You Again

You Again

Chapter 3: Threats and Arguments

Ginny strolled lazily down to breakfast rubbing sleep from her eyes, her old cotton pyjamas not protecting her from the chill of the morning. She inelegantly plonked herself down opposite the seemingly permanently scowling, black clad figure that is Draco Malfoy.

"Morning, Virginia," he spoke clearly and crisply and Ginny found herself wondering how anyone could sound so awake at this ungodly hour.

"Morning to you too," she mumbled in reply, her voice slightly husky from sleep. She set about pouring herself some cereal and just as she crammed her mouth full of some, the phone drilled through the somewhat tense silence. She leaned back in her chair, careful not to fall (because we all know embarrassing that is) and grabbed the muggle phone off of its place in the wall,

"Brebbo?" She asked, her mouth full of cereal.

"Er...what?" The person on the other end of the phone asked, the confusion evident in their voice.

"Sorry...hello?" Ginny said after quickly swallowing,

"Hi, is that Ginny? It's Jonathon Briggs*...I was just wondering if you fancied going for a drink after work? You know...just the two of us," asking if it was Ginny was clearly pointless as he launched into full-blown conversation, anyway.

Ginny pretended to be thoughtful for a moment, despite the fact that a huge grin was already plastered on her face, "Well...sure! See you at work Jon! Bye!"

She hung up; her face so bright, that Draco found himself wondering what he'd done with his sunglasses.

"What are you looking so happy about?" Draco asked offhandedly, frowning at his cereal like it was deadly poison.

"None of your business," Ginny smiled in what looked to Draco like a very smug way.

"Tell me,"

"NO!"

Draco glared at her and scraped his chair back, making sure he made lots of painful nails-on-a-blackboard noises whilst succeeding in damaging the floorboards and left the kitchen in a huff.

"Ahem! Excuse me Draco but aren't you going to put your bowl in the sink?" Ginny called after him still grinning like a maniac.

"NO," he called back and slammed the door to the bathroom as he went in to get dressed, causing the glass to rattle in the window. Ginny shook her head laughing. God, Draco thought bitterly, could nothing stop that girl from smiling today?

Draco spent all day strolling around London, Covent Garden and Oxford Street (the best places in London for shopping!) spending money like water. He might not live with his dad anymore but he still had plenty of money**, and he sure as hell was going to spend it! He arrived back laden with various bags all filled with expensive-looking black and grey and black and...yet more black items of clothing.

He banged on the door to Ginny's apartment and leant back against the wall, waiting for her smiling face to appear in the doorway. No answer.

After about 5 minutes of banging Draco just pulled out his wand, checked the hall for any muggle passers by, or cats (you never know! It could be a minion of his father in disguise out to get him) and whispered Alohamora as quietly as he could manage. The door opened with a soft click, and he pushed his way in, chucking his bags on the kitchen table and making his way through to the living room. He paused and turned as he heard sounds coming from Ginny's room.

HA! So she was in! He prepared himself for a good grumble or at least a bit of a rant as he approached her door. He heard a sigh and the deep rumblings of what was most definitely a man (and if it wasn't then he would be seriously disturbed). The sigh was Ginny's he presumed. He heard more content mumbling coming from her room and then silence. He stopped, standing perfectly still; his ears pricked up, trying to catch what they were doing...not that he cared of course. Probably kissing...or worse, he thought with disgust. He stomped back noisily to the kitchen to try some of his new clothes on, in an attempt to cheer himself up a bit. (You know, retail therapy!)

He was standing there in his boxers (black, of course) about to try on his black trousers and high-neck jumper when Ginny and her new man came strolling down the hall. She stopped and stared at Draco in utter shock and embarrassment - how long had he been there?

"Ma - Malfoy! I didn't expect you to be back yet," she stuttered and blushed lightly (as most girls would) as she saw how little he was wearing.

"Clearly," Draco replied; he arched an eyebrow, his cool grey eyes travelling to the man standing close to her and fixing him with a Malfoy Stare***.

"Well, um, bye Jon...I'll see you Thursday, then?" The tall, dark-haired man nodded, shivering whilst gazing at Malfoy, confusion written on his face, but allowed Ginny to guide him to the door.

"I'll explain about him later - trust me, you have nothing to worry about," she muttered apologetically, kissing him lightly on the cheek and gently pushing him out through the open door.

"Virginia, so that is the mystery man then? Finally found a Potter replacement? Well, I hate to say it but I think even you could have done slightly better than that. Have you no taste at all?" He continued, casually pulling his clothes on.

"Well, I like him so you can shut up. Hey, if you need to share an apartment with me where did you get all the money from to buy those clothes?" Ginny asked sharply, conveniently changing the subject, looking at the tons of bags strewn around her kitchen. Draco just smirked and carried on changing.

He turned to look at her, dressed in his new clothes,

"What do you think? You don't have a floor length mirror in this house, so you will have to make do," he struck a pouty male-model pose jokingly. Ginny had to admit that he did look hot (that's one tick on the list of Con's). But, she realized, he could probably even look good in a bin liner. Probably.

"Great. Now tell me, why are you here? What are you doing in my house? You can't keep it a secret from me, I mean this is my house in case you failed to notice,"

She stood up and looked down at the now sitting Draco, glaring fiercely. Draco looked up into her fiery eyes with his icy grey ones.

Then, doing what all Malfoys do in any situation, he smirked, slowly and luxuriously - like a cat, "Virginia Weasley, I can do what I want - now please, stop glaring...it doesn't suit you," which of course, was a lie; Draco truly thought that her glare suited her just fine. But he wasn't about to let her know that.

"Listen Draco, this is my house and I can glare all I want! In fact, I can do whatever I want, so don't you tell me what to do under my own roof! If you speak to me like that you will soon find all these bloody expensive clothes out of that goddamn window. Which by the way is MY window! Because this is MY HOUSE so you will do what I damn well tell you!" She stamped her foot hard, her face flushed with anger; loose tendrils of flaming red hair falling from her usual clip. Draco's smirk grew wider as he stood up and gazed down at her, causing Ginny to take a step back, alarmed at his sudden height. He towered over her, and spoke in an ice-cold tone,

"It seems to me that you are threatening me Virginia. I might warn you, this is not the smartest of moves. If I were you I would sit down and shut up," he looked coolly down at her angry, yet no longer intimidating face and smirked as he could see in her always-open face the internal battle she was having before him. Ginny sighed and resignedly sat back down in her seat a sour look on her face, and Draco, shortly after, followed her lead.

He looked at Ginny and frowned, seeing she was still thinking about her decision to give in. Suddenly, without warning, she shot up from her chair, knocking it over in the process and stomped over to the front door. Ginny opened it wide as it would go and spoke harshly,

"Draco, I don't care what you think you can say or do, but I demand either you tell me what is going on or I will force you to leave the premises. Now, it's your call," her voice shook with anger as she gestured to the door and glared ferociously at Malfoy.

Draco strode over to where Ginny was standing and casually slammed the door shut. He pushed her up against the heavy wood of the door, grabbing her wrists and forcing them behind her back single-handed. He flicked his wand with the other hand and a gold parchment appeared. Ginny's stomach lurched as she recognized it as the contract, which she had signed in agreement to his living here. Her eyes looked to the bottom where her signature lay in red ink. Damn.

"You see Ginny, you cannot break this contract. So I think you are pretty much powerless in this situation. So, why don't you do as I said before and sit down and SHUT UP," he released her from his iron grip and trudged off to the living room without another word.

Ginny stood alone, fuming in the kitchen.

"Idiot. Touchy, edgy, grumpy, moody, violent, secretive, rude, controlling, arrogant IDIOT," Ginny muttered rubbing her wrist gingerly as she looked down to see a large bruise appearing. She would soooo get him for this. He had better sleep with one eye open from now on. However, she suddenly realized, she hadn't stopped to think about why Draco was so desperate to keep his reasons for being here as secret as possible. He had always been one to play his cards close to his chest, but Ginny was sure she had seen something beneath that cold stare...was it...desperation? Urgency? Why did he want to make her drop the subject so much? Whatever caused him to get kicked out of his house was obviously big. Really big.

Oh well, she thought happily, there was plenty of time for interrogation.