A/N: Wow. It's been such a ridiculously long time since I've updated, that I'm still trying to figure out if it's even worth writing anymore. This is a short chapter, I warn you, mainly because it was a way for me to get out of this rut I've been in for ABYCW. If you still want me to continue, I'll update the next chapter very soon.
Disclaimer: It's Rowling's, okay?
Chapter Two
Ginny was panting, and leaning against the bathroom door. Not just a bathroom door-
Draco Malfoy's bathroom door.
As soon as she'd seen him, Ginny had squealed like a mouse, made a mad dash for his loo, and locked the door behind her. She looked around at her surroundings. The bathroom was smaller than she'd expected, but was much larger than hers, and grander by many standards. The wall was painted a dark maroon colour, and was based around an East Indian theme. There were several wallpaper paintings of various Gods and Goddesses all of whom were holding wands and casting spells at each other. The shower was made of a gold material, as were several of the hooks and knobs around the room. The shower curtain was dark green. On the counter there were several male beauty products strewn about.
Ginny carefully placed all of them in the medicine cabinet above and furiously began scrubbing the sink. "Malfoy, of all people, in France. France! Of all places. . . France! Not that I wouldn't expect him in a hotel such as this," Ginny muttered to herself as she wrung out the rag and cast a drying charm on it.
Just as Ginny was about to cast a sparkling charm on the tap, there was a knock at the door. "Hey, Weasley, going to be done in my bathroom any time soon?" Ginny huffed and decided not to respond as she tapped the toilet with her wand. The toilet began to self-clean.
Satisfied, she grabbed the rag, stuffed it in her pocket and opened the door, promptly being knocked over by Draco Malfoy. He appeared to have been leaning on the door, ear against the wood. In any case, it didn't quite matter what he had been doing.
What did matter, was that Ginny was on the cold marble floor with her arch-nemesis of, well, always, lying on top of her. Much contrary to several stereotypical situations involving her and Malfoy lying on top of each other, she certainly did not feel "electricity" run through her veins.
"Weasley, get off of me!"
Ginny tried to push part of his weight off of her stomach. "Excuse- me- Malfoy-" she breathed out, "but- you- are- the one- on- top- OF ME!"
Malfoy leaped off of her, and brushed himself off, without offering a hand to Ginny. She got to her feet and brushed herself off as well. Deciding not to stay in his presence any longer, she pushed past Malfoy and went to fetch her cart.
Ginny was very relieved to notice that the room had previously been cleaned after the last guest had departed, and there was nothing to do except for a bit of dusting. Deciding to risk it, she left the dusting for another day, and pushed the cart out of the door.
*
The youngest Weasley had just changed out of her work clothes for the day, and after a relaxing bath, decided to make a trip downstairs. Muggle music was playing in the lobby once Ginny arrived from her journey down the (literally) spiraling stairs.
She slowly danced a few steps to the music with a smile and sang to herself: "Michelle, my belle, these are words that go together well. I want you, I want you, I want you, I think you know by now. . " Laughing, she made her way over to a reception desk where a young man was getting ready to finish up his shift. He had an amused smile on his face, as she approached him.
"Hi, I'm Ginny," she said as she offered her his hand. He shook it and nodded.
"The new maid, right?"
"That's right. I just got here late last night." The man nodded again.
"I'm Joseph. You can call me Joey."
"Cool." There was a pause and slight shuffle as Joey put away his papers and put on his coat. "Hey, listen, I'm kind of new to this whole France thing. Do you know of any nearby places where I could get some food?"
"There's a neat coffee place down the road, we could grab a bite to eat there. How's that?"
"Sounds good. I haven't eaten since this morning," said Ginny as they headed to the doors. "Not to mention that I haven't seen much of France yet." Joey put on his old-fashioned nineteenth-century hat and tipped it as another reception clerk walked towards them.
She seemed to be in quite a rush, and in her hurry, bumped into Ginny. Ginny's purse fell on the floor, as well as all its contents. The girl stopped abruptly and looked down her nose at the redhead. "Don't you think you should be a little more careful, hm? We don't want employees incapable of walking to roam the lobbies of potential customers." And with that, she walked away, her heels clicking on the marble floor.
Ginny and Joey bent down to pick the contents up off the floor. Joey placed a final lipstick tube back into the purse, before straightening up. "She was awfully rude," remarked Ginny as they walked outside. Joey shrugged, as though he couldn't care less, and began to point out various stores. "That's a grocery store. You'll need to know what's reasonably well-priced. . . we employees who live in the Château have Wizard powered refrigerators, as you may have noticed." Ginny hadn't but was happy to learn that she didn't have to buy food in the downstairs café every day.
"Is that place any good?" She asked and pointed at a nearby restaurant.
"Yes, in fact. That's where we're going." They walked up to the small place with a cute white and pink sign above it. La Vie en Rose, it read.
"How poetic," Ginny commented as he held the door open for her and she slipped in. Joey nodded.
At that moment, a waitress in a navy blue outfit and a tight-fitting apron approached them. "Salut. Pour vous deux?" she asked.
"Oui, merci," said Joey as they were led to a booth and sat down. Once they'd both made themselves comfortable, Joey initiated conversation. "So do you know any French?"
Ginny blushed ever so slightly at the question. "No. I didn't have time to learn before I came."
"Hmm, you may want to work on that a bit. Many of our customers speak French, and it's hard to get around with out it. Actually. . ." He said, digging into his briefcase, and returning with a small yellow book. "I have a foreigner's manual. You can borrow it if you want."
"Oh," said Ginny, taking the book gratefully. "Thank-you, very much."
"No problem."
Dinner passed by quite pleasantly, and Ginny was grateful for the chance to learn more about France, and most of all, more about Joseph. He really was a nice guy, and although he was no Harry replacement, at least he could be a friend.
When they had both finished dinner and each had retired to their respective rooms, Ginny sat down at her desk and opened the letter that a barn owl had dropped off from Harry while she was gone. It read:
Dear Ginny,
I'm glad the trip from London to Avalon went well. Keep me posted on your daily activities. I do miss you already, you know, even though it's only been a few days. Right now I'm still plain old Harry. Still working at that bookstore in Diagon Alley, and still training for Quidditch in my spare time. Speaking of Quidditch, I've got to go meet your brothers Ron, Fred and George for a practice.
Your mum sends her love, and so do I!
-Harry
Ginny folded the letter and got into her pajamas. Climbing into the huge bed (it did take a stepping stool to get into the large four-poster), she pulled the covers over herself and blew out the candle.
*