Chapter 17

The next day Ginny went to work. She had managed to get some sleep, if you can count dreaming about Draco Malfoy getting sleep. She was all ready to start the day, or as ready as she will ever be, and after her first cup of black coffee she felt like things were looking up for her.

There were only a couple more days of work left in the week, and she was taking off the last week of the month for the wedding. That would be a vacation she could look forward to, despite the painful reality of having to wear a dress and heels for several hours.

She confidently walked into the office, receiving compliments here and there about how good she looks with red hair, and 'was that really your natural color?'. Feeling good about herself, she was prepared to go sit in her office for a while to brainstorm her next article. After talking to a co-worker, she continued down the hall until Anton stopped her.

"Hi Ginny," he said congenially. It was surprising that he could be so kind to someone who could be seen as his competition. That's the quality that separated him from people like Cho, who were insecure about themselves and rude to others. "I never got the chance to congratulate you. That was a good piece. I'm glad Mr. Hillman finally noticed your talent."

"Thank you," she replied cheerily. "That means a lot coming from you."

They were both about to continue on their ways when he added, "Oh, I almost forgot. The boss wants to see you."

"Do you have any clue as to what it's about?" she asked, wondering what he wanted.

She received a shrug in reply and as she turned around she took a breath and continued down the hall. She stopped outside Mr. Hillman's door and knocked. There was the usual gruff reply of, "Come in", and so she entered.

Ginny didn't know it, but Cho was near and she snickered as she saw her rival enter the lion's den, also known as Mr. Hillman's office. It was thanks to her little visit to him only thirty minutes ago of why Ginny had to talk to him. With an evil smile on her face she thought back to two hours earlier that day.

FLASHBACK

Cho was walking to a cafe, purely wizard of course, with mixed thoughts. She could not let Ginny win, not this time, not ever. It was her rightful position to be promoted. She was the better writer and she worked there longer. Why couldn't Mr. Hillman see that?

She was meeting up in person with her informant for the first time. They had supplied her with the information that both her and Ginny had obtained. Perhaps they sent it to Ginny too, but that didn't matter, what did was that she needed something good and she knew they could help her.

What she didn't plan on was her informant being Draco Malfoy, yet when she discovered this a plan worked its way out in her mind. She already knew about Draco and Ginny, after finding that list in Ginny's office and mailing it to Draco so she could cause some trouble between them. Now she would use this bit of info to help her. She no longer wanted a story, what she wanted was Ginny's ruin.

Draco had been waiting in a cafe after receiving a letter from a reporter that he had sent information to. He had inside information on the "Dark side" and, seeing as he did not like the people he had dirt on, he became an anonymous informant. He decided to meet up with her to see what she wanted. Yes, this would be revealing his identity, but they had an agreement and he was curious to see what was so important.

Soon Draco and Cho were sitting together at a table. "What was so important that I had to meet you right away?" he asked casually, leaning back in his chair.

"I want to ask you about someone by the name of Ginny Weasley," she replied.

"What about her?" he asked, feeling anger rise just from hearing her name.

"Somehow she came across information that helped her write a piece on the whole Ministry conspiracy," she answered. "Do you know anything about that?"

"She is a thief," he said, exaggerating out of his current annoyance with her. "Plain and simple."

"Oh really?"

END FLASHBACK

Back in Hillman's office, Ginny entered and quietly took a seat. She wondered what this could be about. Her next article, newspaper sales, or a number of other things could be the topic of this unexpected meeting.

"You wanted to see me?" she asked.

He looked up at her, setting down his quill and sitting at his desk with an air of superiority. She felt like she was back in school and in Dumbledore's office, except with a mean boss instead of a kind head master.

"Indeed I did," he responded, a serious plastered on his wrinkled face. "It is about your last article."

"Oh really," she said. What the hell was it this time? Judging by the way he was acting, Ginny could tell that it must be bad news. How much worse could her luck get? "What about it?"

"I have been informed, mind you the person will be left anonymous for that fact is not important, that you used an illegal way of obtaining your information for the story. Now I know what you are going say, yes in cases such as this there are many reporters that use such ways for stories, but keep in mind that if the Ministry found out then they would use that against not just you but the entire newspaper."

Ginny looked at him, completely and utterly shocked. Who could have told him? The only person who knew was Draco, and he couldn't... he wouldn't... would he?

Mr. Hillman must have noticed the expression on her face because soon he continued. "No, you are not fired, I just wanted to tell you for future reference. Technically I should have asked you before, but the story had to be printed that day. So, keep that in mind and you can go."

She sat there and did not move an inch.

"Go on and write me another best-selling article," he said with a flick of his wand that opened the door for her.

She got up and slowly left his office and continued down the hall to her own. When she opened the door she expecting to find a silent refuge, but instead sitting at a chair was her enemy. Ok, one of her enemies.

"Cho? What are you doing in my office?" she asked, taking a seat behind a desk.

The woman gave her a large smile and replied, "I wanted to talk to you about something."

Ginny's ears perked up. Whatever Cho had to say to her could either be A. informative about something, or B. an insult. She was hoping that this time it was A. She tried her best to conceal her current state of mind and asked innocently, "And what might that be?"

"I visited your boyfriend today," she said, a malicious grin making her look like she was possessed by something evil, if not the Devil himself.

Boyfriend? What boyfriend? Obviously not Harry... Surely she didn't mean Draco.

"You know who I am talking about."

Or maybe she did, but how would she know about any of that? What was going on here, some secret conspiracy against Ginny or something?

"He told me all about your little escapades," Cho continued. "It's a shame really, you have only had this office a day and now you have to hand it over to me."

"What are you on about? I'm not fired," Ginny retorted, with disdain in her voice. She could not stand this woman, and how dare Draco tell her anything! She had been wrong, he was evil, pure evil! She felt so angry that she could have sworn smoke was coming out of her ears.

"What?" Cho asked, making another one of her funny looking faces. Ginny would have laughed if she weren't so damn mad.

"That's right. I'm not fired, so get the bloody hell out of my office!" she yelled the last part, her voice getting louder with each word.

Cho must have sensed Ginny's anger, whether it was in the look of her face or the anger that seethed through her voice, because she left the office quickly and without saying anything else. She looked like a dog running away with its tail between its legs after being scolded. In normal circumstances this would have been a pleasing site to our heroine, but she was too occupied to notice.

Ginny could not be more confused. All she knew was that this was all because of Cho and Draco. She expected as much from Cho, but Draco? How could he do that? Why would he do that? And how come Cho and Draco were talking?

She hadn't gotten fired, so that was a good thing, but it still angered her that he would ever tell someone that. Plus it wasn't like she was a thief after all, he even admitted to putting the papers there on purpose! She was infuriated with him. How dare he!

She could stay at her office no longer, so she soon left. She would need to work on regaining her focus and forgetting about Cho and Draco. Nothing had come out of this event except for an increased and intensified anger at Draco and another failed attempt of Cho's to get her fired.

Later that night as she was lying in bed she found it difficult to sleep. Her thoughts flowed freely in her mind against her will. She came to the resolve that she was simply going to put all of this behind her and move on. That shouldn't be so hard, should it?

Little did she know that back at Draco's apartment he was also being kept awake with thoughts of anger towards a person who he truly did not want to be mad at. He was mad about the list, mad about the fact that she viewed him in such a negative light, and mad that he couldn't stop thinking about her no matter how hard he tried.

A/N: Thanks for the reviews!

Sorry this chapter is a little confusing, but I promise the rest of them won't be I was just in a hurry because I wanted to update and I had lots of homework and studying to do. The main points of this chapter were that Draco was the anonymous informant, Cho tried to get Ginny fired, and Ginny is even more angry at Draco. Don't worry, no one will be physically hurting anyone.

As always, please review! (and if I get six or more reviews I'll update by Thursday)