It's not like she's yours.

                "Back?" Tracey Davis asked as she looked up from her homework. "Already?" She cocked an eyebrow as she watched a mildly annoyed Draco walk into the practically empty Slytherin commons.

                "What happened?" Blaise, who appeared to be sitting with nothing to do, glanced over at Draco. "I know she couldn't have finished."

                "The blasted Gryffindor team found a loophole." Draco sat down on the couch and smirked.

                "Team?" Tracey eyed him.

                "So she's the new chaser." Blaise smiled—in a very Slytherin manner—as she snapped to what Draco meant. "They used the practice excuse."

                "Of course." Draco folded his arms over his chest and cocked an eyebrow as Blaise sat down next to him.

                "So what are you going to do about it?" She asked with a positively maleficent smile.

                "I'll tell you what I'm going to do," Draco said and Blaise nodded. "Absolutely nothing." Draco finished, unfolded his arms, and put them behind his head. Blaise and Tracey stared at him like his head had come loose.
                "What about Snape?" Tracey cocked an eyebrow. "Surely he'll notice that her work wasn't finished and then force her to do something even nastier as a substitute. Was that your plan?"

                "No, it wasn't." Draco stated simply, with a smug smirk on his face. "And Snape won't notice."

                "Have you gone completely out of your gourd?" Blaise was tempted to check his temperature. This didn't sound like any Malfoy she'd ever heard of.

                "He won't notice because I finished the work for her." Draco spoke as if he was talking about the weather. Tracey and Blaise, however, were absolutely horrified. Draco Malfoy did not to favors for anyone…unless he had something to gain.

                "What do you get for it?" Tracey smiled maniacally and stared at Draco.

                "Ah, but I can't tell you everything unless there's something you can tell me." Draco closed his eyes as he sat back, confident in his own, unique, smarmy way.

                "Draco, selling out information for information?" Terence Higgs waltzed into the commons after a set of scheming third years, and leaned on the back of the couch. "I like that game. What's up for trade?"

                "The reasoning behind Draco's decision to help the Weasley girl by finishing her detention for her." Tracey muttered and went back to her homework.

                "Really?" Terence grinned sinisterly. "Well this Weasley dilemma is getting better by the minute!" Terence pondered for a moment and then glanced over at Blaise. "Hey, didn't you say that Weasley had a Home Stenographer Quill™?"

                "Yes I did." Blaise looked up at Terence from her place on the couch and his grin grew.

                "What color is it?"

                "I don't see how that is even vaguely relevant to the current situation," Blaise shot him a dry look as she spoke, "but it was green."

                "Well then." Terence looked over at the disinterested Draco and his grin turned into a mischievous smirk.  "I wonder if you, my dear Malfoy, would like to know how to extract information from such a trinket."

                At this, Draco opened his eyes and lifted an eyebrow.

                "I'm listening." Draco stated and Terence stood up.

                "Oh, but we have to do these sorts of exchanges in private—where are your black market manners?"

                "Very well then, let us step into my office." Draco stood up from the couch and the two walked over towards the boy's dorms.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

                "I'm so sorry." Ginny repeated sounding more than a tad distraught.

                "For the twenty-second—." Katie started and shook her head, but Angelina interrupted.

                "Twenty-third."

                "Thank you." Katie nodded at Angelina and turned back towards the apologetic Ginny. "For the twenty-third time, it's alright!"

                "But I have to do something to make it up to you." Ginny pleaded and Madam Pomfrey cleared her throat to note that the girls were being a bit too loud.

                "Just play in the first game against Slytherin." Katie smiled and Ginny nodded with a slightly uneasy expression.

                "Tomorrow?" Ginny asked. With her luck, it would be.

                "Oh Merlin no!" Katie laughed and waved her good hand. "The day after tomorrow! Tomorrow you'll be training all day with the team!"

                "Just like today." Angelina added.

                "Oh." Ginny nodded as Madam Pomfrey came around the corner, wand at the ready, to fix up Katie's hand.

                "Clear out girls!" Madam Pomfrey said as she shoed both Angelina and Ginny towards the door. "Honestly! All this meandering about, shouldn't you be off practicing for the Quidditch matches? Or at least in class?"

                Angelina tried to explain to Madam Pomfrey that Katie was the only other person they needed to 'train' but the older witch wouldn't listen and just tossed the two girls out of the Hospital Wing. Angelina and Ginny stood out in the hall for a few minutes and, when it became rather apparent that they wouldn't see Katie for a while, they started down the hall.

                "Before the next game, we need to work on your flying." Angelina remarked as they turned a corner and walked through the doors that led out to the front of the school. "And none of that fancy showboating, got me?" Angelina warned and Ginny stared. Ginny blinked dumbly once and then nodded.

                "I promise…no…showboating." Ginny replied as they approached the Quidditch field.

                Fred and George were practicing with their bats, Alicia was giving them instructions and Harry was in the stands talking to someone. Ginny looked up at Harry for a moment and paled when she saw who he was talking to. Cho Chang. She was chattering away in her most polite tone and Harry was trying to contain the blush spreading over his face.

                Ginny watched them and moved in closer to get a grasp on what they were talking about.

                "Oh yeah, Ginny's our new chaser." Harry said quickly and Cho smiled. Harry nearly melted at that, but Cho's expression fell to neutral after a moment of beaming.

                Harry had turned to putty in her hands. He'd tell her anything she wanted to know—if he knew it—and even if he didn't he'd probably either go find out or hazard a guess.

                "She's really good…" Harry mumbled and blushed. "But not as good as you!"

                Ginny pouted (he'd never made that face when talking to her), and silently wondered if Harry knew how hopeless he looked from the outside.

                "Well thank you Harry." Cho beamed at him and looked back at the two girls behind her. "I've got to go now, but I might be back later. Okay?" Cho obviously had no intention of returning but she gave him hope nonetheless. She started down the bleachers and cocked an eyebrow as she spotted Ginny all clad in Gryffindor team robes.

                "Cho." Ginny whispered and stared at the older girl.

                "Madam Cho." Cho replied and gave Ginny a look she'd only given her once before. The look that screamed 'remember who you're dealing with.' Ginny had the distinct feeling that it was a threat, especially considering that Cho hadn't referred to herself like a Chinese fortune teller since Ginny's second year when they'd snuck past dementors during a show.

                Cho walked off and left Ginny standing next to the bleachers. It didn't take long before Harry jarred her out of her uneasy thoughts by clapping his hand on her shoulder.

                "You know Cho?" Harry asked with a sort of dreamy smile and Ginny melted. Harry was cute even though she'd lessened in her pursuit of him lately—what with that blasted Malfoy.

                "Um…only a little." Ginny replied in a rather sweet and wistful tone. Someone behind the bleachers faked a gagging noise and Ginny turned. Ginny looked at the bleachers but she couldn't see more than the obscured black blur of robes through the stands as someone walked away swiftly.

                "Did you say something?" Harry blinked and looked at Ginny. He'd not even heard her answer…what with having said Cho's name and thus being pulled off on some strange mental tangent.

                "No, nothing Harry, let's get back to practice." Ginny shook her head and mounted her broom. She kicked off but she couldn't get over the feeling that someone was watching her and perhaps even laughing.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

                "Two words for you Malfoy: Highway Robbery." Terence argued with Draco as they came to the matter of what Terence would get for his information.

                "Please Higgs." Draco rolled his eyes. "We're hardly on a highway."

                "Sorry, I've a bit of a pension for the dramatic just as you have a love of the obvious." Terence ran a hand through his hair and leaned back against one of the trunks that had been placed at the end of one of the five beds in the room.

                "I'm sorry your sheer lack of skill when subtlety comes into play has inhibited us." Draco drawled and then sighed. "I'll recap. I want the detailed instructions and a weeks worth of Divination's homework out of you."

                "Come on now!" Terence grumbled. "All I'll get is your reasoning behind helping the Weasley with the nice backside."

                "Suave Terence." Draco muttered and shook his head. "But I know you'll trade for it."

                "How do you know this, Malfoy?" Terence asked and cocked an eyebrow.

                "Because you're the most curious and nosy male in all of Slytherin." Draco put it simply. "And even Zabini out there is dying to know."

                "And you are that sure that I'd pay that much just to know something she doesn't?" Terence asked with a hint of amusement.

                "Indeed." Draco replied shortly and smirked.

                "Damn." Terence sighed dejectedly, wrote a set of instructions down on a small piece of parchment, and handed them to Draco. "You're very perceptive."

                "I know." Draco, once more, replied shortly.

                "So?" Terence asked and grinned at Draco. "Why'd you do it? Why'd you help the Weasley girl out?"

                "If I left her continue later one of you might have be awarded the job of watching after her whilst I was at practice." Draco stared at Terence dryly and Terence glared.

                "That can't be your reason." Terence stated flatly.

                "I'll give you the long and short of it once you've finished that Divination's essay." Draco smiled smugly and Terence rolled his eyes. "Now get to work." Draco clapped his hands and Terence trudged out of the room to get started on the rest of the deal.

                Draco sat down on the edge of his bed, pulled out a stack of parchment paper, and Ginny's quill that had fallen into his possession. He followed the instructions Terence had given him—write out the most likely password then write down 'diary, play' and the quill will start transcribing—and the quill began furiously writing out entry after entry of Virginia Weasley's diary. Draco watched the small thing write and smiled as it finished and dropped to the paper with a small thud.

                "What to do now?" He asked rhetorically, in a tone lined with sarcastic cheer, as he stuck the quill in his robe pocket. "I think I'll go read these out in the calm of the Quidditch Pitch…If I happen to see some of the Gryffindor strategies as well…so be it."

                With that Draco walked out towards the field, parchment under his right arm, and a smirk plastered across his face. He arrived at the bleachers and walked down into the infrastructure where he could read and watch in peace. It was then that he caught Ginny chatting with a love struck Harry. They just happened to be a tad to close and cutesy for his comfort. Harry sighed lovingly and Ginny stumbled with her words. Malfoy was pushed over the edge.

                "I think I'm going to be sick!" Draco whispered harshly and faked a gagging noise, unfortunately it seemed Ginny had heard him. She turned and he quickly walked off out of her sight. He turned back to see her kicking off next to Potter and growled. He took a seat on one of the lower sets of beams which held up the bleachers and stadium in general, and sighed in a most frustrated manner.

                "That expression, bah!" Draco sat alone under the bleachers, a stack of parchment in his hands, and the Home Stenographer Quill™ in his pocket. Draco grumbled and fumed over that dreamily contented look on Ginny's face as she stood so near to Saint Potter.

                "That bloody Harry Potter!" He continued to mutter angrily and the quill literally leapt from his pocket and scrawled on the top of the papers. Apparently Harry Potter was the password to activate the 'conversation' feature of the quill. What the quill wrote, however, confounded Draco for a very long time.

                Why are you so mad? It's not like she's yours.

                Rather than think even harder and give the quill an answer that hadn't been fueled by either denial or anger, Draco just shoved the stupid thing back in his pocket and watched the Gryffindor Team Practice. Draco watched the little players flying around up so high off the ground and tried not to snicker every time a bludger nearly hit Potter—which was quite often it seemed. As the Gryffindors took a break and started to head back to the school, Draco thought he might start reading the information the quill had written. He stared at the paper and, for some reason, couldn't bring himself to move past the last comment the quill had written.

                "She is mine…." Draco felt oddly justified saying that, but he had to—ruefully—remind himself that it was only until the Yule Ball.

Author's Notes:  Not only am I euphoric that we've surpassed 100 reviews, but I'm rueful over the fact that I've taken so long updating. I apologize. Only three more weeks until school is out and then I can write much more quickly. All these projects and finals are killing my fanfiction time.

Enjoy—I'll try to get the next one up as soon as I can.