Chapter 1
Cruel World
Ginerva Weasley had always been a bit of a loner during her days at Hogwarts. She had never fit in with the crowd. In her first year her loneliness was quite apparent when confiding in a diary landed her in more hot water than she could have ever bargained for. By year four she had gotten a bit better at making friends and she actually got to join the trio, along with Neville and Luna, in some of their escapades. She even got over her little crush on Harry Potter and began dating that year. In her sixth year she had gained amazing popularity when she called out Draco Malfoy in front of the entire school accusing him of being a daddy's boy. But as much as she was turning into a social butterfly, she had always relied on only herself to be her best friend.
***Seven years post Hogwarts***
Ginny was late. She was scheduled to meet with her clients an hour ago, but due to Hermione's bachelorette party the night before, she arose later than she would have liked to that morning. She walked into her office, greeting her clients apologetically as she did so, and offered to take them to brunch to make up for her tardiness. Sure, she was suffering from a hangover and yes, she was far too late to brew a sobriety potion of any kind but she thought of it as penance for keeping her clients waiting. She just had to remember not to take her shades off and not to walk with too many jerky movements and she'd be okay.
Ginny took them both to a little bistro she had found a few months aback with the most amazing pastries she had ever had. She knew that whatever remaining hostile thoughts they were having against her for being late would be erased once they tasted Juan's baking. It had never failed to work on a client yet. Once they were settled in, she proceeded to show them the layouts she had in mind. Mr. and Mrs. Beasel, however, had politely waved off her designs and placed their own on the table. She had to admit in all her years as an interior decorator, she had never seen anything like it, but in some odd way it was beautiful, even with all its mismatched colours.
The room that they had in mind looked like it was another planet all together. They wanted the ceilings enchanted so it would look like it was a pink sky. The carpets were designed to look like fluorescent blue grass. Potted plants were to be enchanted so that they looked like they were gold in colour. Porcelain toadstool mushrooms were to be painted red with white spots and strategically placed all around the room. Pink rocks were to be placed inside a neon green water fountain.
Mr. and Mrs. Beasel were self-confessed science fiction nuts and were beaming with pride as Ginny looked over at them in amazement. Mr. Beasle gently patted Mrs. Beasel's stomach and then looked up at Ginny. "Our baby deserves the best," he said. Mrs. Beasel, in reply, just looked at her husband adoringly. Ginny felt a tinge of jealousy, wondering if anyone would ever look at her in that way but brushed it away quickly and retuned to the subject at hand.
"Congratulations again," she said. "But I am confused. If you and Mrs. Beasel have this all worked out," she asked, "then why the need for me?"
Mr. Beasel nodded at her. "I see your concern Ms. Weasley," he said. "But Caroline and I are so busy these days and we did hear you were the best in your line of work, so naturally we chose you. We do hope that you prove the rumours true."
Ginny blushed a little at the compliment. It was true that she did work hard at what she did and that she was very good at it, Merlin knew that she did put in long hours, but to say that she was the best was ludicrous in her opinion. Ginny had in fact accidentally stumbled into her profession. After she left Hogwarts she found it incredibly hard to find a job that she both liked and paid well. She had initially started off working for her brothers, Fred and George, which was nice but it didn't exactly pay well and was only part time. In her spare time she helped Molly around the house and even started redecorating the house with whatever little spare money that she had, just to keep herself entertained. Molly's tea group had taken notice of the transformation of the Burrow and pretty soon they were offering Ginny small jobs to help give a facelift to their homes. Her reputation had spread by word of mouth but still she was a small fish in a big pond. It was only when she had caught her one and only serious boyfriend, Kevin De Glasglow in the arms of another woman that she truly threw herself into her work, and excelled in it. Now she had been playing with big fishes, but as much as she enjoyed it, she still had ways to go. "Thank you, Mr. Beasel," she replied politely. "And you may call me Ginny."
"You are most welcome, Ginny," he replied. "And since we are going on a first name basis I must insist that you call me, Jonathan and my wife, Caroline. Mr. Beasel makes me sound too much like my father anyway."
"Will do Mr. Be..er..Jonathan," she replied with a salute. "I shall start working on these right after the holidays."
.............
Draco Malfoy was a selfish prat. In fact, he had been a selfish prat all of his life and he wasn't about to change that now. Besides, he was clearly tired of having to correct the mistakes of the imbeciles that worked for him, so for today, despite the fact that it was Christmas eve, he had decided that enough was enough and that he was going to fire them. He gave them their last paychecks and thanked them for all the time they would no longer be employed at his company. In fact he gave them a little bonus just to show them how happy he was to have them out of his hair.
Draco, now owned and operated the equivalent of a muggle private investigating firm. He had always had an appetite for prey and this was the only legal way he could enjoy his favourite sport. He could have become and Auror but they lived by the rules too much. He had often butted heads with them on several cases and generally they annoyed him to no ends, all except one; Potter. True, his warring days with Potter were over, but he could not say that he did not gain immense pleasure from seeing him squirm. Just Draco's mere presence would annoy him and it was one of the few things in life that filled Draco with warmth. He loved getting under Potter's skin.
His two employees, or rather ex-employees, Geoffery Gibbs and Daniel Hypes, were always botching up. They were two incompetents if Draco ever saw some. In his latest case they managed to contaminate evidence when once of them accidentally stepped in a puddle of the victim's blood, leaving shoe prints everywhere. Draco had taken quite a blow from the ministry Aurors for that one. He had no choice but to fire them really.
His latest case baffled him. It seemed as though some psycho was taking pleasure in cutting up young women so that their once pretty faces became unrecognizable. What baffled Draco the most was that the assailant was using a muggle method of killing his victims. A wizard would have used a simple Avada Kedavra curse on his victims, not a carving knife. He had not ruled out that the monster might be a muggle. In fact the only thing keeping him from completely believing his theory was that all the psycho's victims were witches. He had no leads as to whom the man might be either, assuming that it was a man. For now though, he gave his assailant a gender and that gender was male. The only motive that Draco could think of at the moment was pure pleasure. It made him sick to his stomach to think what kind of monster could do that to another human being.
Draco had always been a bit of a bad ass in school. In fact, in the final war he had sided with Voldemort. When it came to killing his first victim however he found that he was incapable of doing so, no matter how evil he tried to appear on the outside. The thought of snuffing out a life was more than he could bare, and it was the one turning factor in Draco's life. Here, there were men who could so easily kill just for the sake of killing and he wondered why he would if he really wanted to be a part of that. Could he really trust anyone who could take a life so easily? In the end he decided it was not worth it and joined Potter and the others in their conquest to destroy the Dark Lord. After all, what was a world without freedom?
.............
Once Ginny had finished up with the Beasels she apparated back to her office, relieved her assistant Charlotte McGuire of her duties, and then headed to Hogsmeade Super Mall, which had recently been opened, to finish the rest of her Christmas shopping. She still had to shop for Ron, Luna and the twins. Ron and Luna were expecting their first child in April of the following year. She decided that she would get Luna this beautiful black maternity robe that she had seen just earlier that week and Fred and George both some new robes as well. As much as she loved the twins, they had no sense of style whatsoever and she tried to dress them whenever she could. Ron however was a bit more difficult. She could not seem to find a gift that would suit him. Just as she was about to give up and go home, she spotted exactly what she was looking for; a beautiful gold quill in the shape of a Sleeksweep; the latest in the line of brooms on the market. She was positive that her brother, the star Keeper of the Chudley Cannons, would love it.
.............
Draco made his way through the overcrowded Hogsmeade mall. It was too bad that he did not get his mother's Christmas present earlier. He hated dealing with crowds. It seemed like half of them went out of his way to bump into him. Not that he blamed them of course. Being the dashingly handsome young God that he was, he could see their motive for wanting to. It was just that it annoyed him to no end when they did. The price he paid for being beautiful. He made a beeline to the only store she ever shopped in and got her some of her favourite perfumes and a brooch. On his way out, he saw a little trinket he could get himself and reached for it at the same time another pair of hands did.
"Weasley," he drawled looking down at the face that belonged to the hand.
"Malfoy," she replied. "I got to it first and therefore it rightfully belongs to me." She watched him through narrowed eyes preparing herself for the fight that was about to take place. He continued to watch her but made no move to remove his hand from the box.
"Are you going to send Daddykins after me?" she asked with disgust when she got no response. "Nice to see that you've changed after all these years," she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
"You can have it," he replied tensely. "After all, I would never wear anything that a Weasley even remotely looked at, unless of course it was because they couldn't afford it. And for the record you insufferable git, my father is dead."
"Malfoy, I am sorry," she looked at him apologetically. "I forgot."
Draco turned away and walked off consumed with his own thoughts. Their little confrontation had not really reminded him of his father's death so much, although no matter how bad the man was, he was still his father and it still hurt to loose him, but of his confrontation with the youngest Weasley in his seventh year. He had gone up to the Gryffindor table to taunt Potter and gang as per usual, when the little red head suddenly spoke up. She had accused him of being a bully and hiding behind his father and that in fact he was nothing without Lucius. And like clockwork, without thinking, he opened his mouth to threaten her, and his father was once again used in the line of defense. The entire school had started laughing at him and he just stalked out of the Great Hall, red as a beet, not bothering to turn back, vowing revenge against her. The more he thought about it as he went back to his room though, the more he realized that she was right. He did hide behind his father for everything. He was not Draco Malfoy, but Lucius Malfoy's shadow.
In some way, as much as he hated her, he had her to thank for the change in the way he thought. He turned back to look at her now. Her back was now facing him, her long red hair cascading over her shoulders. She was at the counter. He assumed that she was paying for the pen that she was willing to fight him so valiantly for. As dirt poor and vile as they were, even he had to admit that the Weasley's were good people and he was touched that she humbled herself to apologise to him. It also made him wonder exactly how she could afford the pen, a thought that he would amuse himself with for the next ten minutes or so.
.............
He sat in the dark shadows waiting, craving for the moment when he could come out and play again. He had enjoyed cutting up his last victim. Her face looked so lovely each time he sliced. He had tasted her blood. She had tasted so sweet, like a fine wine aged to perfection. Her screams had been so intoxicating. He had closed his eyes and took them in. They had left him so high he felt as if he had used the most exotic drug in the world. Oh, how he enjoyed his little hobby.
He had to put up a fight with the owner of the place each time he wanted to leave the place he resided, in order step foot out the walls that blocked his path. But in the end he always won out and roamed the streets free, waiting for his next victim. Each time though, it weakened him a little and he was forced to go back to the confines of the wall to reenergize so that he could kill another time…