Author's Note: Thank you to all who reviewed! Sorry that the first chapter was so short, this one is way more lengthy. I hope that the idea for this story is catching and exciting. I know its a lot different from Just A Distraction so far, but there are some more fluffy parts in the next few chapters, so just give it time. This update might seem a little odd only because Ron is sort of the voice of reason towards the end of the chapter, which is kinda weird, but he brings up something that will explain why he's acting more rational. Anyway, I really hope you enjoy this! Please, please leave a review! Thanks so much!!! :)

Raynea flattened herself against the door, panting heavily as she did. She couldn't believe what had just happened. This had to be a dream…it simply couldn't be real. She hadn't seen Draco in months, and after the manner in which they parted, Raynea was certain she would never see him again. The mere sight of him made her burn with rage. She had no idea what he was doing there, but she refused to let him inside. He could die out there for all she cared. Draco Malfoy would not set foot in the Burrow. Suddenly, she heard him yelling from outside. Apparently, he had recovered from her violent actions rather quickly.

"Bloody hell…" Draco shouted through the door, "Will you let me explain myself?"

"Drop dead!" Raynea exclaimed frantically as she checked to make sure the door was locked. Then, she remembered that Draco had a wand.

"Dammit," she muttered as she braced herself against the door with more force. Things quieted down for a moment, and Raynea thought that he might have given up, but then she recalled that she was dealing with Draco Malfoy—probably one of the most thick headed people on the face of the planet. No, he would not give up so easily. All of a sudden, the lock clicked, indicating that it was no longer serving its purpose. Raynea pushed the door shut against the weight of Draco trying to pull it open.

"You're being stubborn as bloody usual…" he groaned irritably, "Will you hear me out?"

"Piss off!" Raynea yelled tensely. She had no idea how to handle this situation. She was a wizard, so she knew she should just fight him off, but she couldn't think straight. Something just wouldn't allow her to even let him step foot in the house. Abruptly, Draco's weight mastered hers, and she toppled forward as the door swung open. Raynea acted quickly and ripped her wand out of her pocket and aimed it at Draco.

"Stupefy!"

He was sent backwards outside of the house and landed on the ground, knocked unconscious. Raynea relaxed for a second before instantly shutting and locking the door. She remained right in front of it, prepared in case Draco woke up in the near future. Hopefully, he would be out for a little while. Raynea wished someone else was home. Handling this by herself was extraordinarily difficult—both emotionally and physically. She couldn't fight off Draco forever. He would best her eventually, even though she hated to admit it to herself.

Raynea was trying so hard to keep it together. The situation was shocking, terrifying and, in the simplest of terms, hard. She didn't feel the need to cry…or breathe. She just stayed poised in front of the door, utterly still. Many questions were raised in her mind, the main one being: why the hell was Draco Malfoy at the Burrow? How did he get there? Why would he choose there of all places to go? Did he know that she had been living there? Despite all the uncertainty, Raynea was sure of one thing; Draco Malfoy was an evil, soulless son of a bitch that was most likely there to kill them all. He was a Death Eater, therefore he couldn't be trusted. Raynea pondered how to more efficiently take control of the situation on her own before she heard the roar of fire coming from the living room. She felt some more relief as she heard the sound of muted chatter coming from the other room, and Ron strolled in shortly after that.

"You're still not dressed?" he questioned amusedly, "I know you don't like your birthday, but you can't laze around all day."

"Yeah…well…we have a…sort of…situation," Raynea stated uneasily as she swallowed a lump in her throat. A situation? That was putting it lightly.

"What's going on?" Ron asked, his tone still humorous and lax.

Raynea beckoned him towards the door before opening it and walking a few paces outside. Ron followed closely behind her and stopped as they approached Draco's unconscious figure. Raynea stared up at her best friend shakily as he gave her a grim look.

"If this was your idea of a great birthday present…you were sadly mistaken," she said ironically, glancing back down at Draco wearily.

"We have to tell the others," Ron reasoned, disregarding her quip. He immediately headed back into the house with Raynea right behind him. She didn't even bother to close the door upon her entry; she was too spooked to even remember to do so. Everyone else had flocked into the kitchen by the time they returned, and Ron was the first to speak.

"Mum, we have a problem," he stated with wide eyes.

"Yes, I know, dear," Mrs. Weasley replied distractedly, "We have less time to prepare for Raynea's birthday than I thought." She turned towards Raynea and smiled warmly, "Go upstairs and relax while we get everything ready."

"Mrs. Weasley—"

"Scoot, scoot," she insisted kindly, prompting Ron and Raynea to make more desperate attempts to explain their circumstances.

"Mum, forget about her birthday for a second. There's something more serious going on," Ron informed her gravely.

"What's the problem, Ronald?" Mrs. Weasley asked with a hint of impatience in her voice. Ron opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted by a voice coming from behind them.

"Me," stated the cool voice of Draco Malfoy. He was standing in the doorway and everyone inside the house stared at him, completely in shock. Raynea whipped around to face him, her wand already drawn and aimed at him. Draco rolled his eyes as he held up his hands in mock surrender, "You always did jump to bloody conclusions."

"What're you doing here?" Raynea demanded, narrowing her eyes. Draco took a cautious step forward, his arms still turned upward.

"I…uh…I need you all to hear me out…"

"Not bloody likely," Raynea shot back fiercely.

"Come on, McCoy…"

Suddenly, six other wands were pointed at Draco and his expression became more fearful. He backed up a few paces until he was pushed up against the door. Raynea, Hermione and the Weasleys came up to him and had their wands poised right in his face. Draco still seemed arrogant despite the fact that his expression looked terrified.

"Will you people just let me explain myself?" he inquired edgily.

Raynea turned her head back towards Mrs. Weasley and looked to her for guidance, but she seemed just as unsure and bewildered as the rest of them.

"Wait until Arthur gets home…he'll know what to do…" Mrs. Weasley suggested hesitantly.

"What do we do with this ponce until then?" Fred asked angrily.

"Tie him up," Raynea stated furiously, returning her gaze to Draco and glaring at him. He appeared scared at first, but smirked after a moment. He always did hide his fear with smugness.

"Oh, now you know I don't play that way, McCoy," he said smoothly. Raynea sucked in her cheeks and dug her wand into his chest viciously. Her face was suddenly coated with realization as she shoved her hand into the front pocket of his pants. Draco's eyes widened in surprise before his smirk grew.

"Well, this hardly seems the time to—"

Raynea removed her hand from his vicinity and held up his wand in front of his face mockingly. Draco's face fell automatically as she tossed the object across the room and out of his reach. He straightened up and cleared his throat as everyone continued to glare at him with suspicion.

"Fine, do your worst, then," Draco grumbled in defeat. Raynea took a few steps back and faced the others. They all quietly discussed their plan of action while Draco just stood there against the doorframe. Finally, Raynea spun around so that they were face to face once again. She held her wand up so that it was level with his eyes and gestured towards the living room.

"Start walking that way," she ordered quietly. Draco rolled his eyes as he started towards the room, with Raynea treading just behind him. She had her wand shoved against his back, which only added to Draco's frustration. Everyone else followed after Raynea as she led Draco into the living room. There was a chair placed right in front of the fireplace that she commanded Draco to sit in. He reluctantly obeyed her request before Mrs. Weasley came to the front of the group and flicked her wand at him. Ropes shot out from the end of it and wrapped around either one of Draco's wrists, binding him to the chair. Another set of ropes tethered his ankles together, leaving him completely immobile. He grunted in annoyance as he looked up at all the anxious faces staring down at him.

"What the hell did this bloody accomplish?" Draco demanded through gritted teeth.

"We don't know your intentions," Hermione responded curtly.

"Well, maybe if you gave me a chance to explain them to you…" he trailed off bitterly.

"It's safer this way," Raynea stated sharply, "Now, you're less of a threat, not that you were much of one in the first place."

"Ooh…that was cold," Draco answered as he offered her a twisted smile.

"Grin all you want, Malfoy. You're the one who's at our mercy," Raynea responded firmly. He immediately relaxed his face before glaring up at them.

"Say your piece, you git," Ron said angrily, "Why're you here?"

Draco bit his lip in irritation as he cast his eyes downward. Now that he was finally given the chance to explain himself, he chose silence. Raynea wasn't surprised by the irony in this. Draco would never do what anyone told him to, and if he did, it was always with an attitude.

"You finally got what you wanted. Talk," Raynea ordered.

After another moment of hesitation, Draco's face was covered by a look of fear before he finally began to speak.

"I'm not one of them…not anymore," he said in a hushed voice.

"What'd you mean?" Ron questioned.

"Even you're not that dense, Weasley. You understand what I mean," Draco announced roughly, "I turned my back on the Death Eaters."

Raynea's eyes widened for a second as she heard this latest piece of news. She was sincerely shocked, and even excited for a second. Then, she remembered who she was dealing with. Draco Malfoy didn't have it in him to leave the Death Eaters, but he definitely had the capabilities to formulate a convincing lie.

"I'm on your side," Draco added on after a bit of communal silence.

Raynea felt her stomach drop as she backed up a few paces. This was too much to handle. It was either the truth or a huge conspiracy. Honestly, she was certain it was the latter. She had learned the hard way that you should never trust Draco Malfoy. Instead of responding to his last statement, she turned her back on him and strolled into the kitchen. She refused to deal with this…she actually couldn't deal with it. It was just too much.

Ron appeared in the kitchen just behind her. He looked down at her with a serious expression as he sighed.

"Do you think he could be telling the truth?" Ron questioned.

Raynea shook her head despairingly before answering.

"No."

"So…what'd we do now?"

"Do what your mum said," she replied softly, "We'll wait till your dad comes back."

***

In the time that they all spent waiting for Mr. Weasley to return home, Raynea got dressed and tidied up her room a little. She would do anything to keep herself from having to go back downstairs. Seeing Draco again after the few months they had spent apart was difficult to deal with. It was especially hard for her since a lot of her feelings for him came rushing back. She knew what he was, but it wasn't enough to make her hate him. Raynea still cared…even though she was absolutely livid with him.

She was so sure that he was still a Death Eater. He had another mission or he was a spy or something. There was no way that Draco had turned his back on them completely. Most of his family was Death Eaters, so what incentive would he have to leave? Perhaps Draco didn't believe in their cause. Maybe he really did want to be on the right side. He did seem utterly miserable in the last months of their sixth year. It was like he wasn't even himself…could this be because he was forced into being a Death Eater against his will? Raynea recalled what she had heard that night on the Astronomy Tower—the night that Professor Dumbledore had died…

"I have to kill you…or he'll kill me."

Draco was being threatened, but that didn't necessarily mean he had changed sides. Nothing really added up. The whole predicament was rather confusing, but Raynea refused to believe that Draco was telling the truth. He had lied to her so many other times; she couldn't trust him about this—or anything else, for that matter. Her mistrust was the reason for her harshness, that and she was seriously torn by her feelings and her anger. There were too many emotions to feel in this situation, and Raynea was going into overload. She was ripped from her thoughts suddenly as Ron entered the room with caution.

"Er…Dad's back. We told him what's going on," he explained uneasily, "You better come downstairs."

"Okay," Raynea responded as she swallowed a lump in her throat and followed Ron out the door.

The two raced down the steps as fast as they possibly could and headed into the living room immediately. Draco was still bound to the same chair with a sour look on his face while Mr. Weasley and Hermione were talking off to the side of the room. Ron and Raynea approached them expectantly.

"Hi, Mr. Weasley," Raynea began breathlessly, "I'm guessing that you have an idea of what to do about all this."
Mr. Weasley gazed down at the ground pensively before snapping his head up and looking at the other three with a grave expression.

"The only thing we can do now is question him," Mr. Weasley said reasonably, "We'll have to find out what he knows, if he's even willing to tell us anything. After that, we can decide on a more definite course of action."

Ron, Hermione and Raynea all nodded in unison, then the group paced over to Draco, who looked more petulant than ever.

"Tell us again what you're doing here," Mr. Weasley instructed firmly.

Draco rolled his eyes and sighed before addressing the question.

"I already bloody told you...I want to be on your side," he replied impatiently.

"Why do you want to change sides? Why now?" Mr. Weasley inquired.

Draco seemed to have a lot of trouble answering this particular question. He evaded their eyes and stared down into his lap resignedly.

"I never wanted to be…" he trailed off, "I'm just not one of them. I never really could be."

"Then why did you try to kill Albus Dumbledore?"

"Those were my bloody orders…I didn't have a choice. It was his life, or mine. Besides, I'm not the one who did it in the end."

"Why didn't you?"

"…Because I couldn't," Draco admitted after a short silence.

Raynea gazed down at him with soft eyes as she crossed her arms over her chest. She knew that, that part was at least true. She had witnessed the whole thing. She knew for a fact that Draco couldn't force himself to kill Dumbledore.

"So, after being a Death Eater for months, you finally want out?" Ron demanded.

"I couldn't very well stroll out and announce to them all that I was a deserter, now could I?" Draco shot back irritably, "I had to find the right time…I had to wait..."

"You planned to leave from the very beginning?" Mr. Weasley asked curiously.

"Well…no," Draco confessed.

"And you truly want to fight for our side?"

"Yes," he responded.

Mr. Weasley turned to face Ron, Hermione and Raynea before beckoning them into the kitchen. Raynea heard Draco sigh in annoyance as they exited the room, but she ignored it as she joined the other three around the table.

"What do you all think?" Mr. Weasley asked seriously.

"I don't really know," Hermione answered as she bit her lip, "Part of me thinks he could be telling the truth…but there's a huge chance that he's trying to trick us."

"The git's a ruddy liar, dad," Ron stated, "You can't even consider the possibility that he's telling the truth."

"I agree with Hermione," Mr. Weasley told them, "We can't be sure."

"No way," Ron said as he shook his head, "He's still a Death Eater, I know it."

Hermione gazed across the table at Raynea and folded her lips before speaking up once again.

"What'd you think, Raynea?" she questioned gently, "You would know better than any of us."

Mr. Weasley looked rather confused by Hermione's last statement, and turned to face Raynea with curiosity.

"What does she mean, Raynea?" he inquired.

Raynea crossed her arms and stared at the table shamefully. Ron's eyes shifted to Raynea, then he looked at his father to convey a message to him.

"Dad…" he trailed off right before he widened his eyes as if that would serve as an explanation to the question. Mr. Weasley opened his mouth in realization as he glanced at Raynea and cleared his throat.

"Well, then…" he began uncomfortably before getting down to business once again, "Raynea…perhaps you could find out more information."

Her head snapped up and she furrowed her brow as Mr. Weasley started to explain his plan.

"You can talk to Draco…or reason with him…do anything you have to, to get information from him. Or, at least decide if he's trustworthy. Meanwhile, we can work on getting something that will give us the truth no matter what."

"You want to use Veritaserum, don't you?" Hermione asked quietly.

"Yes," Mr. Weasley replied grimly, "And you all know it won't be easy to get, if we can even get it at all."

"Even if you are able to…it could take days," Hermione pointed out.

"I know. That's why you need to try and get through to him, Raynea. You can find out what he knows…or decide if we can trust him."

Raynea's stomach jolted violently as Mr. Weasley repeated these instructions. She couldn't believe that he was asking this of her.

"What makes you all think I could get more information?" she questioned.

"You know him better than we do," Hermione reminded her, "He might actually give you more of an explanation."

Raynea shook her head as she held back tears.

"No…" she said in a weak voice, "You can't ask me to do this alone."

"He trusts you, Rayne," Ron chimed in with a strained tone. Raynea knew that Ron wasn't interested in having her locked in a room with Draco in a thorough interrogation, but he knew that it was their best bet. It was the best way to obtain information while Mr. Weasley tried to get the Veritaserum.

"No," Raynea said nervously, "He won't listen to me…I won't be able to do it…."

"He cares about you," Hermione stated calmly, "There's a good chance that he'll really talk to you. When we're all around, he doesn't say much, but if you two were alone—"

"No," Raynea answered forcefully as she stood up from the table, "He's a bloody Death Eater, okay? We can't trust him…so just throw him out…"

She stormed out of the kitchen, stomped up the stairs and entered her room, slamming the door shut behind her. She laid down on her bed and drew her knees up as she stared down at her hands, which were resting on her stomach. The notion that Raynea would actually be able to get through to Draco was ridiculous to her. He would be just as stubborn with her as he would with the rest of them. However, the others insisted that she could make progress with him while Mr. Weasley tried to obtain the potion. Raynea considered the whole plan to be stupid. In her eyes, Draco was still a Death Eater. She was almost certain that he was trying to fool them, though a small part of her had doubt. In a way, he seemed sincere, but Raynea wouldn't allow herself to believe him so easily. She wanted solid proof. Actually she just wanted him to be gone. Things would be far less complicated that way.

Suddenly, Raynea heard her door swing open and she glanced over to see Ron walk in. He looked extremely discomforted as he took a seat at the end of the bed. He sighed deeply before gazing down at Raynea sympathetically.

"I know you think we're all mad," Ron stated with a hint of gentle amusement in his voice, "but you know deep down that we have a point."

Raynea sat up and pulled her knees against her chest as she stared at her friend with heavy eyes.

"I can't do it, Ron," she told him weakly, "This has been so hard already. You can't ask me to do this."

"Please, Raynea," Ron responded seriously, "You know that he trusts you. You're probably one of the reasons that he came here in the bloody first place."

"You think he's lying, too," Raynea reminded him, casting her eyes downward.

"Yeah," Ron agreed, "but, even though he's a bastard, he deserves a chance. You know how awful you'd feel if we tossed him out and you learned that he was telling the truth all along."

"I know," she said quietly, "His record is against him, though. We have no reason to trust him."

"Harry would try to find out as much as he could," Ron pointed out, "If Harry was here, he would want to know the truth."

Raynea nodded slowly in agreement as her eyes trailed up to Ron's face. She knew he was right. Harry would try to get the straight answer. At that moment, Raynea really wished that he was there. He would handle this situation a lot better than any of them could. He was supposed to arrive in a few weeks, but once he got wind of everything going on at the Burrow, he would probably try to come sooner. Raynea remembered what Harry would do, and that made her think more rationally. She had to ignore her personal feelings and do what was right.

"Fine," she said after a long silence, "bring him up here."