that Hermione would never knowingly put her in danger but there were other types of secret that she might choose to keep from her.
Hermione gritted her teeth. “I suppose not, considering who he is. But I honestly did not know that he had done anything recently. Not anything that he might be worried about, anyway.”
“You keep a close track of your patients’ private lives, do you?” Ginny asked a little tartly.
“Of course not,” Hermione said. “But with Malfoy… Well, he’s something of a special case isn’t he?” she admitted.
“I wouldn’t let him hear you say that.” She paused, drawing in a deep breath before continuing, “So, what do you know about Malfoy’s private life?”
Hermione hesitated and then very deliberately looked away. “I don’t really know anything, and even if I did, I don’t think that I could talk about it,” she said.
“Why? Is it covered by doctor-patient confidentiality?”
Hermione’s face creased with discomfort. “Well… sort of. I just wouldn’t feel right talking about anything I did know - not that I really know anything, anyway.” She settled back in her seat, reaching for her cup of coffee while still avoiding Ginny’s eyes.
The redhead resisted the urge to sigh in frustration, finally giving up on her food and pushing aside her plate. Realising that Hermione had registered her reaction, she licked her lips and said slowly, “If you want then I can Floo him to find out whether he’s okay.”
Once again, Hermione hesitated before speaking, “No, don’t bother. It’s not necessary.”
A wry smile curled Ginny’s lips. “Good,” she said. “Because I don’t need the extra embarrassment.”
Hermione laughed. “Embarrassment?”
“Oh, he just loves jumping on anything nice I try to do for him. He’s always got some witty little sarcastic comment ready to use.”
Obviously still amused, Hermione said, “I refuse to believe you don’t give back as good as you get.”
“I’m not going to let him get away with any cheap cracks if that’s what you mean.”
“I knew you could handle him.”
Ginny snorted. Of course she could handle Malfoy - she had tackled a lot worse than him in her time. Aloud, she said, “Can we talk about something else? I’ve already had enough of Malfoy to last a life time and he’s only been staying with me a couple of nights.”
“Okay,” Hermione said, once again placing her knife and fork down on her now empty plate. She pushed it away and reached for her coffee cup instead. “How about you tell me about those flowers I saw on your desk?”
“They were a gift,” she said, her lips automatically twitching into a small smile that continued to grow as she thought about Blaise. As yet, she had not found the chance to send him an owl. In fact, she had been meaning to hijack one of the hospital owls to carry her reply after she finished her lunch with Hermione. It was one of the reasons that she had agreed to go to the canteen instead of straying further a field where the food would have been more identifiable.
“Obviously.”
Ginny pursed her lips. “I don’t want to talk about it too much just yet,” she said. “I don’t know… It’s been so wonderful so far and I don’t want to risk jinxing it.”
“It’s serious then?”
“Maybe... Hopefully.” She flushed a little, remembering the way that he had kissed her on their date. “I really like him, Hermione. He just seems like a really great guy. He’s smart and charming, and sexy as hell.”
“Does he know about Malfoy staying with you yet?”
“Give me chance!” Ginny exclaimed with a burst of shocked laughter.
“Well, I should imagine that he would have some really interesting questions if he just turned up one day and found out that you’re living with another man.”
“I’m not - not really.”
“Yes, you are. At least that’s the way some might see it.”
Ginny scrunched her nose up, hating the fact that Hermione was probably right. She was going to have to start making explanations sooner or later - if not to Blaise, then at least to her neighbours. They would certainly want to know why there was a strange young man living in the building. However, that would be easy compared to explaining to Blaise how she happened to be living his old friend.
“I’ll tell him when the time is right. He doesn’t need to know right away, anyway,” she said finally. She let a teasing expression slip onto her face. “What about you? How is your love life at the moment? You never really told me how things went with your mystery man.”
Hermione smiled and lifted her coffee cup. She sipped, and then looked up at Ginny with a pleased little glint in her eyes as she did so. “They’re wonderful,” she said, echoing her friend. “We’re taking things slowly - which is good, because I don’t want to rush into anything too serious at the moment. But I can definitely see that there’s some potential developing. He’s so… sweet.”
Ginny smiled softly, feeling a warm glow settle in her chest. She could not remember the last time that Hermione had looked so happy, or the last time that they had both been in a relationship at the same time. “We should all get together,” she said spontaneously.
“Like a double date?”
“Yeah,” she said, nodding. “We could just have dinner or something - or eat at mine. It could be fun.”
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” At Ginny’s blank look, Hermione prompted, “Malfoy.”
“Oh, yeah. See? He’s already getting in the way.”
Hermione rolled her eyes. “We can eat at mine.”
“Really?”
“Yes. It sounds like a good idea actually.”
Ginny clapped her hands together. “Great. Well, just let me know when the best time is, and I’ll get in touch with mine to make the arrangements.”
PART FIFTEEN: CHARITABLE ACTS