A/N: I tried to slow this down a bit, as the last chapter was pretty fast paced. I tried to give more descriptions. Yes, it is short. But I didn't want to drag it out.

Three:

"Miss Weasley." Lucius nodded at her, a smirk evident at her surprise.

Ginny stared up at the man in front of her. His cologne had a familiar smell, one she couldn't quite place…maybe it wasn't cologne at all. It had a fresh and clean crisp scent that could just be the man himself. Ginny stared up at him, willing her mouth to move and her brain to form and coherent thought. Anything at all. She took the rose from him with shaking fingers and thanked him softly.

"Mr. Malfoy, exactly how did you get in here?" Ginny asked nervously.

"I used the Floo in my room." Lucius answered, staring at her quizzically, smirk gone.

"YOUR room?" Ginny turned to Severus.

Severus was still seated in his armchair next to the roaring fire. The flames cast flickering lights across his face, revealing just how tired he was. He was surveying the whole conversation with hidden amusement. Severus glanced between his two guests once more before speaking.

"Ah, yes. Lucius often stays in the guest room. I knew he wouldn't be here last night and so I had you sleep there."

"She slept in my room?" Lucius asked slowly.

Both Lucius and Ginny were now staring incredulously at Severus, for different reasons. He sighed and gestured for them to sit. Ginny chose a chair next to Severus, and as far away from Lucius as physically possible. Severus noted this and smirked at Lucius, who scowled in return, and chose a seat across the table and away from the incessant light of the fire.

"Yes, Lucius she slept in your room. But I'm sure she didn't touch anything. Correct, Miss Weasley?"

"No! I just got the robe out of the closet like you told me to." Ginny snapped.

"I thought your outfit looked familiar." Lucius said dryly.

"How am I supposed to help you?" Ginny hissed in an apparent effort to change the subject away from the fact that she was wearing his robes.

"Stall the case as long as possible, Miss Weasley." Snape said, trying to diffuse a war in the middle of his sitting room.

"Shouldn't be too hard, he DID steal my file!" she sulked.

"Ah, about the file… We had to send the Ministry in to investigate the theft. It would have looked suspicious if no one reported it. And you have enough suspicion surrounding you in the Ministry as it is." Severus said blankly.

"Okay, so I'll just pretend to start over from scratch. I don't know how much time that will buy you though. I guess I'll go home and start damage control." she said, standing up.

It was evident that Ginny could not wait to get away from the company she was surrounded with. Severus knew that her behavior had been different he night before, and so it couldn't be him that was making her so uncomfortable. He sighed mentally.

"You can't go home, Miss Weasley. Your house is a crime scene and part of a Ministry investigation. They have been informed that you are in hiding as you feel unsafe. With you in hiding they wont expect any results on the case, and we'll have all the time we need." Severus explained calmly.

"And where am I to 'hide', then?" Ginny asked.

"Here."

"Here?" Lucius and Ginny hissed simultaneously.

"Yes, Here. Dumbledore will arrange for you to have rooms near ours, and Lucius will have his room back. You will most likely be in the suite connected with his."

Ginny shook her head, and slumped into her chair. She glanced at Lucius and tried to hide a grimace at the appraising expression he was currently observing her with. She would have to live next to this man! In connected rooms! With a door! That he could easily unlock and have free access to her and her things! Ginny sighed. She had known this would be a bad day.