Tolerance (HP, Lucius + Ginny Gen, PG)
Tolerance
Lucius + Ginny Gen. PG. 1217 words.
Beta read by jenius08
Written for harmonylibrary's Seven Challenge.
The war was over and yet so many pieces needed to still be picked up and fixed, and not all of them were objects either. All of Lord Voldemort's followers had to be dealt with in the appropriate manner.
Hence, the minister of magic came up with, at least in his opinion, the idea of dealing with Voldemort’s follows in a unique manner: by making Order of Phoenix members take in a follower of Voldemort’s. Honestly, he might as well call it ‘adopt a death eater’ program.
The minister had assured everyone that the pairings would be random and be drawn from a hat, a muggle hat at that. Her father had come extra early so he could inspect the hat, and the minister had let him since he was slightly bemused at Mr. Weasley behaviour. It was just Ginny’s rotten luck that she ended up having to take in Lucius Malfoy into her home.
Her father, of course, had objected at the idea, but the minister managed to calm him down, saying that the results were random and it wouldn’t be fair to pull out another name just because he didn’t like what name was drawn.
Once her father realized that this was one fight he couldn’t win he buckled down and let the ceremony proceed. However, he did make Ginny promise him that if even the slightest problem arose with Lucius Malfoy that she would contact him immediately.
Ginny thought personally that he was overreacting a bit. Honestly, how much trouble could one death eater cause?
-*-*-*-*-
For the first ten minutes within arriving at her flat, Mr. Malfoy looked around her home almost as if he was inspecting it. He probably was after all; he was going to be spending the next week within her small home.
“Is everything to your approval, Mr. Malfoy?” Ginny asked with a sarcastic bite in her voice.
Lucius Malfoy glanced at her, almost sizing her up, like he did that one time in Flourish and Blotts; seeing if she was worth his time and energy. “I supposed it will make do for a week.”
He made it seem like it was all part of a heavy burden that he had to carry. Ginny resisted the urge to roll her eyes and thought that some men just needed someone to knock some sense into their big, fat, heads.
-*-*-*-*-
Hermione came to visit her Monday afternoon, "for some good tea", as the older woman had always put it. It seemed that Harry was just bollocks at making tea, or anything related to it really.
Lucius seemed not to notice her at all; too busy, it seemed, inspecting all of Ginny’s knick-knacks. Ginny didn’t really care along as he didn’t break anything, because she would have to get the item replaced and beat the man up as well. She really didn’t want to explain to the Minister of Magic why she was beating up her adoptee.
“So how is your adoptee doing, anyway?” Hermione asked curiously.
Ginny shrugged. “As well as it could possibly go, I suppose. Who do you and Harry have?”
“We got Jukes,” Hermione supplied.
Ginny nodded and was about to add something except her adoptee had beaten her to it. “You left him alone with your darling husband.”
Both women turned and looked at Lucius. “I don’t see why not. After all, they're both adults. I’m sure they can play nice with each other.”
“Why does it matter, Mr. Malfoy?” Ginny asked, clearly not impressed.
Lucius bared Ginny a single glance. “Well, my wife would never leave us alone in the same room.”
Hermione blinked. “Well why not?”
Lucius smirked. “Because she knew how Jukes’ taste in partners went.”
Hermione blanched. “Although I do recall that he always did like his men with dark hair.”
Hermione stood up, thanked Ginny for the lovely tea, and left in quite a hurry. Obviously she wanted to get back home before anything involving her husband and their adoptee happened.
Ginny blinked and then turned around so she could glare at Lucius properly. “Jukes is straight as a post, it's Stevens that’s gay.”
Lucius just gave a little smirk. “Of course it’s Stevens but the question is does your little friend know that?”
“She’ll probably figure it out when she halfway home,” Ginny pointed out.
“Doesn’t matter as long as I don’t have to hear your girlish chatter for a couple of hours,” Lucius said before stalking off.
Ginny’s fingers curled into a fist while she tried to control the urge to kill her adoptee.
-*-*-*-*-
Tuesday and Wednesday both came and went without much fuss, simply because Ginny got called to the Ministry; of course Mr. Malfoy went with her because she surely was not going to leave him at her house alone. He would probably destroy something that her old aunt June gave to her as an heirloom.
Ginny planned on keeping all the heirlooms she had in one piece, along with her knickknacks as well.
Her desk at her office in the Ministry would have to be replaced. She was almost certain that Mr. Malfoy was the cause of it. All she needed was some good, solid, proof.
-*-*-*-*-
Thursday and Friday Ginny did not want to remember either, actually. She had spent the day at home with Mr. Malfoy watching her clean and organize her house. Ginny didn’t bother asking him if he would like to help, as she really doubted that the man had picked up anything in his entire life.
Her cleaning spree had continued on Friday since she had a few visitors on Thursday and it was rude to clean when they were around.
The minister made a surprise visit to check on Ginny’s adoptee that was at that moment lying on the couch. The minister of magic also mentioned where to drop off Mr. Malfoy at around seven.
Ginny just nodded; she was all too happy to get rid of him.
“Well that’s pretty much everything, I mostly wanted to make sure no one had kill each other off,” The minister said, trying to hide his nervousness by laughing.
Ginny just smiled sweetly and waved the Minister off.
Once he was gone, Ginny muttered under her breath, “If only.”
-*-*-*-*-
The travel to the Ministry went off without a hitch, except for the part where Mr. Malfoy decided that it was question time.
“You don’t seem very fond of me?”
Ginny just stared at him. “I’m sure there are plenty people out there that feel the same way I do.”
“It’s almost like you hold a grudge against me, but I can’t imagine what it is.”
Ginny stop walking and whirled around so she could glare at him. “In my first year you slipped me a diary.”
What ticked off Ginny even more was that the man actually stood there like he was trying to remember the incident, which Ginny had embedded in her mind.
“Really now, you would think not to hold grudges, that was years ago.”
Ginny felt like she couldn’t walk to Ministry fast enough to get rid of him. The man was so insufferable and she couldn’t wait to get him out of her life and if she lost him along the way?
It was hardly her fault.