Disclaimer: I don't own it; I'm just borrowing the characters because I'm too lazy to think of my own.

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to do this, but hell. I AM GETTING A NOVEL PUBLISHED! I'm not kidding you, I actually am, and I feel everyone should know. One day you may be writing fanfics on my book-how cool would that be. Anyway, chapter 16 is here. I now know exactly where I'm going with this, and when I reach my ending I'll let you decide if there should be a sequel or an epilogue, but it won't be for a while, so it's alright.

Enjoy.

The Other Way

"The stupid git saved my life." I repeated, and laughed softly. I glanced across at Draco; he had raised his head and was frowning slightly.

"W… why… didn't you want him to save your life?" he asked quietly, stuttering.

No, I never wanted him to save my life, not at the risk to his own. This was not a question I wanted to answer, but it seemed the game of chess had finally begun in earnest, from then on I just knew he wasn't going to start giving up bits of himself without a fight. It meant he was getting better; he was starting to protect himself. He wouldn't see it like that, I knew he wouldn't. He was trying to find out about me.

It was only fair to give up one of my pieces in return for all of his I'd taken.

I shrugged. "It's not that I don't appreciate what he did, I just didn't want him hurt for me." I sighed.

He fidgeted for a moment. "Is he dead?" he asked.

I shook my head, rubbing my thumbs around the glasses. "No, he's not dead. He's in st. Mungos. He got hit by too many curses, he won't wake up."

I could practically see the curses coming towards me, the last remaining death eaters, under whose leadership no one knew, had attacked the ministry. "It was just bad luck that I happened to be there. I had come by to drop in on Percy, try and drag him away from his work." I laughed, the image of Percy working at his desk, glaring at me for daring to enter his little workroom. "He was always working; we were going to visit Charlie and George the next day, a mini holiday for the weekend. He had to leave some documents down to the store, I went with him. Then the attack came." Black robed wizards and witches invading the ministry, curses and spells flying every which way. "We joined in the fight. I got singled out, by about four or five deatheaters. It all happened so fast I can't even remember, just the flash of Percy suddenly in front of me, and then it was over. No deatheaters, the ministry in a shambles, and Percy on the floor, his glasses all askew." I looked across at Draco.

He was studying the table like it was the most interesting thing in the world. Finally he looked up and I smiled. "Anything else you'd like to know?" I asked.

He shook his head.

"Tea? Coffee?" I asked. I would have to talk to Ruth about the whole Harry thing.

Draco shook his head in response to my question.

I turned away from him to make the tea.

"What's it like to have brothers?" he asked in a rush.

I froze, surprised by the question. I knew he had tensed behind me, worried he'd said the wrong thing. "Brothers?" I asked. I frowned. I didn't really know what it would be like to have brother's for an only child. "They're the most annoying things on the planet. But you miss them when they're not here. Little sister's are the same." I sighed softly, yeah; you really missed them when they weren't around.

I turned around to lean on the counter so I could look at him. "What was it like to be an only child, apart from being spoiled?" I asked a friendly smile playing on my lips. "I always wanted to be an only child, getting all the nice toys and stuff, instead of hand-me-downs." I studied him. "But I guess it's lonely."

He nodded slowly.

"Didn't your parents ever want to have another child?" I asked him, some parents just didn't, preferring to spend all their time on their only one, but it couldn't have been too healthy, and Draco's parents didn't seen the type to devote much time to their only son.

He nodded. "They did, father wanted another son, mother wanted a daughter. They only got me." He murmured.

"They didn't spend a lot of time with you as a child did they? That was why you were always so…" I tried vainly to think of a word that wouldn't sound as cruel as all the ones popping into my head.

"Obnoxious?" he supplied quite helpfully.

I coughed lightly to hide a laugh. "Well, yeah, that was why you were always so obnoxious in school, wasn't it?"

He shrugged.

I let the conversation drop; I was not going to start another super emotional talk two days in a row. I could start on that again tomorrow. Right now I had to get in to see Ruth. "Will you be ok here; I need to go to the unit about this. You can come if you want." I asked.

He bit his lip and considered, finally he looked up at me, shyly, a very strange look on Draco Malfoy let me tell you. "Could I take a bath instead?" he asked, looking down and away.

"Sure, if you want to, you can do what you like here Draco, treat it like your own home while you're here." I told him, only then realising I had never thought to tell him he could do almost whatever he wanted-within a certain reason, namely not go into my room and riffle through my stuff, or steal anything. I remember in school he used to steal-I don't know why. I would have to ask him-it probably had something to do with his parents.

"Thank you." He said quietly.

I left him in the kitchen to go get ready to see Ruth. I was at the unit less than half an hour later.

"Ron!" Cassandra cried happily, practically leaping into my chest trying to hug me.

"San, I can't breathe, you have to let go!" I gasped out.

She stepped back meekly and smiled. "Where have you been Ron, I've missed you, and that man you brought in is gone too, is he with you? You missed all the trouble this morning-Ruth stormed out of here in a right temper after reading the paper, it was about Harry Potter."

I immediately looked round for Gerard. I ruffled Cassandra's hair as I spotted him. "I got talk to Gerry San, Ok?" I told her.

"Ok Ron! See you later!" she bounced away merrily.

I made my way over to Gerard; he was sitting lazily at the desk. When he saw me he smiled glumly. "This Harry Potter deal is getting out of hand." He said by way of greeting.

"I know. Did she really storm out?" I asked.

"An hour and a half ago. All I can say is that we're lucky we don't have too many cases at the moment, what with you away, Ruth doing disappearing acts. I'm practically running the ship single handed." He grumbled.

I felt a bit guilty about that. "Sorry Gerry."

He waved me off. "Ah, I'm just complaining Ron. Malfoy' a big case for you-he's your first proper one isn't he- a no talker."

"Yeah."

"I remember my first, made me want to quit when I couldn't get her to talk to me, now she's always over, best friends with my wife you know. It's a lot of work." He smiled. "But it's worth it."

I smiled back. "I've got him talking, kind of. He's not afraid of me now."

"That's a good thing-ah, here's Ruth-returned from your adventures, huh?" he called to her.

Ruth tossed the Daily Prophet onto the desk. "Those goddamned psychologists don't know their mouths from their arses. A week-no, less that a week and they're letting him out, because he's reacting well to the potions-a load of unadulterated shite!"

I blinked at her; I had never heard her curse before. "So I see you don't agree with it either."

"No Ronald I do not!" she snapped. "And shouldn't you be with Mr. Malfoy?"

"I'll get straight back to him, after you tell me what our plan is for this."

She frowned thoughtfully. "Mr. Potter doesn't know where Mr. Malfoy is, so he'll have to stay with you, for the moment. Until I can get this sorted. Everyone is being so obstinate because it's Harry Potter-if it were anyone else-"

"Most specifically an ex-deatheater-" Gerard supplied helpfully.

"They'd be up in arms." Ruth finished.

"Do you remember that case we had… four or five years ago?" Gerard asked. "The one we never got sorted because it was an Auror?"

Ruth nodded.

I remember Gerard telling me about that case. The Auror had taken the child of a deatheater couple and got the information to convict them through very wrong means. He hadn't told me what had happened, but I could guess. It had been a dirty war all round.

"I'm going to head home, let me know of any changes ok." I smiled.

"See you Ron!" Gerard waved.

"You concentrate on getting him better Ronald. I'll sort everything else." Ruth called after me.

"Bye Ron!" Cassandra called from the other side of the hall.

"Bye San!"

I made my way to the nearest fireplace and flooed home, but when I landed I found a very unwelcome surprise.

Who or what is it folks? Next update won't be till I get at least six reviews for this one. Love you all. The spelling a bit off, and some words might be messed up, my computers playing tricks with me again, so I'm sorry.