My, we took another detour in getting to this chapter…ehehe…here's chapter six, and goodness we don't have much to say. Have fun~

Disclaimer: we don't own HP characters. We do own Ginny's many broken violin bows.

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"Ron?"

"Yes, I believe that we've established that fact."

Ginny shook her head, getting over the initial shock of seeing one of her brothers here, of all places. "What are you doing here?"

Ron glanced at Lupin, and then averted his eyes back on his sister. "I was going to go...uh, visit you, at the corner where you usually put on your...show. When I didn't see you there, I nearly went into a panic! That is, until Professor Lupin here came along and told me that you were safe." Ron frowned slightly. "Of course, I never would have associated Malfoy with the word safe, so I asked Professor Lupin to bring me along, and here I am!" Ron spread his arms wide to gesture to the house. Upon another glance around the room, he quickly put them down, a look of disgust etched into his every feature.

"Ahem." A forced cough interrupted the silence.

Ron turned towards the sound and caught sight of the pale-haired man standing across from Ginny. Naturally, his eyes narrowed to slits before he spat out a greeting. "Malfoy."

With a curt nod, Draco replied just as coldly. "Weasley."

Ron stepped between Draco and Ginny, taking a stance as if protecting Ginny from the evil named Draco Malfoy. "Malfoy," he repeated. "I sorely hope you've been treating Ginny right. Otherwise, you'll find that you won't be able to look at another music score again, let alone read it." Without waiting for an answer or retort from the other man, Ron turned to face Ginny and reached out to grab her wrist. "Come on, Ginny. I'm taking y - "

Frantic, Ginny snatched her hand out of his reach. "Ron!"

Draco smirked at her reaction. "Seems like she doesn't want to go with you, Weasley, doesn't it?"

Ron scoffed. "She does! Of course she...does..." Ron faltered, feeling quite skeptical. "Don't you, Ginny?"

The girl in question shuffled uncomfortably. "Well...I...uh..."

"What she's trying to say," Malfoy intercepted, much to the gratitude of Ginny, "is no, she doesn't want to go with you. Any blabbering fool can see that. Well, come to think of it, you're not just any ordinary blabbering fool." Ron began to turn red with embarrassment and suppressed anger. Of course, Draco could have stopped the insults there, but he was enjoying this way too much. "She'd rather stay with me, rather than return with you to that ramshackle dung heap you call your hou - "

"MALFOY!" Ron was positively glowing red by now, heat emanating from his ears. He charged at Malfoy, throwing punches randomly, all of which Malfoy attempted to block. "WHO THE" Punch! "BLOODY HELL" Smack! "ASKED YOU?!"

Ron was ready to throw another punch, when a loud, smarting "whack!" landed atop his head. Ron opened his mouth and...

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWW! OW OW OW OW OW..."

He whirled around, hands gingerly touching the bruising top of his head.

And there stood Ginny.

And in her hand was another broken violin bow, the wooden pieces hanging loosely from a few strands of horsehair (most of which had snapped apart upon impact). Ginny's face was contorted in rage. She flung the useless object away from her, ignoring the yelp as it nearly caught Draco in the face. "Look Ron...I...DON'T...WANT...TO...LEAVE."

Ron gaped at her helplessly, hands on top of his head. "Wh - why not?"

She sighed impatiently. "I've already agreed to a 6-month deal with Malfoy. He's supposed to teach me to play the violin, since he," at this, she turned to glare at Draco, who was carefully inspecting himself for any injuries, "chucked my harmonica into the sewer." She turned back to look at her brother. "I can't back out of this. I've already pledged with my heart to do this. Please...Ron...I really want to learn to play the violin."

He watched her for awhile, trying to formulate an answer. Unfortunately, all the factors didn't fit together into the formula, and he was left - well, confused. "Uhm...are you sure you really, REALLY want to do this, Ginny? I mean, who knows what Malfoy's up to when he agreed to this deal!" A snort came from Draco's side of the room. Both Weasleys ignored it.

"What about Malfoy? Ron...it doesn't matter. Professor Lupin will be here to keep Malfoy out of any trouble." Ginny motioned her head towards Lupin. The professor, who was quiet during the entire scene, nodded his head in agreement.

Ron shifted uneasily. "I'd still feel better if someone else was here to watch...over...you..." He trailed off, the beginnings of a plan storming around in his brain. A small smile curved his lips. "Ginny," he said aloofly, bruised head all forgotten. "How about I stay with you, you know, to watch your progress and such? I'm sure Malfoy won't mind."

Malfoy's head snapped up so quickly, Ginny could have sworn she heard a crack. "Don't mind?! What do you mean 'don't mind'?! You just tried to throttle me to death, and you expect me to not mind?!"

Ron waved him off. "So what do you say, Ginny?"

Ginny pondered, fingers tapping her chin thoughtfully. She turned to look at Ron, and seeing the desperate look on Ron's face, she sighed. "Oh, all right. But - " she pointed a finger at him in a silent warning, "if I catch you and Malfoy fighting again, my violin bow won't be the only thing to break."

Malfoy raised a hand to point out his protests, but Ron cut in perfectly. "Great! I'll just return to retrieve some of my belongings, and I'll move right in!" He grinned triumphantly.

"Yes...perfect." Ginny smiled weakly and gently patted Ron's head. "Sorry about your head Ron, but I really couldn't have you killing the teacher." She then proceeded to push him towards the door. "Now, you go get your things while I make sure that Malfoy leaves a decent room for you."

Malfoy threw up his hands in defeat as he cried to no one in particular. "I have absolutely NO say in this, do I?! It's my house after all! Ah...bugger this." He kicked at his chair, cursing foully when he stubbed his toe. Professor Lupin watched on, failing to smother his laughs as Draco hopped around the room in a rather undignified fashion.

"Oi, Ginny! How about a game of chess?" Ron called as threw open the door to the room where Ginny and Draco were practicing. The two stared at him a long time, noting his dusty, disheveled appearance and the huge chess set in his arms.

"…Ron, I'm having lessons right now." Ginny said pointedly. "I can't play with you now. Maybe later?"

"Oh, that's alright. I'll just sit and watch then." Ron shrugged, dropped the chess set on the floor, and collapsed on the couch, propping his feet up on the coffee table in front of him. Draco winced as he heard his antique marble chess pieces clatter and clink in their box and glared balefully at the intruder.

"What, Malfoy? You really think I trust my baby sister to you? Alone? Hah." Snorting, Ron sat back and crossed his arms.

"No, I was just thinking about how much money you just drained when you dropped my Antique Grecian Alabaster chess set, about $150,000 American dollars, I'd say," he replied smoothly, hiding a smirk as Ron gagged and almost fell of the chair.

"Cheapskate."

"What was that?" Ron, for one so utterly clueless, had the sharpest ears Draco had ever known.

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Go back to figuring out how many years you'll have to pay me back before I can buy another chess set."

"Why you stuck up, snot-nosed little bas-"

"Ma-Professor Malfoy! Uhm, Can you repeat that thing you said about trills? Again? Please?" Ginny added when she saw the glare thrown her way. She also included some ferocious eyebrow twitching as she tried to convey 'let's not start a war here' with her eyes.

"…Ginny? Are you alright? Something on your face?" Ron asked, worried.

"No! I'm fine! Haha! Just a bit of dust!" she kicked Draco covertly when he snorted. "Now about that trill!"

Rolling his eyes, Draco started in again on his lecture of finger trills.

An hour later, Draco could still feel the burning glare of Ron's eyes on his back. It really was not doing anything at all for Draco's temper. Yes, Ginny had improved and had redoubled her efforts, but she was still nowhere near good.

"Ginny, look at this sign here. Can you tell me what that is?"

"It's…a… sharp?"

Draco sighed exasperated. "No. Look over here. This is a sharp. That is a flat. If those are sharps and flat, then what is this?"

Ginny furrowed her eyebrows. "It's…a usual?"

"Oh for the love of God, natural, Weasley! A natural!" Draco exploded angrily. "Do you need glasses? Because I swear by my troth I will not drag you to the optometrist and back, but I will not! teach you if you can't even see properly!"

"Usual, ordinary, natural, they're the same bloody thing! They're just blasted synonyms!!"

"Not in music! Weasley! I've told you that five times this hour! Why can't you just remember that?! Is there something wrong with your brain as well as your eyes?!"

"Malfoy!!" Ron suddenly appeared between the hissing opponents. "If you do anything to my sister, I'll myself go ahead and rip you-"

"Ron!" Ginny cried, then poked her brother back. "We're having a lesson here!"

Ron looked genuinely surprised as he blinked at Ginny. "But-but Ginny! He's yelling at you! And being a lousy prat!"

"Our lessons are always like this!"

"Ginny!"

"Weasley, I suggest you sit down. I've a headache, lack of caffeine, and a very, potentially dangerous pencil in my hand." Draco growled, rubbing his temples.

Ron glared murderously at him as Ginny shooed him to his seat.

"Alright, Gin, but I don't like the way he's treating you!" he said loudly to his sister.

"Right, right, yeah, yeah. Neither do I. But he's Malfoy, what do you expect?" Ginny hurriedly agreed.

"Get your arse back up here Ginny. I want to be through with this page before dinner."

"No references to my sister's arse, Malfoy!"

"Ron!" Ginny cried, visibly mortified. Draco snorted.

"Shut up, Weasley. Or I'll start mentioning even more prominent parts," he replied dryly. Ginny angrily stomped on his foot and folded her arms over her chest. "Now we have to get back to our lessons. Bye!" he hastily added as Ron started growling.

"Don't you try anything on my sister, damn you!"

"I won't! Can't you see that I am visibly appalled by the very idea?!" Draco shot back, exasperated. "Why don't you go, oh, I don't know? Stalk Granger or something. We're very busy people right now." Without waiting for a reply, Draco turned and began marking Ginny's music with a pencil.

Finally heeding Ginny's looks and mouthings, Ron flipped Draco off and stalked from the music room to find Lupin.

He found the older man in the Muggle parlor, calmly drinking tea and jotting notes down on a notepad as he kept an eye on the big screen television. A huge hippo bounced out of nowhere and squashed a crocodile. Ron stared. Lupin finally noticed him, as he rewound the tape back to the flattening of the reptile.

"Oh, hello Ron. How was Ginny and Draco?"

"Bloody horrible. Malfoy's being a goddawful fiend, and Ginny's actually on his side!" Groaning, Ron sank into the seat next to the professor.

"Oh… that's nice." Absentmindedly, Remus fast forwarded to where the ostriches came dancing out, looking like fat, black and white poof balls with three sticks bending and twitching to the music. Mystified, Ron looked at the screen, then at Lupin.

"What in the worlds are you watching?"

"Hmm? Oh, Muggle cartoon. 'Fantasia'. Fascinating, really. I know those crocodiles have some double meaning to them, just can't figure out what. Maybe…they represent…the carnal knowledge of men? See here" rewind rewind rewind "here. Don't you think that that expression is a little, oh, I don't know, lustful? I mean, look at all that teeth, and that quirk of an eye."

Lupin had horrified Ron.

"That's what Malfoy looks like!" Lupin turned, stared at him, and burst out laughing.

"It's not funny! Oh, my poor baby sister! Don't laugh!" Ron bit his lip. "I don't know if she'd qualify as a hippo, but, I don't know…it's possible…"

"Haha! Dra-Draco…Gin-ny?! Oh, don't be silly! Oh, oh! Hahaha!" Remus gasped, doubling up on the couch. "They hate each other like dogs and cats! Don't you worry about it!"

Ron stood up, slightly offended by the derisive voice. "Yes. Well. It had better be like that. I'm going to go…wander." He marched away from the chuckling professor with an injured air, and slammed the door behind him as he stepped into the magical part of the house.

He'd walked about halfway the length of the hallway, stewing silently, when he suddenly realized he was standing next to a door that had a piece of white paper tacked onto the surface. Curious, he read the stark, black letters on it.

"No entry allowed! Step AWAY from the door! Do NOT come in here, and that means YOU Ginny!" The words were large and angry looking, and made Ron feel rather intimidated. Of course, this at the same time made him all the more curious. Stealing glances behind him and feeling a bit sneaky, he twisted the doorknob, and tiptoed inside the room.

A room full of strange looking instruments on display met his eyes. Some were huge, long, windy pipe things, and others, small panpipes. One look, and Ron was fascinated. He wandered around the room, gently stroking the strange and foreign instruments, in utter awe. There were so many, and all so tempting! If he could just try one out for size, just once, just once…

Now which should he try first? Ron looked around the room. He spotted so many tempting things to try; that weird, didgeridoo thing, for instance. Hand shaking slightly, he began walking over to the giant, Australian pipe, when suddenly, something else caught his eye. As he turned to look at it, his eyes widened, and his breath caught in his throat.

A bagpipe. A bagpipe, under a plexi-glass case and heavy surveillance cameras and booby trap wires, but it was a bagpipe. Instantly, he yearned to try and play it. With impatient gestures, Ron waved away all the security with his wand, lifted the bagpipe from its place, and fitted it reverently under his arm. He looped the strap around his head slowly, and then lifted the pipe to his mouth….

And blew.

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