In Seven Days

Chapter Six

In Seven Days

Words of Wisdom

Day Five

Wednesday 23^rd December 2009

The sun permeated through the frosted window which wasn't altogether strange for British weather. It didn't make outside any warmer but then it didn't stop from blinding him either.

Draco woke up shielding himself from the intense beam of light that penetrated his bedroom window. He turned over, stretching a hand to pull his wife closer but froze when he couldn't feel anything. He opened his eyes to stare at the empty half of disarrayed bed sheets and crumpled pillows. He sat up and looked around fully awake. She was nowhere to be seen. He got up and walked out onto the corridor glancing over the banister as he descended them. The house was silent. And if the house was silent it only meant that the children weren't there either. It was his day off and for the first time in history it was hers too but she wasn't anywhere that he checked.

He went to sit on the sofa staring into the fire. His forehead creased in thought. This was new.

Very new.

***

"Sebastian, don't jump on that!" Lavender called as she ran to the boy who was jumping on the display cabinet. She had no idea why he was up there or how he had gotten there in the first place but she had to get him off, and fast.

"Aunt Lavender?" Cadence said from behind her.

"Yes sweetie?" she answered not looking around.

"Is this supposed to come off so easily?" she said sweetly.

Lavender frowned and turned with Sebastian under her left arm. She almost dropped him when she saw one of the sleeves of the new dresses that had come in yesterday. "Ginny!" she yelled making half the population of the store turn to face her. She stood there for a second expecting Ginny to pop out of nowhere.

When there was no answer she took both of their hands and practically pulled them toward Ginny's office. She was not equipped for this. No way was Ron getting anywhere near her if this was the product. No way at all. Lavender opened the door without knocking and closed it behind her.

Ginny looked up from her desk. Really this wasn't so hard. She had found it quite easy after the fourth or fifth invoice. All she had to do was make sure the figures were correct and sign it to send it out. Wasn't such a bad job after all.

"Yes Lavender?" she said doing her best to sound indifferent and eyeing both of her children with a knowing smile from the wicked grins she received.

"How do you do it? They're terrors!" she said letting go of their hands. As she did they ran around the desk to stand by their mother.

Ginny remained silent as they came around the desk. Cadence leaned on the dark wood as Sebastian took residence as close to Ginny as possible without being on her. They both turned to look at Lavender with as angelic faces as they could muster. Ginny held her laughter and stroked the hair on her son's head. "They aren't so bad when you get to know them," she said looking at Lavender. "Here." She picked up the two stacks of invoices. "I've checked them and signed them so just send them away." As she leaned forward Sebastian moved to Cadence to get out of the way.

Lavender took them and looked at them. "Ginny, I didn't know you had so much time to do these, we weren't expecting you in today so we didn't bother owling and calling anyone. Isn't today your day off?"

"It is?" she said perplexed. She didn't know it at all. "Yes well, I just thought I should clear everything off my desk before Christmas. Tomorrow by mum right?"

Suddenly, Lavender sighed in a guilty way. "Yeah, Ron has been pestering me to go shopping for her present. He has no idea what to get her and was wondering if you could... perhaps give him a family discount?" she said hopefully.

"I am not a -." She did a double take. "No wait I am a department store. Oh, alright then. Tell him to come by this afternoon. If I'm not here, tell him not to go too wild."

"You going home then?" she asked.

"I will, eventually," she said smiling and waited for Lavender to leave before looking at both of the small children on her left. "Alright," she said them watching each of them evenly. "What have you been doing to her?"

Cadence shrugged and removed her left hand from behind her back holding up the torn sleeve. "It came off," she said without a shred of remorse. She saw the raised eyebrow of her mother and added, "I didn't pull it, I swear. Dad says if they come off that easily it's not worth buying," she continued as if the statement justified her actions.

Ginny cocked an eyebrow. "He does, does he?"

Sebastian nodded. "Yeah, he says expensive things don't fall apart."

"Correction. I said things with quality don't fall apart," she heard from the door.

Ginny looked up. "What are you doing here?" she asked with a surprised smile.

"Oh no," he said quickly as if she were asking the wrong question, "no, no." He leaned on the door frame and watched her, it looked like he was having a bad morning. "The better question is, what are you doing here?" He stepped into the room. "You took the day off. You told me to take today off, which I did. You said you weren't going to go to work for three days out of the month: today, tomorrow and Christmas," he listed off on his fingers. "I was curious to what - with all its urgency - could wake you so," he stressed, "early that you would come here, willingly, when you could be at home. With me. In bed," he added pointedly.

"I had some things to finish."

"Yes..." he trailed and nodded. "I saw the practical tree you just gave Brown - Weasley -." He shut his eyes in annoyance. "Oh, I don't even know what to call them anymore, they spread like the plague." He rubbed his temples as if he had a headache but she wasn't paying attention to that.

She put her hands on the table. "Excuse me? That's my family."

He put on a smile. "And a very nice one it is too. You know what I meant, they're everywhere." He sighed heavily. Ginny then had a feeling he was saying all this for a reason. "I woke up this morning. You were gone and so were these two. Then I get a fire call from your mother asking where you are. There was me putting two and two together and guessing you probably had to get something for her but then she tells me you aren't there. I guessed where else you could be. As I was leaving, I get three-." He paused and looked at her pointedly. "Yes three - count them -," he said holding up three fingers, "three consecutive calls from Potter, Weasley and Granger, asking where you are and if I could get you. I would have told them to stuff it but somehow they were by your mother too. So," he said wrapping it up, "I am officially here to pick you up, take them with me," he said pointing at the terrors that stood next to her. He paused briefly as he noticed a torn shiny sleeve in Cadence's hand but shook it off, "and personally see to it that you are at the burrow in... oh twenty minutes ago." He crossed his arms as if waiting for an apology to the great disturbance in his meant-to-be quiet morning.

Ginny stood up and walked over to him, put one hand on each side of his face and brought down his head to kiss him on his forehead and smiled. "Thank you. And I'm sorry, it wasn't meant to turn out like this."

"Did I mention that I was in my boxers when they called?"

She went to get her coat. "Oh dear. Well, you can take them home if you want, I can make it there by myself."

"Uh, uh," he said shaking his head. "My exact orders were to take you there myself. Don't ask me why, I haven't a clue." He picked up Sebastian and walked out side with Cadence trailing after him.

***

The house smelled strong of delicious food. It was filled everywhere. Ginny stood up in her old kitchen as if now noticing it for the first time. It seemed... different to how she remembered it. Was it, larger? She frowned and looked around walking from one end to the other and holding out her arms. It was, it had to be. There was no way it was this big when she lived here. She swung her arms around to measure it from memory.

She hadn't even noticed the attention she was getting from her husband, her children and half the rest of the house.

"Ginny, what in Merlin's name are you doing?" Ron asked her.

She stopped abruptly and jumped at the voice. Ron. She smiled, she hadn't seen him in a while. She turned around to see him and a big grin plastered itself on her face. "Ron!" she squeezed him tightly. "I haven't seen you in forever!" She let go to meet a puzzled face. The others just rolled their eyes and went about their business, Ginny acting strange was now becoming common knowledge.

He put down the grocery bags he was holding. "Um, Ginny, I was at Diagon Crossing's opening. You only saw me three days ago."

He was there? Oh yeah... "But we didn't talk. I haven't spoken to you in a long time."

He cocked an eyebrow. "We went to dinner last week. Ginny, are you feeling okay?" He then folded his arms and looked at her sternly. "Is this some ploy to get out of working with mum again? I am not covering for you this time, if you want out just tell her." He moved over to the kitchen table and put the groceries down. "I don't think I could live with baking cookies two consecutive years in a row."

"No, I'm just - cookies?" She shook it off. "I'm happy to see you is all. I've missed you."

"In the space of three days? Sure, Ginny." He looked at his watch. "What time does your store close?"

"Erm..." She had no idea.

"Well, I'll just go and meet Lavender then. And when I get back you will tell me why you were trying to fly in the kitchen a minute ago."

Ginny frowned. "Oh! Erm, no I was just checking something. The kitchen - it seems... bigger."

He paused for a second. "Well, it should. You enlarged it two years ago because it was too small to fit all the pieces of furniture into the house."

"Furniture?"

"Yeah," he said slowly. "You bought mum a whole new suite for her birthday, she was thrilled but didn't want to perform any spells on it in case they were damaged so, because through the kitchen is the only route with a straight line to the living room, you enlarged everything including the doors and the aisles and stuff to get them through. When mum saw it she was delighted by all the room and such. She kept it that way. However, because the house is kept up by so many spells as it is, it kinda started to fall apart. Malfoy," he said with a little distaste, "sent mum and dad on some holiday somewhere and while they were gone we all chipped in to rebuild the place because none of use wanted him to contribute to our home, no offense, he thought so too. Sentimental value and all." He stopped taking things out of the bag and looked at her. "But what am I telling you this for, you already know." He laughed before leaving the room. "I'll see you later." Then he apparated.

Ginny stood in the kitchen blinking at what she just heard. We rebuilt the burrow? She then remembered that they had apparated to the house so she hadn't had a chance to see the outside yet. I bought mum furniture? And the bigger question. "Draco sent them on a holiday?" she said out loud.

"I sent who on holiday?" she heard behind her. She turned.

"You sent my parents on holiday?" she said still shocked.

He narrowed his eyes and looked to the ceiling. "Not recently. Not to my knowledge anyway. Why?"

She smiled. "Nothing, it's nothing. Just, thank you." She kissed him as Fred walked unseen into the kitchen and then instantly wished he hadn't. He was accompanied by Molly carrying a stack of plates to match the bowls in his arms and complaining about men who can't set tables with the good crockery.

"Hey, hey, hey! None of that in here. We have to eat in here, take it outside!"

"Fred! Let them alone, they're just enjoying themselves."

"Mum, I am all for enjoyment, but not here in my place of sanctuary."

She stopped and watched him in that incredulous way with her mouth open. "Since when has my kitchen been you're sanctuary?"

"Since here is the only place I can get free home cooked meals."

She rolled her eyes. "Oh for goodness sake. Here change these, the good plates are in the cupboard," she said handing him the stack of plates when he had put down the bowls. "Ginny, dear, could you help me please?" Molly said as she went to wash her hands.

"And so it begins," Draco said into her ear causing her to laugh. "You do know this means no contact for about three hours?"

Ginny sighed and rolled her eyes before going to help her mum.

***

The night sky was covered in clouds making the garden seem unbearably black. The only light was coming from the house but it did nothing for the scenery she knew would be spectacular if only the moon was there to show it to her. She smiled briefly as she stared into the darkness remembering the nights spent outside with her family watching the trees shining in the moonlight and hearing the faint splashed of water from the lake nearby. She laughed quietly, she hadn't remembered that in years.

"Still planning your getaway?"

This time, Ginny didn't even turn around. "Go away, Janos. I do not want to speak with you right now, or any other time for that matter."

"Well, I'm sorry for that because you have to listen to me this time or else circumstances you will not like will surely take effect which will make you even angrier."

She sighed heavily with a huff and turned to him. She was grateful he only seemed to appear in gardens when she was at home. She didn't know how she would explain this to her family, let alone her husband. "What? What do you want now, here to tell me your snipping off a few days to teach me a lesson because right now that's the only thing that will make me listen to a word you have to say."

"No, that's not what I came here to say. You seem to have a bit of a temper on you these past few days, and I'm not sure the new I have for you is good to be given to you in this state. I was planning on giving you something to possibly apologise for the way I handled things yesterday. It was not gentleman-like and I apologise for it."

"Oh." She felt slightly guilty.

"Anyway. As a token of it I was going to tell you that I was giving you some days extra but apparently that seems to have flown out the window with your biting remarks. So, good day." With that, he was gone.

Ginny stood, watching the previously occupied space. Shock was not the word to describe it. Guilty and stupid were probably the words for it. She mentally kicked herself.

"Dammit!" she said hitting her head repeatedly on the arm of the bench. "Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!" She sighed and let it fall back ignoring the pain she had now created in her forehead. "Shit. Bugger it!"

"Hey, calm down, sis. What's wrong?" Ron said as he came outside with a mug of hot chocolate for both of them.

"I opened my big mouth, that's what's wrong." She took the steaming mug and rested it beside her.

"Oh, Weasley temper eh? Yeah, it'll be the death of all of us, sadly." He looked up at the sky. The clouds were parting now and the moon and dozens of stars could be seen now. "Don't worry though, I'm sure whatever you've cocked up will fix itself, somehow. Things have a way of doing that when you think it's all gone to shit."

Ginny narrowed her eyes wondering who this man was and what he had done with her brother. "You, giving tips on life? I've heard and seen it all now."

"I know ironic, huh?" he smiled. "Seriously though, it'll be alright. You'll see." He sat with her for a few more moments looking at the moon. "Words to live by?" he offered.

She smiled. "Shoot."

"I'll do one better actually. Words for me to part by and therefore make me look and sound insightful to your problems." He stood up and made to go inside, Ginny followed him with her eyes. As he reached the door he turned to her. "Everything has a loop hole."

She watched him go inside with a sad smile. She had just blown the chance of getting a few extra days here by being herself. Oh well, she thought to herself. I'll just have to find some other way to stay here that's all. She followed her brother inside intent on finding the solution.