A/N: I was so pleased to see that you guys reviewed the last chapter so quickly! Thank you: Karms (the Draco Harry thing is intentional and will be explained this chapter!),Helldarkangel1, and Swimfan (was it long enough?) And Nickel, of course! Here we go!

Disclaimer: I disclaim.

"You should sit."

Ginny looked to Dumbledore who nodded in agreement. She slowly took a seat. For some reason she was nervous. Thinking that maybe she could get some sort of clue her eyes darted over to Draco but he was looking at Dumbledore. "What's this all about?" Apparently he knew as much as she did.

Dumbledore took a long, uneasy breath. "Under any sort of normal circumstances I would not be meddling in my pupil's private lives." Ginny's finger nails dug into the brown leather chair. "However, as you both know normal isn't a word often used here and unfortunately we are under quite dangerous conditions." He stopped a moment as if it pained him to continue. "Mr. Malfoy, I have a letter for you." Then a water spotted envelope manifested itself onto Dumbledore's desk.

Eyeing the parchment suspiciously Draco asked, "Why such a ceremony?" The curiosity was killing him but he made all the look of ease and indifference as he could. The school often read through his letters, even before he knew that they had reason too. Now that he was on their side more or less they checked for anything dangerous or important.

"You'll see." The old man's eyes peered out, over his half moon spectacles and stared at Draco with complete, unwanted knowledge.

Ginny felt very much out of place and wondered why she was there at all. She figured to wait it out, and see what happened. The letter was still sitting there on the crowded desk, among different knick knacks and various curios. It lied there; Draco made no movement for it. After a long, silent pause his arm gracefully extended. He closed his fingers around the gritty paper and he held it for a moment. He never removed his eyes from Dumbledore's face, as if he was trying to get some indication or warning.

Disappointed, Draco lowered his eyes to the letter. To the observers he looked totally unfazed but inside he was screaming. He could feel the butterflies in his stomach become so intense he was sure that Ginny and Dumbledore could see his shirt vibrate. He took one last breath; he savored his last moment of ignorance. He slid his finger underneath and ripped the paper. The sound amplified in his ears. He noticed that the noise caused Ginny to jump. He looked over at her and gave her faux reassuring smile. Then he went back to the letter. He was ecstatic to see that the parchment was plain white. That meant it wasn't from his father. He took the letter out and slowly opened the perfectly creased paper.

Young Malfoy,

I know what you are doing. Contrary to what some would think, I am pleased. Your skill has not been overlooked. I have tracked you and was pleasantly surprised at your abilities. I wasn't sure how you would handle my muggle gang. You performed wonderfully. I also know what you have. More correctly, I know who you have. Smart move. She will prove very useful. The other confidant of yours needs to be kept close, he is tricky. I may write you again. Until then, good job.

It wasn't signed. Draco looked first at Ginny. He hid his confusion, but unbeknownst to him she could read his eyes. He then looked Dumbledore, who looked so old in the flickering candlelight. "Have you read this?"

Dumbledore lowered his head. "You know I have," he responded sadly. He was mostly upset that the problems of the old have now become those of the young. It was dreadfully unfair, but those were the times. No one could change that.

"Who wrote it?" Draco hoped he didn't know, but there was a voice in the back of his head telling him the name.

Dumbledore turned his eyes to Ginny. "Ms. Weasely, have you ever heard of a man named Lou Zakley?"

Zakley? She heard that name before. But where? Damn it, where did she hear that name before? "I know I've heard that name before."

"Well, in the muggle world he is a mercenary. He works various odd jobs, in various countries. He has no allegiance to anyone but himself. He is a major threat to un-magical folk." Dumbledore crossed his arms and his flowing sleeves lifted a few feet from the ground.

HARRY! That was it! Harry had told her about this Zakley guy. But what the hell did that mean to her? Why should she give a damn about this Zakley idiot? "Oh," she said dumbly. "What does he have to do with anything?"

"He wrote the letter," Draco answered her simply.

"Mr. Malfoy, let Ms. Weasely read the letter," Dumbledore ordered.

Draco handed it over to Ginny very reluctantly. She looked at Dumbledore before reaching for it. He nodded her on. She read it, and read it and read it. She read it over seven times! Why was she so confused? How did Draco and Dumbledore know so much more than she did! "I…I don't understand," her little voice said. She looked at Draco, "What does this mean?"

Merlin, did she look young in the flickering flames. Candlelight did strange things…He was about to tell her but stopped himself realizing that Dumbledore was also in the room. So he just sat back and looked at Dumbledore.

"I would think you two are tired. You are excused. If anyone stops you just," Dumbledore began to say when Draco interrupted.

"Tell them to stuff it?" He smirked.

"Well, no but you can show them that. It will have the same effect." Dumbledore smiled and pointed to the letter still in Ginny's hand.

They were outside in the hallway. Ginny was dead tired but she didn't care about that now. She cared about that letter. She couldn't think about anything else. Granted it had been about 5 minutes since she read the letter but in her usual mental state she could've thought of 5 million different things in that time frame. "Draco, what is going on?" she demanded. She was tired, she was hungry. No one was going to screw around with her.

He let out a sigh of frustration and ran his fingers through his hair almost violently. "I don't know."

"Yes you do!" She yelled at him. He turned away from her. "Don't shut me out! Draco," She put her hand on his shoulder. Softly she continued, "Tell me what is going on."

"Everything that I shouldn't have." He turned away from her touch.

"What do you mean?" Seeing that she couldn't win this one by using her girlish charm she backed up a meter or two.

"This was just supposed to be an in and out job. I wasn't supposed to end up on your side, I wasn't supposed to trust the enemy, I wasn't supposed to," but he stopped.

Ginny's eyes narrowed, "Supposed to what?"

"I wasn't supposed to get attached. Damn it! And now he knows!" Draco turned towards her and leaned up on the wall.

"What does that Zakley guy have to do with this?" She didn't move.

"He's a 'friend' of the family," he said maliciously. "He knows about us. He could tell my father. But he hasn't. I don't know why and I can't stand it." Draco grabbed his head totally frustrated. Ginny approached him. She smiled at him, trying to console him. He stared at her, his face dropped as a realization came upon him. "He will use you against me though. Sooner or later." Draco let himself slide down the cold stone wall to the unforgiving floor.

"He won't." She knelt down in front of him and pushed some stray hair out of his eyes.

He grabbed her wrist gently and brought her hand to his lips. He kissed the palm of her hand. "Even you know that is a lie," he whispered.

"Well, just let them. Draco," she forced his face to make eye contact with her. "I will not be a reason to why this task fails. If they take me, which they won't… just let them," the last bit she struggled to get out.

He stared at her in disbelief. She was so resolved about the matter, so calm. It was enough to make him scream out at her. He pulled her into himself, and hugged her tightly. He wanted to tell her that he couldn't do that, that they would never get her. He wanted to make her feel secure. He wanted to tell her, but he couldn't. A lump formed in his throat. He silently cursed himself for being emotionally retarded. His hands began to play idly with her gorgeous hair, it took his mind off the matter at hand.

Ginny was pretty sure that Draco had fallen asleep. It had been quite some time but she couldn't bring herself to wake him and pry herself away. She didn't want to leave him either. All this news was coming in like a tidal wave but she couldn't be weak. She had learnt that the hard way. She decided to be useful by being calm. It did scare her that Draco was so worried. He isn't easily concerned so when something bothers him, you can beat your ass its worth listening to. Would they really take her? No way! She wasn't worth that much to any of this. She knew what she had said but she hoped she wouldn't have to actually come through with that promise. However, she was never really that lucky, she knew she would eat her words...sooner or later...

She looked up at Draco, her head was on his shoulder. When he was awake Draco looked so stoic and calm, but asleep he showed emotions straight out. She kissed him on his freckle (that one she found on train). "Hey," she said softly. "We have to get back to our dorms."

His eyes stayed closed, "No. Let's lie here a while."

"We have. Draco, we can't let people see us. It would only make things worse." She rubbed his check. She really didn't want to move at all. It sucked.

Again he kissed her hand. "Okay." He rose carefully so he wouldn't hurt Ginny on his way up. He helped her up. Ginny started to say goodbye but he stopped her. There was no way he was going to let walk to her room alone. She was glad for the company.

They didn't talk. They couldn't. What was there to say? He held her hand and kept her close to his body protectively. Of course they didn't see any teachers now that they had an excuse. Better that way anyway. When teachers know about your relations it gets a little awkward. They kissed sweetly and hugged lovingly when they reached the Fat Lady. Draco watched her climb through the portrait and followed her with his eyes until the portrait closed herself. Then he began to make his trek to his dorm.

That was the worse sleep ever. She had finally got herself to fall asleep two minutes before Mary shook her awake. School today. Yay. She took what could've been the shortest shower of her life, because she realized not only had she gotten no sleep but she had over slept. She walked alone to Breakfast, telling Mary not to get herself late because of her. She looked at the other students jealously. How come she has to deal with this crap and they don't? She didn't really want the lime light. It was alright for a while. Its glimmer wore out real easy. More than anything, she wanted to be invisible today. However, that would be quite impossible. Some first year had seen her and Draco in the bookstore. Now, everyone and their brother knew.

She plopped her books down on the table. She was across from Harry, next to Mary and Ron. Hermione was sitting at the other end of the table glaring at her evily. She didn't care. There were more important things.

"Good morning Gin," Ron said cheerily. He had his arm snaked around Mary's waist.

"Who said it was good?" she mumbled.

"Ginny had a late night last night," Mary whispered to Ron. He nodded his head. He was seriously trying to be good about the Draco thing.

She only barely caught Harry's eye, apparently he was tired too. She could've sworn she saw a bit of worry in his face but she dismissed it. She spent breakfast sleeping. Or at least that's what she had planned to do. A group of girls came and asked her about the Draco thing, then another group, and another. If another person asked her about that damn kiss she would explode. Couldn't they see that she wanted to sleep? Idiots, all of them.

She had practically crawled through her day. As she walked to another class, there were more people. Some asked her questions, but most just stared at her and whispered. She was on her way to her most favorite class ever…Potions! And on her way down to that hell she saw her most favorite person ever. Ginny tried to slink past her.

"Ginny!"

Damn it.

"Hey, can I talk to you a minute?" Her faux sweet announced.

"Oh, sorry. I've got class." Ginny tried to walk past her. She was pretty fast though and blocked her escape.

"This is worth it," she said with enthusiasm.

Ginny wasn't sure but she thought this girls name was Pansy or something dumb like that. At any rate it was the girl that she had hit in the head a while ago. She held back a giggle. It was pretty funny. But how did she know her name? Ugh, and what the hell did she want to talk about? Pansy dragged her to girl's lavatory. The Slytherin bathrooms were all very dark and dank. This one reeked of mildew and strong perfume. Ginny walked in first and Pansy let the door close behind her.

"You look tired." Pansy leaned against the door. Her arms crossed on her chest. She had thick black eyeliner on, and wore her blonde hair down. She was wearing the uniform, if you use the word 'wearing' in the loosest sense. Her skirt was impossibly short, her blouse way too tight and she had on big black heels.

"I am." Ginny was holding her Potions textbook wondering whether she should just hit Pansy now, or wait to hear what this is about. Curiosity won.

"What do you think your doing?"

Whoa, way to be random. "I was going to class."

"Don't be a smartass. You know what I'm talking about." Pansy's previously fake nice voice was totally gone. Now she was pissed.

Ginny let out a sigh, "I thought you were above gossip."

Pansy smiled. "I am…usually. But this is personal."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Ginny must've said that about 50 times today.

"I have a good source that leads me to believe you do," Pansy tried to say dangerously.

Ginny let out a dry laugh. "You consider a first year a good source?"

Pansy pushed off the wall and her arms fell to her sides. Ginny noticed that she was wearing a ring on each finger. All of them were expensive looking, each one silver or white gold. "You should watch yourself." She walked closer. "As I hear it, you're getting pretty comfortable."

"I don't know what you're talking about." What the hell was with Slytherins and stepping into one's personal space.

"No, what you don't know is what you're getting yourself into." Pansy stood right in Ginny's face. Pansy's eyes drifted from Ginny's face and her hand reached up to Ginny's red locks. Pansy gazed strangely at the hair in her palm. She let the crimson strands slide off her hand. Then she backed off and headed towards the exit. "You don't know him at all," she said angrily walking out the door.

Ginny stood in the bathroom a minute. She took a deep breath. A second later her hand lurched out and slammed a door to a toilet. "Fuck!" That really hurt. That was really stupid. She didn't care; she needed to release her anger. Then she remembered that she was supposed to be in Potions class about, oh, 10 minutes ago. She ran out of the bathroom and to class.

"Just add a pinch, so help me if any of you add more than a pinch!" Snape threatened just as Ginny came through the door. "Oh, Ms. Weasely, so glad you could join us. Take a seat and get to work," he barked at her.

A couple of minutes later Ginny finally found out what they were making, no thanks to Snape. She was doing just what he said, add a pinch. He was walking around the room inspecting each student's cauldron. He walked past her but then backed up a few steps. She could feel his eyes on her. She looked up at him, "Yes professor?"

"What happened to you hand?" He asked smoothly.

Ginny looked down at her hand. It was an awful purple brown color and it was swollen. Then she remembered the door to the toilet. Wow, she must've put a good dent in it. "I don't know," she responded in a dull voice. She hated that sentence now.

He knew she was lying. "Remember, just a pinch." And with that he walked away.

A/N: I kind of don't like this chapter. It doesn't flow nicely. I don't know, I think I'm going crazy. Anyway, please review! Love ya lots! School officially ended for me. Now its time for exams…next update will be a little late.