In The Strangest Ways

In The Strangest Ways

Chapter Two: A Very Different Year

"Mum? Dad?" Ginny called as she walked through the door of the Burrow. It looked exactly as it had done when she was a child. Tidy, but haphazard, if that was even possible. The hallway was clear of any obstacles that might have been there when they had all lived at home, such as piles of clothing waiting to be sorted or an array of books also waiting to be sorted, but it was full of stuff. The walls were filled with photographs of the ever expanding Weasley family, they were even beginning to clutter the unit next to the staircase. It made Ginny wonder when her turn was going to come.

"Oh, Ginny, you're here early," Molly Weasley walked calmly into the hallway, wand in hand. Ginny smiled at her mother; no matter how old she got, Ginny would always feel like she was home upon seeing her mother's round face. "Come to help your dear old mum?"

"Yeah," Ginny replied, following Molly into the kitchen. "I knew none of my other siblings would."

Molly laughed at that, nodding in agreement. "Probably my fault, really, I did too much for them," she said in a nostalgic tone. "No matter, their wives have whipped them into shape, no doubt."

It was Ginny's turn to laugh now. "Ron, especially. Hermione's always making sure he does his equal share with Rose."

"And when are you going to settle down and give me grandchildren?" Molly asked, eyebrows wagging suggestively.

Ginny sighed. She knew this question was inevitable; both her mother and father asked her almost every time she visited them. "I don't know, mum," she answered wearily. "I haven't met the right person..."

Molly nodded as though she understood, but Ginny didn't think she really did. Her mother and father had married straight out of Hogwarts, having been childhood sweethearts. Everyone, except her late Aunt Muriel, had declared that it was true love. That was what Ginny thought she was going to have with Harry, but nothing worked out the way she had planned. "You do look very polished today, though, Ginny," Molly said with a smile. "Was that for Harry's benefit?"

Ginny pursed her lips, annoyed that her mother had noticed the extra effort she had made. All she had done was put a bit of make-up on and wear her new navy-blue dress; it was nothing fancy, but Molly knew her daughter too well. "Me and Harry are over," she said steadily. It was true, they were over and had been for two years now, but after many failed relationships since then Ginny was hoping maybe they could rekindle their romance. Not that it had been much of a romance before... The clock was ticking though, and she felt left out; everyone else was getting married and having children, and she was stuck in her house on her own.

"I'm sure he'll think you look beautiful, Ginny," Molly said, her voice reassuring.

"Mum, I don't care what he thinks," she lied.

Molly nodded at her in a way that suggested she didn't believe her for a moment. "Right, come on," she said, her tone serious now as she turned to the many pots on the large fireplace. "Let's taste the food. I know this is your favourite part."

Ginny smiled then, and joined her mother in making the rest of the dinner. The rest of their afternoon consisted of plenty of wand work; the living room was tidied and space was made for the rest of the family, the table was transported out to the garden with her father's help, the table was laid and all the plates and cutlery went along with it. By the end of it, Ginny was quite tired and ready to tuck into the dinner, but they still had to wait for everyone to arrive.

"Hello?" a deep voice called; it was her elder brother, Bill.

Ginny ran out into the hallway to meet him and was greeted with an envious sight. Bill was holding his daughter, Victoire, up in his arms and Fleur had little Dominique in hers. "Ginny!" Billy said excitedly, putting Victoire down to embrace his sister. "You look well."

"Thanks, so do you," she said to the couple, reaching over to Fleur to kiss her on the cheek. Ginny had gotten more used to her sister-in-law over the years and could safely say she wouldn't find anyone more suitable for Bill. "How's the new baby?" she asked, cooing over the sleeping girl.

"She is crying a lot at night," Fleur replied with a look of displeasure. "But, of course, she is beautiful."

Bill chuckled. "Yeah, gets that from her mother's side," he gestured to his scarred face.

"And how's little Victoire?" Ginny said playfully, reaching down to pick up the little blonde girl, who had been tugging incessantly at her dress for the duration of her conversation. The little girl babbled back to her incoherently. "Well, that sounds exciting!" Ginny humoured her, nodding her head to show interest.

They made their way out into the garden and the family was immediately attacked by her mother, who wanted to see the baby. After all the 'hello's' were done, they fell into more as the rest of her family arrived, except for Charlie who couldn't make it due to some work thing he couldn't get out of. The house was abuzz with noise and children playing boisterously, and it reminded Ginny of her own childhood; this was how the Burrow should be, loud and filled with lots of people.

"Hermione!" Ginny hugged her friend warmly as she arrived in the back garden. "Looks like we're just waiting for Harry now."

"He owled me yesterday," Hermione replied, a suspicious look on her face. "Said he had a surprise for us."

Ginny was taken aback by this. "A surprise? What kind of surprise?"

"Well, that's the point of a surprise, Ginny," Hermione replied with a small smile.

Ginny rolled her eyes. "You think?"

"Alright, Gin?" Ron joined the two women, with Rose sleeping in his arms. "Harry here yet?"

"No," Hermione replied. "You just want to know what his surprise is, don't you?"

"Well, yeah," he admitted, smiling guiltily. "But, I haven't seen him in ages, I was hoping to play a bit of Quidditch; there's plenty of us."

Hermione rolled her eyes. Quidditch had never been one of her great interests, and had only really partook in it when she was at Hogwarts to support Harry, and eventually Ron as well. "Is that all you ever think about?"

"Nah," Ron answered, his voice full of humour. "I think about you, too."

"Great, thanks for that mental image, Ron," Ginny muttered in displeasure.

After a while, the family started getting restless waiting for Harry and, by that point, they had all heard he had a surprise for them. Ginny wondered restlessly about what it could possibly be. She thought with dread that maybe the Auror department had asked him to stay in America permanently as a British liaison, since he had apparently impressed a lot of people over there during his search for an old Death Eater who had still escaped arrest.

Then it happened. Harry finally arrived, with a willowy redheaded woman attached to his arm. That was his surprise and Ginny noticed the dumbfounded looks on her family's faces as they all seemed to be looking at her. At that point, Ginny wanted the ground to swallow her up whole and return her to her bed where she could wallow in self-pity. Worse still, Hermione was giving her a sympathetic look as though she had also noticed the extra effort she had made.

Harry introduced the woman to everyone and it turned out she was an American witch he had met during his investigation, which had turned out to be a success as they managed to capture the Death Eater. Her name was Hannah Roberts and she had been Harry's guide whilst he was in America, apparently they had become rather close. So close, in fact, that Harry had asked Hannah to marry him. That was a low blow for Ginny; she had been with Harry for how many years and this woman comes along and he proposes within a matter of months? It was outrageous.

The rest of the evening dragged on from that point as she had to endure endless stories of how amazing Hannah was, and then had to listen to how every one of her brothers was so content with their family lives. It wasn't that Ginny was happy for them, it was that she was jealous of them. It made her feel guilty to think in such a way, but she wondered now her plans to woo Harry back were scuppered what she was going to do.

"Ginny?" Hermione came and sat next to her, her face immediately alerting Ginny to the fact that she was going to have an in-depth, emotional conversation with her.

"Hermione, I'm fine," she said mechanically.

"You're obviously not, you just refused a game of Quidditch," she pointed out matter-of-factly.

Ginny cursed her friend's power of observation. Though Ginny had never been one for hiding her emotions very well. "Well, I don't want to discuss it," she said shortly, perhaps a little too harsh than she had intended. "Sorry, Hermione..."

"It's alright, Ginny," Hermione said sympathetically, her eyes ever watchful on her daughter, who was currently being passed around the various Weasley's and in-laws who weren't that interested in the riotous Quidditch game happening in the field behind the house. "You're upset about Harry, aren't you?"

Ginny sighed, giving in to Hermione's pressure. "I'm not upset with him, Hermione," she admitted, and it was the truth. "I want Harry to be happy, he deserves it. But I feel like I'm wasting time. I'm twenty-six years old and I still haven't met anyone."

Hermione scoffed. "Ginny, most people don't meet someone until after they turn thirty," she said in a rational voice. "Most of us were lucky, but life isn't all about getting married and having babies."

"I know that, Hermione, but it is easy for you to say that when you have your career and your marriage," Ginny pointed out. "And I always wanted the marriage and kids thing. I just thought it would have been with Harry..."

"You've got your career, that is something," Hermione said, her voice optimistic. "Not many people can say that they have the privilege of working at Hogwarts, as a Healer, no less."

Ginny shrugged. "I'm only an apprentice," she muttered.

"But, when Madame Pomfrey finally retires, of course you will take her place," Hermione said with a reassuring smile.

Ginny nodded absentmindedly. That was the point of her time at Hogwarts; Madame Pomfrey had announced a couple of years ago that she would be retiring eventually to go and live with her niece in the south of France, and so Professor McGonagall had advertised a vacancy for an apprentice to eventually take over. Ginny had been excited to apply for it, even more so when her and Harry had broken up that same year as it meant she would be far away from home. Now... now, Ginny wasn't sure if that was what she wanted. Being the main Healer at Hogwarts was time consuming and she didn't think Professor McGonagall would be very pleased with Ginny if she kept taking time off to have babies.

Finally, people began leaving the Burrow and Ginny could at least begin to forget about that disastrous evening altogether. To make it worse, once each of her brothers left, they gave her a sympathetic pat on the shoulder or a hug, making it obvious that they were also aware of her plan to win Harry back. But, that wasn't the last of it.

Ginny decided to stay a while longer to help her parents tidy up, pitying them upon seeing the amount of mess that had been created by the family in such a short space of time. Her father was in the garden, clearing the mess out there away and sorting out the table. She was in the kitchen with her mother, helping her wash up.

"Ginny, are you alright?" Molly said steadily, her eyes filled with worry.

"I'm fine, mum," she answered, rolling her eyes. She was getting fed up with them all treating her like she had been physically wounded and hospitalised.

"I know you were hoping for Harry -."

"Mum, I don't even want to go there," Ginny snapped, annoyed. "Honestly, I am over Harry."

Molly didn't look convinced in the slightest as she stared back at her daughter with her eyebrows raised. "Then why did you get dressed up?" she asked pointedly. "Why didn't you play Quidditch?"

Ginny closed her eyes and felt like screaming with aggravation, but refrained for fear of losing her dignity. Finally, she looked at her mother and decided to just tell her truth. "I'm getting old, mum," she said sadly.

Molly scoffed at her admission, but pulled her into a hug. "Ginny, dear, you're twenty-five, not sixty-five," her mum said with humour.

"You know what I mean," Ginny muttered, pulling away and resuming with cleaning the knives and forks with a flick of her wand. "I thought I'd be married by now..."

"There is plenty of time, love," Molly said reassuringly, swishing her wand at the plates so they would jump back into the cupboard above the sink. "Why don't you meet up with Dean, again? You two have similar interests -."

"Mum!" Ginny said, aghast. "Mum, there is no way I am going back with Dean. I can't believe you even suggested it!"

Ginny had been in an on and off relationship with Dean Thomas ever since she had met him again at Neville Longbottom's birthday party a year and a half ago. True, their relationship was passionate, very passionate, but that was the problem. They fought all the time, especially over Dean's wandering eye. Ginny had never been insecure about her body; her bottom might be a little on the big side and her breasts sometimes got in the way of simple tasks, but her petite frame made her feel feminine. Enough men ogled her whenever she went out on a rare occasion. But, Dean was not satisfied with only her and Ginny firmly believed in being faithful. No, Dean wasn't even up for consideration and the fact that her mum had effectively said that Dean Thomas was the best she could hope for did not lighten her mood.

All in all, the dinner had not gone as she had planned it in her head. Ginny was finally glad to get home, but all she kept thinking about was her mum's suggestion that she try again with Dean. It made her feel like rubbish, which she knew wasn't Molly's intention at all, but Ginny couldn't think of nothing else. Finally, she decided she had to get back to Hogwarts, nothing but work could take her mind off of her poor excuse of a love life. She knew Professor McGonagall wouldn't mind, and it would mean she could get the medical stores in order well before school began. Besides, it would only be a week until the students arrived.

*

It was a few days now until school was to begin, officially all staff members needed to be on the premises in preparation for the arrival of the students. Ginny had mostly kept herself to herself upon her return and thrown herself into her work, which had helped massively with her non-existent love life problem.

"Oh, no!" she gasped, noticing that she had no essence of Dittany in the medical cabinet. Madame Pomfrey would tell her that was the error of an amateur, as she had done many times when Ginny first started training with her. It had made her feel like she was back in Healer school all over again. She sighed in frustration as she would have to make her way back down to the Potions store cupboard to retrieve some Dittany leaves to make the essence, which would be an overnight task. She had been so ready to go to bed and revel in the softness of her bed sheets.

Not wasting any time, Ginny made her way down to the dungeons through the maze of moving staircases and greeting the portraits every so often as she descended further and further into the depths of Hogwarts. You could always tell you were in the dungeons, because the walls seemed to radiate wetness, considering the lake surrounded Hogwarts this wasn't much of a surprise. She briefly wondered how cosy the Slytherin common room was based on this fact; surely it couldn't be very pleasant. Thinking about the Slytherins made Ginny remember how times had changed since she had been a student at Hogwarts. The animosity between Slytherin and Gryffindor had become more of a friendly rivalry, in which banter could sometimes go over the top and spill into a fight. But, it was very rare. Ginny remembered when she was a student that she must have had daily verbal sparring with the Slytherins, and she remembered only too well the vicious rivalry between Harry and Draco Malfoy.

The memories brought a smile to her face nevertheless; her teenage years had been fun, even with Voldemort threatening to kill Harry every year.

Ginny finally made it to the dungeons at least half an hour later, but saw that the door to the stores was already open. Professor Slughorn was probably getting ingredients for the Felix Felicis potion he liked rewarding to the sixth years on their first day. Once she got there, the sight that greeted her was altogether disturbing.

Rooting around in the cupboard was obviously not Professor Slughorn; this person was very tall, at least a head taller than her, had a slim and athletic build with broad shoulders. Slughorn was famous for being extremely rotund, and he was bald. This person had a shock of familiar white-blonde coiffed hair, and her day had been going so well... Just as she was about to bolt away, he turned around. Her insides sagged with defeat as their eyes met.

"What the hell are you doing here, Malfoy? I hope you have permission from the Headmistress -."

"I should say that I do," he replied disinterestedly, lifting his hand to smooth the side of his head. "Considering she has appointed me as the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor."

That single sentence hit Ginny hard, as though she had just been hit with a Reductor curse. "Why on earth would she appoint you?" she said sceptically, eyes wide and arms folded. If he was telling the truth, why hadn't anyone even bothered telling her? She had thought that Neville would have at least said something.

Malfoy leaned against the doorframe, a smirk on his face. Ginny had to admit that he had become quite handsome in the intervening years, especially as he had dropped that awful slicked back hairstyle he had affected in his childhood in favour of a shorter side-swept look. But, she put an immediate stop to those thoughts altogether when she started to feel her ears burning. "Do you not trust the judgement of your Headmistress, Weasley?" he said, still smirking in that infuriating manner. "I thought Gryffindor's are supposed to be loyal, after all she was your Head of House if I recall correctly."

Ginny narrowed her eyes at him. "It's Hufflepuff's who are meant to be loyal," she said matter-of-factly. "And I did not question Professor McGonagall's ability to judge people at all, I was questioning your ability to be honest."

Malfoy laughed at her then and pushed himself away from the doorframe to step closer to her. The action made her step back hastily, which only served to make him laugh even more. "Do I scare you, little Weasley?" he murmured quietly.

"Hardly," she said in a curt voice, rolling her eyes. "I don't like my space being invaded by the likes of you, thank you very much."

"That's a pity," he said, a ghost of a smile on his lips. "You might enjoy me invading your space." Ginny stared up at him, her mouth open in shock at what he had just said and furiously trying to think of something witty to retort back to him, but her brain was failing her abysmally. "Don't keep that pretty little mouth open for too long, Weasley, I might take it as an invitation."

"How dare you speak to me in such a way?!" she said angrily. "You are lucky I can't hex you, Malfoy!"

"Can't a wizard show his appreciation of a beautiful witch?" he asked innocently, reaching out to tuck a stray bit of hair behind her ear.

The action made her jump back. "What the hell?!" she shouted, dumbfounded by his behaviour. The last time she had seen Malfoy had been in passing about two or three years ago, wandering through Diagon Alley with some brunette hanging off his arm. He had expressed his distaste for redheads many times at Hogwarts, which made her wonder what he was playing at.

"Keep your voice down," he frowned at her, obviously irked by her exaggerated reaction. "Anyone would think I'd just attacked you."

"Don't touch me ever again, because I will hex you, job or no job," she threatened maliciously.

"Whatever you say, Weasley," he drawled, smirking again, and turned back to go inside the cupboard.

She tapped her foot impatiently at him, becoming increasingly agitated. It must be at least eight o'clock by now and she was desperate to get started with the Dittany. Ginny was sure he was doing it on purpose now. "Malfoy, will you please hurry up?" she said, struggling to hide her frustration.

"If you stopped pestering me, Weasley, I'd be done by now," he replied coarsely, not even bothering to face her this time. He had obviously tired of toying with her.

Ginny groaned in aggravation. "Fine," she muttered and barged into the cupboard with him, disregarding her own need for personal space over the time being wasted. She knew exactly where the Dittany leaves were and was planning on simply reaching past him to grab it. However, her plan did not go very well. Somehow she managed to get her foot entangled with his and found herself coming face to face with one of the shelves.

Malfoy caught her arm just as her face was about to collide with the hard wood, pulling her back reflexively. Now they were both sandwiched between two shelves, their bodies pressing against each other, and it was the first time in her life that she cursed the size of her breasts as they were quite forcefully pushed against his firm chest. The fact that Malfoy was staring at them made the situation much worse. "Uh... thanks," she said hastily, reaching for the Dittany leaves and forcing her way back out of the cupboard, her cheeks burning furiously.

"So you did want your space invaded after all, Weasley," he said in a low, suggestive voice. "You should have just asked me, I would have been more than willing to oblige."

Ginny immediately glared at him, and stood stiffly. "You are infuriatingly arrogant," she retorted, and with that she turned on her heel and strode off. Her blood began to boil even more as she heard him chuckling to himself as she walked away. What made it worse was the fact that she had felt a pleasant tingling sensation in her womanly parts being pressed up against him. Ginny shook that thought aside; she hadn't been with another man for a while now, not since she had last broken up with Dean five months ago. That was all it was.

As she made her way back up to the Hospital Wing, Ginny couldn't stop thinking about Malfoy. She simply could not get her head round his employment, especially since it was a well-known and publicised fact that his family name was tarnished beyond all recognition. Many wizards and witches had become unforgiving after the war, there was no way they were going to allow history to repeat itself again by letting off the Death Eaters lightly. The Malfoy heir had only escaped a prison sentence because he had been a minor at the time and had been forced into becoming a Death Eater. His father hadn't been so lucky; he had been sentenced to Azkaban for life for many unmentionable crimes. Even so, the press had had a field day with the Malfoy family, for many months after the war there was a humiliating story about them in all the newspapers and gossip magazines.

Ginny had even heard Malfoy had been turned away from many food and drink establishments, so why had McGonagall taken him on? It could only cause uproar amongst the parents... It baffled Ginny, but she felt deep down that this year, at least, was going to be very different indeed.