The House Guest

"A WHAT?!" a boy's voice angrily resounded throughout the Malfoy's mansion, causing the house elves to cower in fear behind various pieces of furniture.

"A house sitter, dear," Narcissa Malfoy calmly repeated to her son. "Your father and I are going to be gone for the entire summer, and we need someone to care for our home, especially when most of the house elves are coming along with us."

Draco crossed his arms and glared haughtily at his mother. "What about me? I'm sixteen, you know. I am perfectly capable of caring for the mansion by myself!" Normally, Draco didn’t act quite like a spoiled brat. Okay, so he did, but he usually tried not to sound like he was still eleven years old. Of course, his mother could be infuriating, which is when Draco would start to whine.

Narcissa waved her hand in dismissal. "Don't be silly!" she tittered, amused. "If there's one thing a woman knows, it's that a man is incapable of keeping a house in order! Why, if I ever left Lucius here for more than two days by himself, the place would be in shambles! I remember this one time when..."

Draco silently fumed as his mother started babbling some gibberish about how his father almost blew up the kitchen when they were newlyweds. He hated hearing stories about how stupid his father was when he was younger. He hated that his mother didn't trust him enough to mind the house while they were away. And he absolutely despised that very thought that some...some...tramp...was going to invade his house - and worse yet, his privacy! He didn't need a baby sitter!

"...and it took three hours to douse the flames," Narcissa was still rambling on. "I had to replace my entire underwear collection!" Draco, who had not been paying attention to anything that she was saying and was caught off guard by the mention of panties, snapped his head up to look at his mother with fear and disdain. He feverishly hoped that there wasn't anything more to that story, because he used the nausea excuse to get away the last time she had gone off on a tirade like this, and he was sure that it would not work again.

"That's why I went to Dumbledore and asked him for some advice on the matter," she continued, oblivious to her son's discomfort. "He recommended a nice Gryffindor girl for the job, and after some thought, I believe she'll do nicely..."

Draco nearly fell over with shock. "A GRYFFINDOR?" he sputtered.

"Yes, a Gryffindor,” she repeated. “What else did you expect?"

"Couldn't you have gotten anyone else?" he said angrily. "A Slytherin maybe? Stick to your roots?"

"Oh, stop that," she retorted. "You know better than anyone that we can't trust a Slytherin in the house for three months and expect everything to stay as is. There is no one that can be trusted more to do the right thing than a Gryffindor, and that is why you are going to treat Miss Virginia Weasley with respect."

"W-W-Weasley?" Draco stammered connecting the name to the gawky redheaded girl that followed Potter around like a little lost puppy. He began pacing back and forth in a rage. "I can't tolerate a Weasley in our home! What if she invites her brothers in and lets them ransack the place? What if she brings over that mudblood friend of hers and sets all the house elves free? What if --"

"That is enough!" Narcissa angrily interrupted his tirade. "This is not your decision to make! I have already contacted Molly and spoken to her about this, and she agrees that this is the perfect opportunity for her daughter to get away from her brothers and learn to make do on her own. We have made all the necessary arrangements, and you are not going to be the one to ruin them."

"What about Father?" Draco asked, trying to find a way out of spending the summer with an impoverished little snit. "He isn't going to like this..."

"Oh, I took care of Lucius last night," Draco's mother said slyly, causing her son to wince away with a grimace on his face. That was definitely too much information. "I have control of the situation, young man; you needn't worry about a thing."

With that, Narcissa turned and strode away from Draco, who was left standing flabbergasted in the den. Oh, he was worried, all right...there was no telling what sort of sneaky ideas the little weasel girl would have...

***

Author’s Note: Sorry this is chapter is a bit short. Most of the chapters in this story will be short, because it’s just a fun thing for me to write. It’s based off a challenge that one of my friends issued to her yahoo group, but I found I couldn’t do the challenge according to the rules so I’m modifying it some. Also, if you find anyone to be out of character, you’re probably right. But, I don’t care; it’s more fun this way. Besides, it’s not as out of character as some fics I’ve read with strange, disturbing slash pairings…like Fred and George… ::uncomfortable shiver:: Ewwwww…

Ginny Weasley stood in the middle of the dining room as blurs of red dashed frantically back and forth. Today was the day that she was to start summer job at Malfoy Mansion, and her brothers were in a flap about it. “What if Draco decides to sic a dark creature on you?” Ron had demanded. “What if he turns you into a…a scarlet woman?!” He was really starting to get on Ginny’s nerves.

Fred and George had returned home from their apartment above their joke shop specifically for this occasion. They had armed Ginny with so many different items they had invented that she was sure she had forgotten which did what. She hoped that she wouldn’t go to eat the chocolate that faded freckles and eat the one that made your hair fall out for a day instead. She wasn’t exactly sure why she would bother to make Draco’s hair fall out. It wasn’t like there was anything particularly wrong with his hair, and if she did do anything like that to him he would go even further to make her stay there more miserable than it already would be – and she was sure it would be quite miserable enough already, thank you very much.

Not that she was forced into this or anything. It had been her idea in the first place, and she had put an ad in the Daily Prophet about being willing to housesit for the summer. It was only by luck (whether it good luck or bad luck was what Ginny hadn’t decided) that Narcissa Malfoy contacted her first. Ginny wasn’t about to turn down a job from people with so much prestige even if she did despise them. If she did well, they would pay her fairly and recommend her to others. And Merlin knew she needed the money.

“Virginia, dear, don’t just stand there. Go get your stuff together!” Molly scolded as she scurried by. Ginny wrinkled her nose and trudged up the stairs to her room to get her bags. It wasn’t like she had very much to bring with her – just one trunk, and she had packed it ages ago. She made sure that her supplies from the twins were buried at the very bottom. She was sure she wouldn’t have to use them. Draco couldn’t use his wand outside of school any more than she could, so there’d be no reason to retaliate.

Ginny’s eyes swept about her room, making sure she didn’t forget anything. Her gaze landed on the letter from Harry that she left sitting on her desk. Harry was very concerned about the youngest Weasley’s newest undertaking, and he had even offered to write to Dobby and ask him to check on her every few days. Ginny had refused to allow any help, but she had appreciated his kindness now that he actually offered it to her, even if he was a few years too late. She hoped Harry would write to her while she was at the Malfoy’s. Unless they allowed her to use one of their owls, she would have to wait for Hedwig or Pidwigeon to be able to contact anyone. She still hadn’t an owl of her own.

Nodding in satisfaction that she had packed all she needed, Ginny grabbed her trunk and hauled it out of her room, almost crashing into Ron as she struggled with it.

“Here, let me do that,” Ron said gruffly, pulling the trunk out of her grasp and lifting it easily down the stairs. “You need to save your strength.”

For what? Ginny wondered as she followed her brother, not bothering to ask him for an explanation because she knew it was probably something completely unreasonable. Cripes, he’s weird. You’d think I was going to boot camp or something.

When they reached the bottom of the stairs, Ron dropped the drunk and swept Ginny into a tight hug. “Be careful,” he said, causing Ginny to roll her eyes.

“Honestly, Ron,” she said, returning the hug before stepping away from him. “I’ll be just fine.”

He didn’t look very convinced, but he did allow her over to the fireplace without further interference. Fred, George, and her mother were already gathered around it. Her father and Percy were working, as usual, but they had both wished her luck. Percy was especially happy for her, telling her that this would help her make valuable connections and allow her to rise up in the world. Ginny thought he was daft, but at least he wasn’t stuffing vomit inducing cupcakes in her pockets or teaching her how to break someone’s nose.

Not that she didn’t already know how to break someone’s nose, of course. She’d broken Ron’s nose before. Fred’s, too. Or maybe it was George. She supposed they thought she had done it by accident.

Suckers.

“I’m ready,” she said firmly to her mother, who appeared to have a tear in her eye. She reached over for the floo powder and handed it to Ginny.

“Be careful, dear,” she said.

“Don’t forget to put those bat wings in Draco’s soup,” George said.

“And leave out an exploding quill,” added Fred.

Ron tapped a button on the side of Ginny’s trunk, and it shrank down to a size that she could easily carry in the fireplace. She looked at him incredulously, wondering why he had suffered to bring it down the stairs.

“I paid Fred and George to install it,” he said sheepishly. “I couldn’t do much else for you but carry it, so I didn’t tell you right away.”

Ginny beamed. “Thanks, Ron,” she said, and then turned to look at everyone else.

“Make sure you write!” she chirped, and before anyone could say a word, she had grabbed a handful of floo powder, tossed it in the fireplace, and shouted, “Malfoy Mansion!”

Author’s Note: Another short chapter. Like I said they’ll all be 2 pages or so. Next chapter: Draco’s reaction to Ginny, and Narcissa makes a surprise announcement!

“Stop fussing, Draco. Virginia will be here any moment now,” Narcissa said, wiping a smudge of dirt off of her son’s face that probably didn’t really exist in the first place. Honestly, didn’t she realize that the fact that the Weasley brat was coming here was why he was fussing in the first place? And he wished she wouldn’t cat-wash his face anymore. It was quite displeasing.

“Mother,” he scowled, knocking her hand away from his face. “Stop it.”

“Fine then,” she said with a haughty sniff. “If you want her to see you with that on your face, that’s not my problem.” She bent her head to look through her purse, muttering something about fuchsia lipstick, and Draco tried to discreetly wipe off his cheek. What if there was something on it? That certainly wouldn’t do his flawless image any justice!

POP!

Draco quickly dropped his hands to his sides as Virginia stepped out of the fireplace. Unlike many others, the hearths at Malfoy Manor were all neat and tidy and rarely ever contained anything but a magical fire that didn’t require combustibles. Thus, when someone entered their home by floo, they ‘popped’ in rather than ‘poofed’ in, for there was no cloud of soot and dust that would make a ‘poof’ sound.

She was certainly lucky they kept it clean, because she had chosen to wear a flowing, white sundress. It wasn’t designer clothing, but it was quite nice anyway, and Draco wondered how the impoverished little girl had managed to afford it.

He also wondered when the impoverished little girl had manage to become an impoverished…woman. He had never noticed before, but her curves had filled out nicely. He thought back and realized that he had never actually seen her body before, because her robes were all hand-me-downs and were usually way too big for her. Still, it wasn’t anything he had never seen before. He acknowledged her as a woman, but not as anyone worth being civil to.

As her son assessed his new employee, Narcissa stepped up to shake her hand. “Good morning, Virginia. What a lovely dress!”

Virginia flushed slightly, not used to being praised in such a way. “Thank you,” she said quietly. “I made it myself.”

“Really?” said Mrs. Malfoy. “How wonderful!”

Draco new his mother was just being cordial with the girl. She played nice with everyone and won their favors easily. Still, it was a nice dress – better than anything else she probably had, anyway – and it would have taken some work and talent to be able to make such a thing, even with magic as an aid. At least she hadn’t worn one of her frayed, tattered frocks. His mother would have been offended.

“Before I go, Virginia,” Narcissa said (Lucius had elected to leave a few hours prior), “Please let me introduce you to Bidda.” A shy little house elf peered out from behind Narcissa’s formal robes. “I’m assigning Bidda to you for the duration of the summer. She is to obey your orders and help you with your work. If she disobeys you in any fashion, you are to tell me straight away.” Narcissa glared at the little elf for extra emphasis, and it shivered.

“Yes Ma’am,” Virginia said, smiling.

“Wait a second, mother!” Draco burst out. “She’s friends with that Granger girl! She’ll set that elf free for sure!” Bidda squeaked and hid herself in Narcissa’s robes, appalled.

“Nonsense, Draco,” Narcissa said, catching Ginny’s narrowed eyes. “You’re more paranoid than Alastor Moody. Virginia is a pureblood. She knows perfectly well that normal house elves enjoy what they do.”

“Yes,” Ginny said, trying to keep her voice from sounding like a growl. Draco Malfoy was such an insufferable prat! “The house elves know very well what they could have if they were set free, and they prefer to serve their families. Hermione is wrong to force her ideas on a culture that believes differently than she does.” Sometimes Hermione had no common sense. She had learned all about the goblin rebellions in history class, and those happened for much the same reason!

“See?” Narcissa said. “She most certainly knows how to handle a house elf, even if her family isn’t established enough to own one.”

Ginny flinched. Draco smirked.

“I left some instructions for you on the desk in your quarters,” she went on, not realizing she had just insulted the redhead. “I really must be going now. I’ll owl you in a few day to see how you are doing.”

And without further warning, Narcissa Malfoy apparated out of the manor, causing Biddy to squeak again and leaving the two teenagers to glare at each other.

Author’s Note: And now the fun can begin! Bwahahaha!