Chapter 9

The hustle and bustle of the Atrium surrounded Ginny. She knew that the new changes would cause some ruckus there, but she didn't think that the Ministry would want many visitors wandering around. She walked with a purpose up to the security stand where Eric Munch was standing. After registering her wand, Ginny made her way to the smaller hallway beyond the golden gates.

A series of lifts lined the wall, and Ginny made her way over to one. She piled into the closest lift along with five other people and waited for it to stop at level two. As she was standing there, she thought about how so much could change after one incident. Her one news-breaking article caused a domino effect, and now the entire Ministry of Magic, or at least most of it, was being made over. It wasn't all because of her though; Draco was the one who slipped her the information. Hopefully this renovation will stop people like Lucius Malfoy from having any power in the Ministry.

That was what Ginny was thinking when she felt a small tap on her right shoulder. She turned to see who it was, or what it was, and she found herself face to face with an old schoolmate. Somehow she could not escape her fellow classmates, they were scattered throughout Britain.

"Colin?" Ginny asked, making sure it was indeed him. She hadn't seen him since the train ride home on their last year of Hogwarts. He looked about the same, still slightly short with brown hair, and he had what looked like a brand new camera hanging around his neck. Yes, this had to be the same old Colin Creevey that followed Harry around and took pictures of everything.

"Ginny," he replied cheerily in his usual excitable manner. "I thought it was you. How have you been doing?"

"Good, good. How about you? It's been quite some time since I last saw you! What are you up to?" She wondered what his business was at the Ministry, and his badge wasn't very specific. Ginny longed to catch up with her friend, so she inadvertently ended up sounding like the exact type of girls that she hates without even noticing.

"I came up here to take some pictures," he answered, gesturing to his shiny camera with a large smile. "I used to work for a newspaper as a photographer, but now I'm looking for a new job. These pictures might help me."

Ginny nodded politely, and then after a small snap in her brain she immediately responded, "I work at Warts, I'm one of their writers, I could talk to my boss and see if I can get you a position there. That is, if you are interested."

"You would do that for me?" he asked eagerly and she nodded. "Thank you so much!"

"I can't promise you anything, but I'll try. If he agrees to give you an interview then the front desk will send you an owl. It would be interesting if we worked together, me writing the article and you taking the pictures."

"So, what are you visiting the Ministry for?" he asked her, not bothering to glance at her silver badge first.

"To visit my father, and maybe my brother, and to see how everything is going. I may be writing an article on this whole change," She whispered the last part to him, so that the other people in the lift would not be able to hear. If there was one thing she learned from Harry, it was that you could never be too careful.

"Oh," he said with a small nod, and then looked back up at her. "When did you and Harry break up, if you don't mind me asking?"

"I don't mind," she answered honestly, surprised that he would ask such a question. How did he find out that they broke up? She hadn't even seen Colin since school, but she wasn't sure if Harry had or not. "We broke up a little over a year ago. Why do you ask?"

"It's just that I saw him last week with another girl from our old school. Do you want to see the picture I took?" he asked her. She said yes and so he pulled a stack of photographs out from his coat pocket. He began flipping through them, until he stopped at one and handed it to her.

Ginny was prepared for Harry to have another girlfriend. Why would it bother her? She was going to brake up with him anyway, and now she was with Draco. Besides, she couldn't just expect Harry to go on living single forever, even though it had only been a year. For all of these reasons she thought that she was ready, all she wanted to know was who the lucky girl was.

That was until she saw the picture. It was at that moment that Ginny quickly learned that she had not been properly prepared for it. Actually no amount of preparation could ever prepare her for what she saw. At first she didn't believe it, maybe she was seeing things, but on a closer inspection she realized that it was the worst.

"What?" Ginny blurted out unintentionally.

"What's so shocking? Didn't Harry have a crush on her before?" Colin asked her, not understanding what Ginny was freaking out about.

Ginny looked up at Colin, gave him an uneasy smile, and answered, "Oh nothing, don't mind me," Then she realized that the other people in the lift were looking at her too, so she turned to them and said politely, "Hi, how are you?"

The lift came to a stop and three of the people got out as two more entered. Ginny ignored the newcomers and stared at the picture. It showed Harry with the last person that Ginny would ever want to see again, Cho Chang. How silly Ginny was to think that her enemy was out of her life forever! She was quite lucky to have gone a year without running into her, now that she thought about it.

But how could Harry date her? That woman was pure evil, didn't he know that? Well, she would have to talk to him about it, but for the moment she was angry and confused. Harry was supposed to be over that demon spawn; what was this world coming to?

After staring at the picture for quite some time, Ginny couldn't look at it anymore. She handed it back to Colin, who put it back where he had taken it out from, and returned her attention to the lift. They were at level three currently; she would be getting off at the next floor.

"Are you getting off at level two?" Ginny asked Colin.

He shook his brown head yes, and when the elevator came to a complete stop they filed out together. When they got out of the way of the lift rush, they said their goodbyes.

"I'm going that way," Ginny pointed in the direction behind her towards where the office she was headed to was located. "So I'll talk to my boss for you. If you get the job then I'll be seeing you soon. Take care of yourself."

"You too. Thanks again for that."

It was not until she was alone that Ginny paid any attention to her surroundings. The floor was in a complete state of pandemonium and disarray. Calling this office chaotic would be an understatement, that was how bad it actually was. People were running this way and that, piles of papers lined each desk, and things seemed to get lost in the shuffle. Everyone looked busy, and she wondered if she had ever seen the place so occupied.

Ginny found her way easily, despite the commotion around her. Following the same shabby corridor that she had been in several times before, she made her way to the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts office. She knocked on the door before opening it, and she saw that her father was currently the only person occupying the office. Then she slid into the cramped office that contained many filing cabinets, and not much free space.

"Who is it?" Arthur Weasley asked before looking up from his desk. Then before she could answer, he instinctively glanced up and noticed his only daughter standing before him. "Ginny! I heard that you were going to visit. How are you?"

"I'm fine," she replied with a smile and walked over to give her father a hug. "But it looks like you are swamped."

It did. His desk had two stacks of papers sitting on it, and it looked like he had been filling out some type of form when she came in. After her hug he sat back down and gestured for Ginny to sit on one of the chairs nearby.

"Yes," he responded. "I suppose you received the letter from your mother? I'm sure she explained the conditions I'm under."

"Yes I did. She said that you had a lot of paperwork, but I didn't think that there would be this much," she said, gesturing to the stacks. "If you have this much, I wonder how many papers other people have."

"A lot," he said simply as he began to return to his paperwork while talking to his daughter. "I love getting a visit from you, I hardly see you any more, but did you have a specific reason why you wanted to visit me at the office?"

"Well, I was wondering if there was anything more that you could tell me about the renovation that I don't know already?" Ginny asked him, full of interest.

"Actually," Arthur looked up at his daughter with a serious but loving expression. "It's rumor around here that Fudge is being charged with fraud. No one knows for sure, but that is what everyone thinks. If you ask me, I think it's true. Otherwise why would they be carefully inspecting everyone who worked closely under him?"

"Really," she replied, thinking. "That's interesting. So they think that Fudge was behind the cover-up?"

"Him and some of the other officials. At least that is what every around here thinks. Have you spoken to Percy?"

"No," she answered, wondering why he would ask her that. Obviously he hadn't, as far as she knew Percy only talked to their mother.

"You should think about talking to him then. He should know more than I do about the situation, he did work on Fudge's staff and the renovation hit him a lot harder than it did me. You did hear that he was taken out of his position, right?" her father explained.

Ginny shook her redhead yes and understood. Maybe she would talk to Percy, but the question was if would he talk to her. She finished things up with her father and then let him get back to work. Ready and eager to start her next article, she headed straight home to take some notes before developing a plan.

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A/N: Thanks so so so much for the reviews! Sorry this took as long as it did, but here it is now. I don't have time to reply to all of you lovely reviews because I want to get this up as fast as possible, so to all of you A MILLION THANKS!

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