In Seven Days

Chapter Three

In Seven Days

Staying Out of the Way

Day Two:

Sunday December 20^th 2009

Ginny had spent most of this day in her room. Draco Malfoy had avoided her and had consequently moved into a spare room down the hall. She looked out into the frozen garden. It looked beautiful in winter, not that she had seen it in any other season.

Sometime in the afternoon her stomach refused to be ignored any further and she left the house, apparating to a small establishment on the border of Diagon Alley. It was her biggest haunt when she was with Harry and she had always loved the food. It was like a comfort when nothing else was working. At least she knew her stomach would never stop working.

She sighed as the familiar bell over the door rang and she sank into her special corner by the window inhaling the wonderful smell of pancakes and toasted sandwiches. She breathed out convinced she was in heaven.

Just then a well mannered waitress bid her a good afternoon and welcomed her before asking what she would like. The waitress hadn't looked at her though. When she did, however, she gasped.

"Mrs. Malfoy! I didn't expect you here so soon. How are the children?" she said happily. "Little Sebastian is so sweet how do you live without wanting to eat him up?" she leaned warmly on the table and watched Ginny as if she knew her so well.

Ginny's scowl was indescribable. "What? Not here too!" Her favourite eatery in the world was tainted.

The waitress frowned in confusion. "Mrs. Malfoy, are-."

"Am I alright? Yes, I'm bloody fine!" She got up and stormed out of the front door. She fumed down the street into muggle London where she was sure Malfoy would never set foot into without a bloody good reason.

"That wasn't very nice. She was only being polite." She spun around to see the maker of her hell.

"What do you want?"

"I just wondered why you feel the need to treat this as a curse. Do you know how many people would love to get their hands on a second chance?" Janos stopped her and wrapped an arm around her shoulder as they walked down Oxford Street and entered The Underground train station.

"How is this," she said opening her arms, "a second chance?" She watched him as he walked into an office and picked up a fluorescent orange jacket. As he came out, he put it on and they moved to an escalator. As they went down he turned to her and smiled.

He smiled to himself. "Stage two," he said to himself so she didn't hear. He turned to her and said louder, "What do you mean, 'How'?" He took her hand and pulled her onto the side and they slid down the black belt. When they landed, he helped her up. "Ginevra, I can call you Ginevra can't I?"

She gave him a look that said she didn't care. "Yeah, I suppose so."

"Good," he smiled and they stepped on board a train. "Now, Ginevra, I have given you the experience of a lifetime. Don't tell me that I was wasting my time." They walked to the front of the train and he opened the door to the driver's compartment with a key he pulled out of his jacket. "I don't appreciate wasting time." He pressed numerous buttons and pushed a lever forward before the train started to move. They passed two stations before he promptly took off the jacket and they exited and left it on the lever before they walked through the station and up a flight of stairs into the cool winter air.

Somewhere between the station and outside Ginny realised that the man had driven a train.

"Do you work there?" she asked as she followed him down the street trying hard not to slip on the frosty pavement. It was only yesterday that he was working in a grocery store.

He turned to her with a confused look on his face. "Where?"

She raised an eyebrow at the question. "There." She pointed to the station they had just left.

He laughed. "Me? No! Gods no. Ooh, we're here." He moved into an alleyway and she followed him into it and entered a door on the left. When she reached inside, she saw a large department store. They had entered from the side entrance.

She caught herself and looked around. She knew this place. "I've been here before. I usually avoid coming here because..." she laughed quietly to herself. "The damn witch who created it took my idea."

He looked at her knowingly. "And what idea is that?" he prompted her as he pressed a button for the elevator.

"To have a department store that sold everything. That incorporated all the biggest stores. I said it would have all the usuals of a muggle store. Women's clothes, men's clothes, children's clothes and all sorts. Maybe a little magical incorporation too, with a link to Diagon Alley. The name is even similar. I don't like it here, can we leave?"

"Why?" he said entering the lift. He waited for her and she eventually huffed and followed him in. She turned to the glass of the quite large cubicle and faced the rest of the department looking at the name of the store that stood out at the top of the swinging doors. Her eyes stuck on the motto at the bottom of the sign.

"A little bit of magic goes a long way..."

"Bastards." She then realised that Janos had asked her a question. "Erm... I just told you why." He pressed the button for the top floor.

"Well, let's see what you think of it in about ten seconds."

"What?" she frowned. This man was full of riddles.

"Nine," he said looking at his watch.

"What are you -." She rolled her eyes and turned to look at the doors ignoring him as best she could.

"Eight, seven..."

"Stop that -."

"Six, five, four, three, two..." The doors to the elevator opened and Ginny came face to face with a young woman she knew as her sister-in-law.

"Ginny!" Lavender cried relieved. "Where the hell have you been, we've been waiting for you forever! Here, sign this." She held out a piece of parchment with the letterhead of the company.

"What? Why? Are we going shopping or something?"

"Erm... no. Ginny, we need you to sign this so the next shipment can be ordered. I need to print out the invoice to send it to them."

"Who?" She turned to Janos but he was gone. I work here? I must be hard up for cash then, I hate it here.

"The warehouse! Ginny, where have you been? You were supposed to be here hours ago. Draco said you were feeling ill but you never miss a day. Especially today."

"What's today?"

"The opening of the connection!" she said frustrated.

"Huh?"

"To Diagon Alley, Ginny. You've only been talking about it for months. The Ministry finally allowed it and the Aurors are here to secure it for you so no muggles can see anyone coming out. Come on, we're late." She stopped and looked at her only now noticing her. "Ginny, what are you wearing?" she said almost disgusted.

Ginny looked down. Lavender was looking at her as if she were dressed as a flobberworm. "My clothes."

"We're meeting your father and most of the other ministers, Ginny," she said slowly as if it were obvious. She turned around in a huff and looked around. "Here," she said suddenly grabbing a suit from a rack and giving it to her before pushing her in a changing room.

Ginny stood there trying to figure it all out. She took out her wand at Lavender's incessant pleas to hurry up and switched the clothes' places so her home clothes were on the hanger and the suit was on her. She had to admit it didn't look that bad, which she hated because she hated this store.

"Are you done?"

"Yeah."

"Well, hurry up!" She dragged her out and they continued through a door into an auditorium with a small stage where a man she guessed was the minister, due to the hat and the fact he was her father.

He looked up at the opened door and his eyes went bright as he addressed the crowd. "Ah, there she is! Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome the owner of this fine establishment. Mrs. Ginevra Malfoy!" Every member of the audience turned to her with smiles and the hall erupted in applause.

In Ginny's head, everything went silent.

What? Was all that registered in her mind. It echoed a few times too.

Lavender dragged her forward to the stage sensing her sudden static trance. As Ginny was led to the front of the auditorium, Lavender placed a small piece of parchment in her hand. When Ginny looked at her in shock, Lavender just smiled. "You're speech; you forgot it in the office."

Still in a state of shock, Ginny just nodded and stepped onto the platform. She stood at the podium in the middle after her father hugged her tightly and exited on the left.

She stared at the crowd. Most of her family was there, so was Harry and Hermione. Next to them sat Draco, that little girl and her mother sat next to him with a small boy on her lap that Ginny recognized from the family portrait. It was her son. Her eyes went to the previous row. In front of all of them sat Janos Elliot. He was looking at her with a determined face. He mouthed one simple word to her that made her realise she was being waited on by a large crowd of eager wizards.

Breathe

She did and looked down at the parchment laying it on the podium before her. As her hands touched the wood, she suddenly felt at home in front of so many people like she did it everyday. She faced them again with a bright smile and pointed her wand at her throat to make her voice louder. She read the speech as if she had written it. She probably had.

"Welcome today my friends," she began. "Today we celebrate a day that I have dreamed of for three years." Three years? "I, despite popular opinion, knew this would happen though. After months of deliberation and confrontations on both mine and the ministries part, we will now be able to make another connection between the Muggle and Wizarding world without trepidation. Many of us here know that shopping for quality at a convenient price has always been slightly difficult due to the limited locations we have reserved for ourselves. It was always known that something had to be done to aid this. I took it upon myself to fix this problem and, as most of my family will tell you if you ask, when I set my mind to something, I never back down." There were smiles and amounts of laughter. "Even when it gets ugly. And it did. So you see, I knew this would happen. Fate, as we know, is inevitable but as it seems still surprising when it comes around. The shock I had when my decree was passed in the courts was overwhelming." You can say that again. "I am just happy to see that so many others felt the same way." (Turn and open arms to curtain.)

She read the last bit in her head and figured they must be instructions. She turned and opened her right arm to the curtain and it pulled back. It opened to a large dark area which brightened to what looked like a whole new shopping centre full of Wizarding shops. Some of them were branches from Diagon Alley itself.

Gasps were heard in the crowd.

She read the last part of the speech.

"This, is my thanks to all those who believed in my dream."

Wow, I'm good, she thought as the hall erupted in applause again. Her father entered the stage again and took hold of the red and green twisted ribbon that separated the auditorium from the large area of shops.

"I think there are two special people who want to cut this, isn't there?" he said to the crowd. Instantly Ginny's children ran up to the stage. They ran to their grandfather and he helped them hold the knife safely.

Ginny turned to the crowd. "Ladies and Gentlemen. I give you, 'Diagon Crossing.'" The ribbon fell and the applause started up again. Ginny looked down to Janos' seat with a smile but he was already gone. Instead she smiled at Draco who smiled back her, despite the cold stare he had on before.

***

The evening drew out until late and Draco made their excuses to leave with the children. Molly, however, did not want to let her grandson go.

"Can't he stay for one more night? Cadence can come too."

Cadence abruptly shook her head and buried herself into her father. He smiled. He knew what she was running from. Tomorrow was tea with the Ministry Wives. A whole set of grown women would be at the burrow tomorrow morning with frightening faces and those damn pinching hands. It had taken a few days for the swelling to go down last month. Cadence had learned her lesson well. Sebastian, however, had not been to one before.

"I want to go." He held his grandmother tight.

"Fine, he can stay." He took hold of his son to hug him goodbye and whispered in his ear, "I'll leave the ice out for you tomorrow when you come home." He passed his confused son back with a small laugh and looked around the room with a frown to find his wife, his wife that wasn't acting anything like his wife. Until tonight.

He found her talking to someone but couldn't see who it was because there were so many people in the way. By the time he got to her though, whoever it was had gone. She stood watching him and the smile she had worn before disappeared. She looked down to the girl holding his hand. She still had the look in her eye as if she didn't know who Cadence was and his anger at her from before came back.

"Are you ready to go now?" he said flatly.

She looked around. Lavender gave her a thumb up and she turned back to him. "Yeah, I can leave now."

"Good." He apparated and shortly after she followed.