Hide Away

Hide Away

Chapter 7- Ginny's new job

I woke up early the next day and stretched. I got out of bed and had a shower, this time without tripping or falling. The only thing that happened was that I lost the lid of the toothpaste and spent five minutes looking for it, when I realized I could just say Accio.

I got dressed and tied my hair back into a ponytail. It's not like anyone cared whether I looked nice or not.

I ate my breakfast and then made my way to the Ministry.

I got there ten to eight, ten minutes early.

My pager and cell phone were both on, but Malfoy hadn't made any attempt to contact me.

I shrugged it off and made my way to Muggle Relations.

I smiled a bit evilly when I thought of all the things I was supposed to do yesterday, and imagining Malfoy doing them.

I sat down at my desk and checked my messages. I had so many people trying to contact Mr. Malfoy and trying to make appointments with him, that I had write it all down.

At eight o'clock exactly, Malfoy strolled into the office and I could see him making his way to his office because my door was open.

I frowned and continued answering the phone. I still hated him but I didn't know how to act, since my outburst. I was hoping I wasn't fired.

He walked into my office and I felt stronger hate pulse through my veins. Even though I was mad at him and hated him, I couldn't help but admit he looked totally hot in a gray shirt, black pants and black tie.

Now a deeper hate for myself surged through me. I mean I don't even have any control over my thoughts. I start thinking the person who humiliated me is hot.

I frowned at myself, but to him it looked like I was frowning at him.

He frowned right back and just gave me a look, looking me up and down with a cool glance.

I couldn't care less and waited for him to speak.

He waited a few minutes, continuing to stare at me coldly and then said, "Why weren't you here yesterday?"

"I was sick," I said.

"I'm asking you why you weren't here yesterday, not you're healer," he said.

"I was sick," I repeated again. I wasn't going to let him win this time, no way.

He looked at me again and then left.

Ha! I stuck my tongue out at him. Now who was the one evading questions.

At some point I had to talk to him, to tell him about all the people requesting appointments with him.

I knocked on his closed door and I heard him say, "Enter."

I opened the door and found him sitting at his big desk, looking at me as if expecting me.

I was confused, but whatever. "These are all the people who want appointments. You should look over them and then tell me which people you want to meet with so I can get back to them."

He looked at me, cold and hard. Ok, I was getting tired of this; I mean how much staring can one person do.

I waited another minute or two and then found my answer, a lot apparently.

He sighed and then put out his hand. I gave him the piece of parchment and took as seat in one of the chairs. I also had to ask him what my work for the day was.

He peered over it and said, "Tell all of these people to make appointments next week. I'm booked solid this week."

I nodded and took the parchment from him.

"You can do that the magical way, Weasley," he said.

I frowned and said, "All right. What would you like me to do today, sir?"

He smirked, slightly and said, "I need you to shut up and listen."

I opened my mouth is surprise and anger and then closed it as he stood up.

"I'm going to brief you about the information I learned about this man that we're after, while you were sleeping." He then proceeded to show me magically, where his shop in Diagon alley was, his past criminal records and other things.

After that, he went on to tell me the plan for the next few weeks.

"The last meeting that I was needed for the department of quidditch was yesterday. So I won't need to attend any more meetings on their part, because the season is off," he said.

I nodded and he continued, "That department will be temporarily shut down until a month before the first series of quidditch games, which will be in May. But as soon as May rolls around, I'm going to be extremely busy planning the quidditch season. There are a few important cases that the Wizengamot need to be there for, so I am going to attending a meeting every morning from eight to twelve. So I'm going to hand Muggle Relations over to you until then. At twelve o'clock, every day we're going to try and solve Mr./ Peacock's case. Understand?"

I gulped but nodded. I was going to be in charge of a whole department? Wow.

Malfoy smirked and said, "Don't worry, Weasley. Even someone like you can handle the job. Besides I'll be in constant contact with you."

I glared at him and pushed some bangs out of my eyes. "I can do it. I can so do it."

He smirked wider, showing me the cute dimples on both sides. "I'd like to actually see that."

He continued for the next twenty minutes, telling me everything I needed to know to take over Muggle Relations. He gave me the daily meetings I was going to have to lead and some of the cases I was going to have to solve. On top of that, I was still supposed to keep my 'secretarial' duties like answering the phone and knowing and making his schedule and appointments.

To do this, he told me that he had hooked my office phone to my cell phone, for when I wasn't there and also his office phone to my cell phone, because he would be to busy to transfer the call to his own cell phone.

He told me that he had also hooked my laptop to his palm pilot, to keep his schedule updated.

My head spun from all the information, but I think I finally got it. I left his office at nine thirty and started my duty as head of Muggle Relations as he left for Wizengamot.

I stared nervously around the large office and then took a deep breath. I made my rounds around the office, asking people about their cases.

At ten, I received a case about a girl who wanted to go to Hogwarts but since her parents were muggle, they didn't want her to. I dispatched a few people right away to deal with her case and then sent owls to all the people that wanted appointments with Malfoy.

After that, I held a small meeting to discuss larger cases that required more workers to work on, and discussed how they were doing.

I received twice, maybe as many as thee times many calls on my cell phone.

Exactly at twelve, Malfoy called me.

"So," he said, as I picked up the phone. "How was it?"

"How was what?" I asked annoyed. "I don't know what you're talking about."

He sighed and said, "Being head of muggle relations."

"Oh!" I said. "That."

I could just hear the smirk in his voice, "Yes, Weasley that. You really are thick, aren't you?"

"Shut up ferret," I said. He just laughed and said, "Tell me what happened and come to the car, we've got to go."

I grabbed my coat, my laptop and purse.

"Well we received a case of a girl who was having problems with her parents about being a witch, so I dispatched five people to assist her."

"Five people, Weasley?" he sounded disbelieving. "You only need two people, max to do a job like that. Stupid bastards, "he muttered. "They're going to be out all day, 'solving' her case. Great going."

I felt like glaring at him, but couldn't. "How was I supposed to know? I did what you told me to do!"

"That's right, I did tell you do that and you couldn't do any more then what I told you, which could also mean using your common sense," he said.

I rolled my eyes and said, "Anyways! I held a meeting with those two groups, the ones you told me to, that are solving the extreme cases. They told me some of the difficulties they are having and I told them what you told them to do. They seemed pleased."

"All right," he said, "what else?"

I cursed into the phone, without meaning to and said, "Stupid Ministry, banned apparating and now I have to walk so much."

There was silence on the other end and I then remembered that the phone was one.

"The stupid Ministry, as you call them, Weasley, made this rule so thick people like you wouldn't help some criminal that just apparated there," he said seriously.

I grumbled and swore and he said, "I heard that."

I sighed loudly into the phone and then brightened when I saw the canteen near the entrance. It was a little restaurant in the Ministry so the workers didn't have to do outside and eat. I was hungry and I knew Sara would kick my ass if I ended in St. Mungos again, so I had to eat something.

I got in line and continued to talk to him for a few minutes when he said, "Hey, Weasley. What's taking you so long? Did you stop for some food on the way or something?"

I was too busy getting my money ready and picking what I wanted so I didn't hear what he said.

"Get over here right now, Weasley," he said. "I don't have time for this. We've got to solve this case."

"But, sir..."I protested but he cut me off, "Shut it Weasley. If you're not here in thirty seconds I won't be happy and as a result, you won't be happy."

He sounded serious and mad, so I gulped and said, "Yes." I was so mad that I didn't even notice that when I turned to leave the line, I hit three people with my long ponytail.

I walked swiftly put the door and looked for his damn car. I couldn't see the Saleen anywhere.

I swore loudly and shivered under the cold winter sky. It was freezing rain outside and I didn't even have a hood to cover my hair or eyes.

I screamed silently and looked around the London streets for any expensive sport cars. I only saw Hondas and Fords, when I spotted a silver Corvette.

I ran across the street and nearly slipped on the icy road. I saved myself just in time and thanked God. He only knew I didn't need anymore embarrassing moments.

I opened the car door and found that it opened towards the sky and not me.

I got in and shut the door loudly behind me. I bit my lip in anger and almost made it bleed. I refused to look at him and just looked straight.

I could feel his gaze on me and it made me nervous but I didn't look at him. After sitting in the car for a few minutes, I decided to sneak a glance at him.

I found him staring at me so I forgot about the sneaking part and fully looked at him with loathing.

He had his one eyebrow up and was staring at me. I was so mad that he didn't let me get anything to eat that I was gritting my teeth. He just smirked and I turned to face the main window again.

"Why do you get so mad, Weasley? Even the day before yesterday, you lost your temper. You need to control it, woman."

"Shut up," I said, refusing to look at him while he turned the car on and began to drive.

He shrugged, acting like he could care less and then turned the car on auto drive. I didn't know where we were going, but I could care less. The thought that I was in a car with him, made me mad enough.

I heard some movement on his part, but refused to look. After a few minutes, my curiosity got the better of me and I glanced at him.

He was eating a sandwich for Merlin's sake! He saw me looking at him with my mouth open, but he continued to eat with a smirk on his face. It looked like it was tuna.... I love tuna! It's actually something I can eat without killing myself.

Ok, I was so ready to strangle him now.

I was having a little fight with my purse, pretending that it was him. I was gripping it really hard and trying to break it.

He laughed and tossed a paper bad at me. "Calm down, Weasley. I got you one before, I was just teasing you."

I glared at him and threw the bag back at him, "Well that's just fine, but I'm not hungry now."

He shrugged and eagerly tore open the bag, taking another sandwich out. "More for me then," he said with a stuffed face.

I ignored him as he kept on eating, he then said, "Last one left. Mmm..."

I grabbed the bag from him and checked the bag and found three more there. I glared at him again, while he smirked.

I decided to get revenge on him, so just as he was about to take a bite of the sandwich in his hand; I grabbed it from him.

He was surprised and shocked, I could tell from his eyes, but I just grinned evilly and took a bite of the sandwich.

"Mmm..." I mumbled. It was really good and I was just in heaven. I wouldn't eat all three of them because of my diabetes, but he didn't know that.

I grinned more evilly and leaned back in my leather seat. Malfoy didn't seem to mind that I had took his sandwich, he just smirked at me and input some directions into the auto drive screen.

I settled into my seat. It was really comfortable and warm. Man, I could sleep in his car. Ok no, not that way...

I shook my head at myself and continued eating my yummy sandwich. I finished one off and there were two left. I couldn't eat them, but I didn't want to them to him either.

I decided to keep them for later, for when I went home...I laughed evilly, of course silently.

I put the bag beside me, on my left side mind you, where he couldn't reach them and smiled in content.

By accident, my foot touched a button on my seat and the back went down, so I was lying down.

I pushed another button and it moved my seat up and that's when I noticed that the bag was missing. I looked at him and found him eating another sandwich. Ah! I cursed him; he took the last one.

Oh well, I had eaten enough anyways. "So, where're we going?" I asked.

He smiled to himself, so briefly that I wondered if I even saw something that wasn't a Malfoy smirk, but then he frowned and said, "Do you have your laptop with you?"

I nodded and then he said, "I didn't have time to change Mr. Peacock's name. Do that today all right?"

I nodded once again and he continued, "All right, I ran some checks on this guy and I found that he was tried to be Death Eater but he got away because he put other people in Azkaban for him. It's similar to the Ludo Bagman case. Anyways, I think he might be smuggling these things by dark magic, so be on your guard at all times when you're around him. Understand? I don't want you to mess things up either, so try and act sophisticated and graceful, even though I know it's hard."

I rolled my eyes and ignored his last comment and asked him, "So...where are we going right now?"

"Diagon Alley."

"Why are we driving there?" I asked, hoping he wouldn't give me a snappy answer. "Does Diagon Alley also have a charm on it to prevent people from apparating?"

For once, he didn't give me a mean answer. "No," he said. "I just have to park my car somewhere and then we can apparate there."

I nodded and he continued to drive. I took a book out of my purse and began to read.

After a few minutes, I heard Malfoy chuckle to himself and I looked up and said, "What?"

He smirked at me and said, "Nothing, I just remember that..." then he stopped.

I felt my cheeks redden and I turned back to my book, pretending to read. That was the first time he almost brought up our 'relationship' at the end of his seventh and my sixth year.

Because of my bad memory, I don't really remember what happened between us. All I remember is that we pretended to date each other to embarrass each other. We did accomplish our goals and we never saw each other after that.

I bit my lip; I don't really remember how I felt or what I was thinking when it happened, so I forgot about it.

It felt kind of strange to be sitting in the same car as him now. I concentrated on my book for another few minutes and the car finally stopped.

We were parked in front of a store.

Malfoy turned to me and said, "All right, we'll apparate now."

"Where?" I asked him.

"Diagon Alley, obviously," he said.

I rolled my eyes and said, "I know that! I'm asking where in Diagon Alley."

"Well, since you don't know where, it'll be hard for you to apparate there," he said thoughtfully. "So you'll have to hold my hand."

"What?!" I said.

He shrugged, "There's no other way around it. Diagon Alley is huge and this store is in a remote part. Besides if we apparate separately, it could take hours to get to the same place. So there's no other way but to go together."

He held out his hand to me and I had no chose but to take. Mind you, I frowned and looked annoyed.

His hand was large and square and cool. My long, slender fingers tingled against his.

He clasped my hand firmly and closed his eyes and concentrated. The next thing I knew, I felt a soft tug and heard sounds around me.

I waited until it was safe and then opened my eyes. We were in an alley behind a store.

It was dark and damp, with no people around.

I looked around me and felt a bit uneasy.

I felt a tug on my hand and saw Malfoy smirking. I blushed and untangled my hand from his; I had forgotten that I had been holding hands with him.

"Honestly, Weasley," he sneered. "I'd think you like holding hands with me."

"Shut it Malfoy," I said, looking suspiciously about.

He grinned at me and then said, "All right, you're going to go in and pretend like you're a customer."

"Why me?"

He sighed and said, "Because Weasley, my name is in the paper all the time and many people have seen me and know me. Since you're...er, less popular, he won't recognize you or think you're investigating. I'll transfigure myself into something so I can see and hear and come with you into the shop. Right now we're just checking the place out and seeing who we're dealing with."

I nodded and said, "What are you going to transfigure yourself into?"

He appeared to be thinking.

"What about a book?" I asked him. "A book is good, it won't be suspicious."

He sighed and said, "Right, Weasley, a book that has eyes."

"Well, I'll prop you in my purse so you can see, but the eyes will be hidden by the straps," I said.

He nodded thoughtfully. "All right," he said slowly. "It sounds ok."

He then whipped out his wand and I screamed for some reason.

"What happened?" he asked me, worried.

I smiled sheepishly, "Nothing. I just thought you were going to hex me."

He rolled his eyes and then said a spell. The next thing I knew, he lay on the ground as a book.

I picked up the book and read the title. 'Muggles and their lifestyles' it read.

I stifled a laugh and wiped it with a tissue. "Ewe," I muttered as I wiped it clean.

I tucked it into my purse and then walked around the side of the alleyway. I saw the shop in front of me titled 'Moons of tomorrow.'

I assumed that it was the shop so I stepped in and looked around. It was a shop full of strange things.

There were unusually shaped potion bottles that lined the shelves and off types of other things. I had no idea what I was supposed to be looking for so I pretended to be interested in the potion bottle.

I saw a card labeled 'poison potion'. I suddenly felt someone behind me so I turned and screamed.

"Sorry about that," said the young man. He appeared to be only a few years older than me, with a bald spot on his head and clear blue eyes.

"I'm Donald Peacock," he stated. "I was just wondering if I could help you with anything."

I gulped and glanced at the book in my purse, "Yes, I was looking for a...poison potion."

He nodded and said, as if I was dumb, "Yes, well you've found it."

He was looking at me suspiciously so I decided to make some story up. "My boyfriend's been bothering me," I said. "He's...cheating on me and I want him to die. He's a muggle by the way."

Ah," he said. "I completely understand what you are in need of, but that potion will hardly do it. That one will only cause him some food poisoning. I think what you're looking for needs to be much more...powerful," he said. "I have just the thing in my storeroom."

He started to walk to the back and I followed him, but he turned around and said, "I can't allow you to come with me." He then smiled a scary smile, showing his yellow teeth. It was a smile that made my heart beet faster and I could've sworn I saw a flash of disbelief in his eyes.

There was no one else in the store and I was getting scared of him. I didn't wait until he came back; I just turned on my heel and ran out of the store.

I turned the corner and waited until I was safe in the alley to transfigure Malfoy back.

"Are you stupid?" was the first thing that came out of his mouth to me.

I frowned and said, "I should've just left you as a book, and you wouldn't have annoyed me then."

He frowned right back at me and said, "Why'd you leave? I didn't get a good look around."

"I'm sure you didn't notice, but that man was scary," I pointed out. "He looked like he waned to do something to me."

Malfoy rolled his eyes and said, "Why do you think I went in there with you?"

I snorted and said, "Like you'd do anything. You'd just sit back and watch."

He looked down at me, with his cold gray eyes. I suddenly felt a shiver run down my spine.

"I'm not as cold and heartless as you think I am," he said.

I hardly believed that, but the way he looked at me, made me want to believe him.

I sighed and said, "Now what?"

He shrugged and said, "We can't do much now, as you blew our cover, making it extremely suspicious by running out. So we'll just go back to the office now I guess."

I nodded and he said, "Ok." The next thing I knew, there was a pop and he was gone.

I figured he went to the car, so I closed my eyes and apparated there too.

What happened next was the most embarrassing moment I ever had. Actually, that's not true, since the moment I was born I've been having 'embarrassing moments' and I don't actually remember which was my most. But this ranked with some of my worst.

When I apparated, I apparated onto something hard and squishy. I opened my eyes and nearly screamed again. I had apparated onto top of my bossy...Draco Malfoy!

He was looking at me with an amused _expression on his face. He smirked and I could just tell what was going on in that nasty, sick head of his.

I scrambled and tried to get up and went to my seat. Ok, now I was blushing like crazy and felt so stupid.

He turned the car on and started driving.

All I could do is blush like mad and curse myself. This reminded me of ANOTHER embarrassing moment, which unfortunately included him as well. It was in sixth year when we were 'dating' and I fell on top of him.

It was the most stupid thing I could've ever done and it was so stupid. The only thing I remember about our short relationship is that I fell on top of him and he in turn fell on me.

I stashed that memory in the back of my brain, hoping nothing would ever remind me ever of it again.

"This reminds me of a time when you fell into my lap," he said.

I almost threw my purse at him; so much for that thought. I glanced at him and found him smirking as he looked ahead.

I gritted my teeth and didn't say anything else. After a few minutes, he spoke, telling me that every day now, after twelve we would follow him and watch his routes and the people he met with.

I nodded and then asked him something I had been wondering. "Why did your book say Muggle Relations? I thought the book was supposed to reflect on your personality."

"It is," he said, smirking again, I have no idea why. "But this particular spell I cast let me chose what the book said. I don't want the wrong type of book to fall into the wrong hands."

I nodded, "That makes sense."

He grinned again and glanced at me, "Feisty Fairy Tales?"

I had no idea what he was talking about. "What?" I asked.

He shook his head and continued to smirk to himself. I rolled my eyes at him and looked ahead.

After we got to the office, the rest of the day was spent planning out route for the next week or so.

Over the next few days, I was still the head for Muggle Relations and continued doing all the things I needed to do. Malfoy was still out of the office, but everyday at twelve we'd meet and follow the suspicious Donald Peacock. He still creped me out and I was always cautious near him.

Malfoy had performed some charms on me, making my hair brown instead of red and changing my eye colour to blue. He also got me magical contact lenses so I didn't have to wear my glasses and changed my features slightly, so if Donald ever saw me, he wouldn't recognize me.

I crashed on my sofa on Friday night and yawned. Man I was bushed.

I had gotten a lot of work done thing week, and had a lot to do over the weekend. Being the temporary head of Muggle Relations gave me a ton of work to do and I still had to help Malfoy with his other departments and also the case of Mr. Peacock.

I had been eating better this week too and balancing my diet well. I had gained a few pounds and appeared healthier than usual.

I yawned loudly and decided I was so tired that I couldn't even go to my bed to sleep. Snowflake rested at my feet and I patted her gently/

I waved my wand and magically changed my clothes. I felt warm, like I had a fever so I didn't wear my pajamas. I chose a blue t-shirt that was a bit small for me, and cotton Capri's. I Accio-ed a blanket and then, my eyes closed and I was asleep.