Ginny Weasley: Maid in Malfoy Manor

Ginny Weasley: Maid in Malfoy Manor

Chapter Four:

A Royal Pain

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"Seven A.M. on the dot!" Mary chirped in a thick cockney accent from the small office to the side of the kitchen. "You're right on time, Ginny," she added, looking over her spectacles at Ginny Weasley, the new kitchen maid, who was reporting for her first morning of duty.

Ginny stifled a yawn. She had trouble sleeping last night because of the new environment that she was in, that she regrettably woke up earlier that morning with her head feeling kind of waterlogged.

"I'm afraid we've got no time for chitchat," Mary continued matter-of-factly, cocking her head and appraising Ginny with small, shrewd eyes, her tight gray bun tilting with her head. "There's a lot to go over, so I'll get straight to business."

"Of course," Ginny forced a smile as Mary began to outline Ginny's kitchen duties.

"You remember Matilda, the Cook, from last night," Mary said, gesturing toward a woman hovering over a range of hot stoves off to one side of the giant kitchen.

Seeing the look of confusion on Ginny's face as she noticed the muggle-made stoves, Mary tried to clarify the matter.

"The Mistress insisted on making the food muggle-way since she said it just tastes better. I'm in no position to argue so thus the stoves," she said. "You'll be working for Matilda, doing whatever she needs to get meals planned and prepared."

Matilda nodded at Ginny and smiled briefly. Ginny returned the kind gesture.

"Your duties are restricted to the kitchen and the dining room," Mary stated in her strong, almost Scottish sounding accent. "You will report for the morning shift every morning at seven-thirty A.M., whereupon you and Natalie will begin laying the table, helping Matilda with the food, and otherwise readying yourselves for the family breakfast. Your day ends at six-thirty P.M."

Ginny nodded constantly as Mary paraded her through the giant kitchen, reeling off a list of duties and kitchen dos and don'ts. It was rather overwhelming, but Ginny gleaned the basic important stuff. They would do meal preparations as well as serve the family, clean up, and ensure the kitchen was spotless after.

"Sounds like a long day; however, you will have breaks in your schedule as well as an hour for your own lunch," Mary added as she finished walking Ginny around the kitchen. "You may do with your breaks as you please," she concluded as Natalie broke into the room, still looking sleepy eyed and sluggish.

"Take a mop and get a bucket from Natalie, would you, Ginny," Mary said. "The floor needs mopping."

Ginny did so while Mary had begun to talk about the finer points of the job, warning her to be mindful of etiquette and most important of all to speak only when spoken to. It was quite similar to what Natalie had said, but definitely not as harsh, although clearly Malfoy Manor had a lot of rules and regulations.

"Mind yourself and you'll do just fine," Mary stated "Make sure to keep your uniform as clean as possible too. You should always wear an apron in the kitchen, but take it before you go out to serve the family."

Ginny nodded glancing down at the uniform with distaste. It was exactly what she dreaded it to be. A pleaded navy blue knee-short dress that made her look like an uninventive prostitute.

But she was in no place to complain.

She was a maid now, digressed to a position no wizard wanted to be in.

***

Here goes! Ginny swallowed nervously as she picked up a silver coffeepot, which she had just refilled, smoothed her hair with her free hand, and prepared to enter the dining room.

This was her first serving to the Malfoy family, and aside from glaring at Draco in the halls of Hogwarts and meeting his father in Flourish and Blotts almost a decade ago, she hadn't personally met the family yet.

Natalie had served during lunch while Ginny helped Matilda with preparations and scrubbed dirty pans. But now it was 1:30 P.M., and Natalie had opted out of serving Lord Lucius his second cup of coffee.

"You go," she had said sullenly to Ginny. "I've had enough for one mealtime."

Ginny took a deep breath and entered the dining room.

She glanced at the three wizards occupying the enormous table, which were Lucius, Draco and Narcissa, and kept her head bowed down very low so maybe... just maybe, they would not recognize her.

Lucius Malfoy, as expected, looked like an evil, oafish ogre that Natalie had made him out to be. He had the Daily Prophet covering his face, and Ginny slowly made her way to him and carefully filled his china coffee cup.

She then hurriedly turned around preparing to run back to the kitchen, when Draco, who was sitting at the right side of his father, spoke up.

"Who's the new maid, Father?" Draco asked.

Lucius put down his newspaper and glanced at Ginny.

"What is your name, servant?" he tactlessly asked.

For a moment there, Ginny considered inventing a new name to tell the Malfoys but thought against it. It was no use, anyway. Sooner or later, they would know that, she, Ginny Weasley, was their new maid.

"Virginia, Lord Lucius," she politely answered, giving them her less recognized name.

"'Virginia' what?" Draco pressed.

Ginny had no choice.

"Virginia Weasley... Master," she replied, feeling stiff and uncomfortable at addressing Draco as master.

"Virginia Weasley?" Draco droned, intoning the word 'Weasley' as if it was the funniest thing in the world. He had also this annoying amused look on his face that was further depicted by that arrogant smirk that was slowly forming on his lips.

A stiff pause followed.

"Father, how many families with 'Weasley' as their last name are there in the wizard world?" Draco then asked, as if still not believing that a part of their most hated family was literally serving their lunch.

Lucius smiled.

"I believe there is only one," he answered, looking up from his newspaper and giving Ginny an irritating pleased look.

Ginny felt her face turn redder than the beet salad she had laid out for the family buffet.

"So, you're the sister of Potter's red-headed sidekick," Draco supposed, giving Ginny a very uncomfortable head-to-toe scan. Ginny felt as if he was undressing her with his eyes.

"Yes," she answered, a strange feeling settling itself on her stomach as she heard Harry's name once again after two long years...

"See Draco," Lucius said, dismissing Ginny completely as she turned around and tried to reach the entrance to the kitchen before she heard any more insults thrown at her family, but was unsuccessful in accomplishing the task because of the extensive space that the dining room had.

"I told you that someday, the Weasleys would serve us and bow at our very feet," Lucius stated. "Just a matter of time, and now, look!"

Lucius looked genuinely happy while Draco's expression was a mix of incredulity and amusement.

Lowering her eyes, Ginny slipped out of the dining room, eager to get as far from the family as possible, shame burning through her face as she realized how silly she'd been to think that she would survive six months serving the Malfoys without putting her family's dignity on the line.

Here, she was the lowest, not the equal she was once. Because then, even with Draco's bragging about their wealth and fortune, Ginny was not affected by any of it unlike her brother, because she knew that even if they were, to some extent a little deprived of certain desires and wishes, she and the Malfoys were still equal.

But now that the wizarding world was in chaos, the fine line between good and evil diminished, nothing was the same.

Social status was everything

And you're the lowest, Ginny reminded herself. So stay down!

***

"So, Ron's baby sister is our new maid..." Draco quipped, lying lazily on his stylish double-sized bed enveloped in delicate green and silver satin covering, while currently watching Ginny clean his bedroom's bulky and unreservedly unkempt fireplace. "Who would have thought that this sudden transformation would happen?"

Covered in soot and downright tired and exhausted from a day's worth of hard labor, Ginny was currently scrubbing Draco's fireplace clean, wondering why the hell did Draco asked for her to clean his damned room.

She was obviously supposed to work in the kitchen and dining room only, but for some reason, Draco requested Mary to send Ginny up, saying that he was dissatisfied by the cleaning maid's performance. Ginny hated to think what might that meant.

It turned out, Ginny had no choice but to follow Mary's orders or be kicked out of the manor without pay. So, after choosing the first option, she was now on her hands and knees, still being watched and irritated by Draco.

Whether the request was for insulting her family again and hurling its honor out the window or was it plainly just for his amusement, Ginny did not know.

"So tell me, Virginia," Draco again spoke up, resting lazily on his bed, watching Ginny in a way that made her feel very uncomfortable. "How did you happen to have come down here, to our little manor?"

Ginny fumed inside. She was definitely in no mood to have a question and answer game with Draco. She was dirty, and tired, and irritable and the last thing that she needed was to play mindless games with the renowned humorous fool.

"An answer anytime this millennium would be quite nice," he intoned sarcastically after a minute of no reaction whatsoever coming from Ginny.

"We need the money, that's all," Ginny answered grudgingly, trying to work as fast as she could so she could get out of there as soon as possible, before any more questions were asked... and a certain blonde's head was ripped off its body.

Beautiful silence followed.

Ginny was starting to think that this day wasn't so bad after all. She survived and that was all that mattered. Maybe the alarming six months of misery would pass by without her noticing it and sooner or later, she would be on her way home, kissing her mother and brother in relief that the worst was over.

"Do you think there's such a place as hell?" Draco suddenly asked, out of the blue, going as off topic as possible, and causing the wonderful peacefulness to shatter and die.

Or maybe not. The worst was definitely just beginning.

What kind of question is that? Ginny thought, rubbing furiously at a certain demanding spot. She decided to ignore the question altogether. Maybe Draco would finally give up when he realized that she was undeniably in no mood to cooperate.

"Are you deaf or just plain stupid?" Draco snapped, looking quite annoyed with Ginny's lack of interest.

In exasperation, and just to shut Draco up, it was Ginny who finally gave up, quickly turning around to face the annoying bastard.

"I believe that there is a hell," she answered confidently, looking Draco in the eye for the very first time since she arrived in the Malfoy Manor. "And it's where broken souls pay for their past mistakes...and maybe have some minute quantity of that treasured word redemption."

Ginny went back to pick up her cleaning supplies and prepared to leave. She didn't care if the fireplace was only half done. It was not in her line of work after all. She was finished being the obeying servant, and was over and done with acting like she cared about anything that had something to do with the Malfoys.

"So do you think I'll go to hell?" Draco unexpectedly asked, a strange softness and quietness hiding behind the rough edges of his voice. The tone was still quite annoying, just for the reason that it was nonetheless coming from a Malfoy, but there was this peculiar faintness that was exceedingly unusual for a wizard like him to say.

Ginny felt this sudden and unpredicted sympathy for Draco, creeping up her veins, and she almost felt sorry for the poor little rich boy as she gathered up her cleaning provisions. But still, her response was somewhat the complete opposite of that unexpected feeling.

"You'll never go to hell, Master," she replied. "Satan won't allow such competition."

And with that, she picked up her things and left the bedroom, leaving the open-mouthed Draco to ponder on what had just happened.

***