A Study of the Mind

A Study of the Mind- Chapter 3- Be Mindful of Your Obligations

10 January 2004

Thank the gods for Alise Martin. That girl is bloody brilliant. If it weren't for her, I'd be beating the living shite out of my most valuable patient right about now. I know it's wrong to be thinking about that, but he was just grating on my last nerve. You see, after Draco started refusing to answer my questions, my patience started to wear thin. I mean it wasn't like they were extraordinarily hard questions to answer; they were quite the opposite, in fact. Our session was nearing its end, and I had just about had enough of Malfoy's childish insolence. It was at that point that I saw Alise walking by, her latest session with her patient was over.

I didn't see her right away, only after clutching onto my armchair for dear life did I see her out of the corner of my eye. She whispered something to the guard on duty, who silently nodded and proceeded to open my cell. She rushed in like a hell-bent banshee, screaming my name at the top of her lungs as I lunged for Draco.

Now before I continue with how Alise apprehended me, I must describe Draco's look. Upon reflection (meaning as I write this), I've come to realise how humorous it was. You see when I went to lunge, he was sitting near the edge of his bed with one of his trademark smirks. By that time, a year's worth (actually it's more like 13 years' worth now that I think about it) of annoyance had built up inside me, and his last comment was the straw that broke the camel's back. I tried to control myself, but obviously having a death grip on the chair and counting to ten didn't help much. I lunged towards him, watching him squeal in horror, his eyes going as wide as dinner plates, as he tried to crawl backwards on his bed. As to his look, well, it was a bit like a cross between a deer caught in the headlights and someone who just smelled something rather nasty. Seeing that look on Malfoy made up for Alise scolding me. It was so unlike him. Now that I've thoroughly discussed Malfoy's reaction, I shall commence with Alise's reaction.

Like I was saying before I was side-tracked, Alise ran in screaming my name at the top of her lungs, making me stop about 5 inches away from Draco. I turned my head to give Alise one of my fiercest glares; I was pissed off at her audacity, no matter how thankful I am for it now. My glare didn't do anything to deter her goal. She marched over to where I was standing and muttered a quick apology to Draco before grabbing my ear and dragging me out of his cell, snatching up my briefcase in the process. She let go of me as soon as we were out of the cell, remaining silent as we made our way to my office. As I shut the door to the office behind me, she began her rant.

"Ginevra Molly Weasley!" I thought I was the only one who sounded eerily like my mother when yelling! Alise must have a mother like mine, I presume. "Do you have any idea what you could have done?!"

"Alise, I-"

"No, Ginny! Narcissa Malfoy would have drawn and quartered you and then fired you if you had beaten the living shit out of her son! Your reputation would be ruined, and you'd be a bum on the streets of London if I hadn't stopped you. Gin, I know that you have a bit of a temper, but you must learn how to show at least a modicum of self-control."

She stopped here, taking a few deep breaths in the process. I wanted to make some snarky Malfoy-esque comment, but that would only piss her off even more, and a pissed off Alise was not an Alise that I wanted to deal with at the time.

In case you're wondering, and I know you are, Alise is not at all British; she's American. She's also my best friend and was my roommate during college. She's Asian as well (although she doesn't have one of your typical Asian names, but that's what I like about her!), with jet black hair and bright hazel eyes. She's only a few inches shorter than me, but being the same height as my mother can have its advantages when you've angered her. She has a fashion sense that I envy, but she's teaching me in her fashionable ways. I told her once when we first met that I thought she should be a clothing designer, but she only smiled one of her smiles and said that psychology called her instead. Alise Martin is one of those people you can't help but love, even if she does publicly humiliate me from time to time (she claims it's for my own good, but I've gotten payback already, trust me). We found it strangely convenient that we both work at the same place now. Great! I got side-tracked again! I had to give you a proper description of Alise though! I must stop this and remain focused on what I was writing before. Ah, yes. Now I remember.

As I was saying, Alise and I stood in a somewhat awkward silence as she calmed down and as I tried to figure out what to say. We were silent for about five minutes when I opened my mouth.

"Are you done yet?" There I go again with my Malfoy influenced snarky comments.

"Yes ma'am. But I'm serious, Ginny, you need to get over whatever animosity is going on between you and Draco. Or at least subdue it."

"I would if it weren't for my history with said git of a patient."

"But Gin-" I cut off Alise before she could finish. I know kind of rude, but I wasn't thinking all too clearly at the time.

"Nope. Let's forget all about it for now. How was your session with Bella?"

"It could have gone better," Alise said as she sat in one of my visitor chairs.

"Speaking in nonsense again?" I asked, leaning against my desk.

"Yeah. She does have her moments of sanity every now and again, but I only see her about once or twice every two months. She mentions Draco you know."

"I'm sure she does. He mentions Bellatrix too. She was always his favourite aunt since Andromeda was disowned, and he barely knew his father's sister, Sophia. She doted on him when she wasn't off nearly getting herself killed. She was like a second mother to him, and although she was against it, agreed to perform the Bonding spell for the Unbreakable Vow for his mother and Snape."

"Gotcha. So you want to go out for lunch?"

"Yeah, I'm starved."

I know, I know. We ended that rather quickly, but we have this little policy between us. It's a silent policy, but a policy all the same. It basically states that we won't talk about our patients unless necessary. I know that I asked Alise about her session with Bella, and mind you I shouldn't have, but I was running out of things to say.

Just to let you know, I'm going to skip the pre-lunch small talk and cut straight to our lunch to make life easier for me, and because it holds more significance.

Anyways, we get to this café about three blocks away from St. Mungo's (as I'm sure you know hospital food, both Muggle and wizard, is rather gross). As the waitress took our drink order, I pulled out my planner from my briefcase (it has relevance or else I would not be writing about it! Sheesh!) and took a glance at it before deciding on my meal. My posture dropped about three inches as I read the proclamation for the day.

"Christ," I mutter, as it was something that I did not like.

"What's wrong this time Gin?"

"Alise, you do know what day this is, right?"

"Yeah, Ginny. It's the tenth of Jan...u...ar...oh shit."

"Yep," was my rather dull reply. I forgot to mention that it's something that Alise and I are almost obligated to do.

"That means that..."

"Yep."

"Do we have to?"

"Yep."

"Could you stop saying 'yep'!? I'll end up alongside Bellatrix if you keep that up!"

"Sorry," I grinned out rather sheepishly.

"Did you already write your letter?"

"No. I completely forgot until I saw it on my calendar. Draco didn't even mention it."

"Well you know Draco's not exactly the rational one right now, is he?" Alise hissed.

"Calm down, Alise, we'll just send out Narcissa's birthday letters when we get back to the office. You know that we never write out anything extravagant on any of our cards or letters; just enough to let her know how Draco or Bella are doing and wish her a happy birthday. It's a slight bore, but it's the least we could do for the woman who has us financially set for life."

Alise mulled over this for a few seconds before replying with "True."

"For now, let's just enjoy our nice, hospital food-free lunch. Ok?"

"Sure, why not."

Also for your information, I'm skipping past the eating of our meals since it holds no relevance to this entry whatsoever. I'm going to jump ahead to when we get back.

We arrived back at the hospital about an hour and a half later. We parted ways, walking back to our separate offices alone. I unlocked the door and found a letter placed among the clutter. Now why would I notice one singular letter among my mounds of paperwork? Well the envelope was green and lemme tell you, it's not everyday that one gets a green encased letter. I walked over to my desk, placing my briefcase in one of the chairs, reaching out to grab the letter with my left hand.

I turned over the envelope, trying to figure out who it was from. It was obviously from someone important; the paper seemed heavier and more luxurious. I tore open the flap and pulled out the equally heavy and luxurious white paper from within. I scanned over the paper and realized it was an invitation.

At the time I was thinking 'Who the hell do I know that can afford this?' Then it hit me as I looked at the invitation; I swear I need to be more observant. Anywho, the invitation went something like this:

Miss Ginevra Weasley,

You are cordially invited to join us at Malfoy Manor for Narcissa Malfoy's 42^nd birthday party.

Please be at the Manor by 8 o' clock on Saturday, 15 January 2004.

There will be dinner followed by a gala reception in the ballroom. The attire is formal robes only.

R.S.V.P. by Thursday, 13 January 2004 to either Pansy Parkinson or Saphira Zabini.

You can just imagine my shock, can't you? I was only in my office for about five minutes before I heard a knock on the door followed by a voice.

"Ginny! It's me, Alise! Open up, will you?"

"Come in! The door's open!"

She walked over to my side, waving an identical invitation in front of my face.

"Did you get one of these things too?"

"Yes, ma'am. So are you going or not?"

"Ehh...I don't know. I don't have a date."

"Well, you have four days to get one."

"Ha! Like that'll ever happen," Alise said, rolling her eyes.

"Ok. How about this, if you can't find a date by Friday, then we can go together."

"Ok! I can get ready at your flat, too. I'm sure that we'd be able to find suitable examples of the male species at the party, I hope."

"I know you will, myself, on the other hand, plan to stay blissfully single for as long as possible."

It probably seems rather odd to you that I actually want to stay single, right? After a slew of long-term relationships over the past two years, I decided to give up on dating for a while. So far, I've liked it. No, I'm not a cynic when it comes to love; I just enjoy my freedom every now and again.

Alise's opinion on the subject matter at hand differs greatly from mine though.

"You can't possibly be serious, Gin!" Told you so...Sorry. "You're 23! Don't you want to find a guy now and not when you're about to hit 30? I know I do."

"Alise, I want to find a guy, but I have seven more years before 30, so do you. Plus, after being in three very serious relationships over the past two years, I just want to take a little, ok, maybe not so little, hiatus from the dating scene. Even if that means ignoring the perfectly reasonable pick-up lines from various guys."

"I still think you're crazy, but whatever, your loss."

I bit my tongue this time and rolled my eyes instead of making a snarky comment. I know! I'm proud of myself too!

With her last word in, Alise left the office, leaving me to write out a reply to Pansy and Saphira's invitation and Naricssa's birthday letter. An accomplishment in itself, let me tell you. I only got Draco as a patient last year (the same applies to Alise and Bellatrix), but on every major holiday and our birthdays, we started getting cards and gifts from Narcissa. After we received a letter from her, we'd quickly respond so as not to seem rude.

Well, the letter was, like I said, a task in itself, but I did it and sent it off after a quick read-over. The invitation reply followed suit in a quicker fashion.

-yawns- I think that's about it for today. I'm getting rather tired, and it's quite late. I'd best be off to bed since I plan on making up for my lack of sleep during Sunday's all-nighter. G'night!