"Mr. Malfoy, Mrs. Malfoy." Agent Starr said inclining her head at each as she said their names.

"Agent Starr." Draco acknowledged.  Ginny, tired of these niceties, said,

"Well?  Where is Kari?"

"I'm afraid that the ransom was a hoax.  How they found about her kidnapping is not known, but we are positive that they don't have her."

"What?  Then why did we waste the money?"

"I… you…"

"Well, spit it out, woman!  I haven't got all day!"

"Well it looks like it, now doesn't it, Mister Malfoy." Starr snapped.  She covered her mouth after she had let this escape:  her mouth, not to mention temper, often got the better of her.   This was one of the parts of her job that she really wasn't good at.  That is, holding her temper.  Draco smirked.

"And just how would your supervisors react to this conversation, Miss Bright?" He asked.

"You wouldn't…" Starr tried to say.  Draco was about to respond when Ginny interrupted.

"For Merlin's sake, Draco, can't you at least wait to flirt with every woman in sight until I'm out of the room?  It would at least be decent."

Both Starr and Draco looked duly chastised, and soon the conversation was steered to a less embarrassing topic:  finding Karissa.  Of course the 'less embarrassing' was matter of opinion.  But venturing into that topic would be a long and tedious discussion.

Starr's brown eyes were narrowed in anger at Draco as he hurtled all types of accusations at her.  Honestly, couldn't the man see she was trying to help him?  'Trying' being the key word.  How could anyone help such an arrogant, self-absorbed, little-

"I'm sorry, Miss Bright, what did you say?" Draco asked, his voice honey sweet.  She paled as she realized that she had said these last thoughts out loud.  Looking over at Mrs. Malfoy, she saw that the girl was fighting back giggles. 

And Mrs. Malfoy did not giggle.

The stress must have been getting to her, because Starr was quite sure that she saw Draco give her a worried look.  And with Draco not talking to her, or appearing to care about her condition at all, this was an amazing change of attitude. 

Starr was worried too.  But she didn't have much time to be before Draco began hurtling questions at her.

"How long until you find out where my daughter is?"

"As soon as I know something definite, so will you."

"Are you sure?  You're wonderful at not telling us things." Ginny said annoyingly.  Starr wanted to wring her neck.  God, the girl got on her nerves.  And him…

"You know what?  I think I'll swing by the office and see if anything new has come around.  I'll go and leave you two to talk."

"Running away when you know you're wrong?" Draco said haughtily.  "Wise choice."

"I'm not 'running away', as you so delightfully put it.  I'm going to go do my job, Mister Malfoy.  Something that you should be doing, I'll bet?"

"Why you little…"

"Do you really want to finish that sentence, Malfoy?" a head in the fireplace asked.  Draco turned and saw Arthur Weasley. 

"Mister Weasley, I…"

"Draco, I'm disappointed.  But quickly, I just wanted to warn you that the reporters somehow got word of Kari's disappearance, and…"

A plate broke downstairs.

"Fudge monkeys," Starr whispered.  Ginny and Draco stared at her.  That was the closest thing to swearing that they'd heard her say.

"Precisely, young lady." Arthur said.  He stepped through the fireplace, and was about to lock the door when a young lady walked through, straightening her hair to make sure she looked professional.  She looked up at them when Draco said,

"Yes?  Can I help you?"

"Oh, yes." She said with an unmistakably British accent, all the while looking down her nose at them. "I'm Calli Carter, reporter for the Daily Prophet."

------------------------

Geesh, getting reviews out of you guys is like pulling teeth.  Trust me- hitting the review button isn't all that painful.  No electric shock or anything.  I promise.

I wish you would actually review.  I will stop telling you to review when you start doing it yourself.   The only reason that I am updating now is because I realized that I got four reviews the chapter before last.  But… I won't update the next chapter until I get three reviews on this.  It is frustrating, especially since I'm trying to write a longer story than the last one, and I am getting annoyed by certain people.  I am going to be starting a new story when I get another idea, and I will abandon this story if no one is reading it.

Thank you to those who are reading and reviewing, I really appreciate it, but I am getting annoyed (not with you…).

Love you all,

-Lili