Narcissus

NARCISSUS

Dear momma's boy I know you've had your butt licked by your mother

I know you've enjoyed all that attention from her

And every woman graced with your presence after

Dear narcissus boy I know you've never really apologized for anything

I know you've never really taken responsibility

I know you've never really listened to a woman

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Ginny Weasley was thoroughly sick and tired of all of it. She was sick of being the youngest, sick of always coming in second, or third, or seventh to the rest of her family. All her older brothers were nice, of course, but too overprotective. She wished she could be like her only friend, Natalie MacDonald, who was an only child.

Now that she had graduated from Hogwarts, she knew that she could have her own life. No more of just being another Weasley clone. She may have the family name, and the red hair and freckles that her heredity had given her, but that didn't mean she had to go along with what they did.

Unlike the rest of her friends, she had gone out the second she had been let out of that damn school. And she didn't stay in contact with many of her classmates, either. She had never really fit in, after that horrible episode with Tom Riddle in her first year. She had been alone, and frightened, and had turned to the first sympathetic person. But Tom, like everyone else, had used her until he didn't need her anymore, and then thrown her out with the trash. Only her luck had saved her from death, her luck and her brother's friendship with Harry Potter.

Her obsession with Potter, at the time, had merely been a juvenile fantasy. But everyone had made such a big deal out of it. NO one seemed to remember that she had had a crush on Lee Jordan when the twins started school, and Oliver Wood during Percy's first year. Ah, well, when it came to Harry, everything was blown out of proportion.

Just thinking of Harry made her laugh a little bit. He, Ron, Hermione, and the whole Order Of The Phoenix had been so prepared for a huge battle with Voldemort. She could have told them that Voldemort was nothing but a spoiled little boy inside, and a coward too. In the end, it had come down to a not so dramatic duel between Harry and the Dark Lord, in which Harry had killed him in five minutes. All that preparation, heartache, pain, had all been for nothing. All of the Death Eaters had been rounded up, and now their families all lived on the vast contributions the Ministry gave them, to recompense for the loss of their breadwinners.

That reminded Ginny of her task. As a secretary for the Ministry, she was being forced to go around and check all of the former Death Eater's houses, to ensure that the families were doing well. And the first place on her list was Malfoy Manor.

Lucius had been Voldemort's second in the duel between He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and The-Boy-Who-Lived. With a son who was near the top of his class, one would think the elder Malfoy would have more sense than to leave his life at the mercy of Ministry wizards. The second Voldemort had gone down, Lucius had jumped in to try and kill Harry off. But the Order had been hiding in the background, and had hexed the brains out of Malfoy before he so much as began an incantation. Lucius now resided in St. Mungo's, in a small, tastefully decorated room. Percy had been stuck decorating the room, which meant eventually, Ginny and her mother had had to go and take care of it themselves. Men, she thought, shaking her head, where utterly helpless.

As she traveled on the express train to Casa de Malfoy, she thought about where Harry and his friends had ended up. She had always been jealous of their little threesome, never ignoring each other, but never letting anyone else in. She had always felt like an outsider with them. According to Ron, Harry was still single, and Ginny privately knew that he had been listed as the most eligible wizard for two years running in Witch Weekly. Sadly, he was still pining for Cho Chang, or so Ginny assumed from the routinely weekly letters she got from him. Cho and her family had been casualties' pf the Dark Lord's rising, but Harry wouldn't have had a chance, anyway. Ginny had made it her business to know everything about everyone, and she had discovered halfway through her third year, that Cho and Oliver Wood were dating. Not surprising, as they were both psychotically obsessed with Quidditch, not to mention extremely attractive. Harry was cute, to be sure, but Oliver was just plain sexy.

Ron and Hermione were planning on getting married next summer. Hermione kept owling Ginny, with questions about dresses and flowers and bridesmaids. It was maddening, really, to have to answer all sorts of moronic questions regarding wizarding marriages.

"Dear Ginny,

I'm not sure if white dresses are the thing to wear at weddings for Wizards.

And what should I do about our wedding rings?"

Ugh, Ginny thought, as she stared out the window of her train compartment at the picturesque landscape as it flew by. As if it weren't bad enough, to have it always rubbed in that yes, you are a cute, sweet, eligible girl without a boyfriend, Hermione was always setting Ginny up on blind dates with people. Last time, it had been Seamus. Between his horribly think accent, and the amazing amounts of liqueur he had consumed, it had been a general disaster. Didn't anyone realize that she didn't want a man? That she was fine, perfectly fine, even though she was all alone?

The train stopping interrupted her reverie, however. A porter tried to take her bags from her, but she had learned that careless flirting led to careless service. And today, she needed to be anything but careless. She trudged up the hill to Malfoy Manor, foreboding and grey. Even the sky around the mansion was always grey and cloudy. It was as if there was a general air of gloom permanently etched around the home.

She walked up to the massive front door, with its large knocker. She didn't bother to knock; she knew a house elf had seen her and was summoning its missus. Instead, she stared at the knocker. It had intrigued her every time she had come to call on the Malfoy's, which had been once a month for the past year. The knocker was an elaborate silver piece, with a dragon with emerald eyes curling its tale around a bright red ruby. The scales on the dragon were intricate, and seemingly infinite. And the dragon looked so selfish, and narcissistic, guarding its precious jewel. Typical Malfoy thing, to show your true nature and the extent of your wealth at first glance.

The large, green-grey door opened, and a small house elf stood on the front stoop.

"If the Miss would follow me, Wibby will show her to the Master."

"The Master? As in Draco? But I came to see the Missus Malfoy, Narcissa."

"Wibby is begging your pardon, Miss, but Missus Malfoy isn't here today."

Ginny heaved a huge, strained, alarmed mental sigh. So, she was to see Draco again. This would definitely be interesting.

As she wandered behind the house elf through the ornate hallways, she muttered to herself. Not that she had any liking for Narcissa Malfoy, silly blonde git that she was, but even idiocy was preferable to Draco's almost constant sarcasm.

A memory sprung into her head, of the last time she had seen Malfoy in person. It had been at the Yule Ball, during her seventh year. He had come back to visit, and to speak with Dumbeldore about taking over Lucius' position as one of the leaders of the Ministry. Apparently, Dumbledore and the younger Malfoy had bonded, in some random and miraculous show of humanity from Draco. He had asked her to dance, surprisingly, and had been an excellent dancer. However, they had not been dancing longer than two minutes when he made a comment about her family, causing her to retaliate. What had begun as an innocent dance had ended in a heated argument, and Ginny had slapped him across the face. Served the bloody prat right.

She hated coming here, she decided suddenly. The Missus of the house, had always been snooty, and spent all the money she had. Narcissa had never had anything but her looks; she was a one-dimensional person. And, since the death of her husband, she had gotten even more vapid and obnoxious. Like a butterfly, she flitted about, beautiful but useless. Annoying, too, since she was always asking for more money, and flirting with the Ministry officials that came to collect and check on her. So, of course, they had sent Gwenivere 'Ice-Witch' Weasley to handle her. Ginny really tired of getting all of the unwanted jobs, but as the youngest member, she was stuck with them if she ever wanted to move up in the career ladder. But she would not, could not deal with another one of Narcissa's endless conversations on how wonderful Draco was. It got very, very tedious after, oh, say, five seconds, as she had a tendency to be repetitive, to gush, and to outright lie about ickle Drakie-kins. At least today there would be none of that. No, instead, Ice-Witch had to deal with the Prince himself. It really was a toss-up as to which was worse, the overly-doting mother or the spoiled son.

The house elf opened the door to the study, and Ginny girded up all her available courage before she walked in. Draco Malfoy was lounging on a bright red couch, the crimson bringing out the smooth whiteness of his skin, and the white-blonde of his hair. Yes, he was gorgeous. But he was arrogant, and cocky, and nasty, and she knew that he was easy to fall victim to. With a sneer worthy of any a Malfoy descendent, she returned his leering, unwavering steel gaze with an electric brown glare of her own.

Draco stared at this girl, nay, this woman, who had just walked into his study. This is going to be interesting, he thought, as he glanced over her body and stood, motioning her to take a seat. Very, very interesting.