I have officially decided to never tell anyone that I'll update quickly again, because everytime I do, my computer goes all screwy and I can't. I swear, I've had this done for like a week, but my internet wasn't working. Don't know why. My dad fixed and I'm not sure how. I don't even think HE is sure how. So sorry!

Disclaimer; (grabs Draco by arm, takes outmagic marker and writes "PROPERTY OF SOLANA13" in big, bold letters across his arm) Happy now?

Ginny knocked quietly on his door. He knew it was Ginny because no one else would be coming to see him. He called for her to come in and she casually took a seat on the chair next to his bed where he was reclining.

"I suppose I was wrong about that. You really are quite the actor, aren't you?"

He grinned. "I can't believe it took you this long to realize it."

"Oh, Mrs. Weasley, I hope I'm not putting you out. You are just sooo kind. Blah, blah, blah."

"Yes, she did seem quite taken with me, didn't she?" He looked immensely smug.
"Oh, don't look so pleased, Mum would adopt Fudge if he complimented her cobbler. And she hates him." Ginny added as an afterthought, realizing there was no way Draco would have known that.

"How very modern of her. I never took the Weasleys as a very anti-establishment kind of family."

"It not her fault! The man is a bloody prick. Took Percy's already fat head and went and inflated it more. Dad was so mad."

"Has this anything to do with the lack of pajamas?"

"Of course he couldn't be bothered to participate. He's only here because Charlie and Bill told him if he didn't come they'd string him up by his ankles. Mum was so please when she heard- thought it meant Percy was back to normal again. Normal for Percy at least. I'm actually glad you're here." She said and he looked up a bit, startled.

"It gives them a chance to agree on something." She paused, struck by how odd it was to be having a normal conversation with him.

He too seemed to notice it too and the silence became somewhat awkward. "So…. did Finnigan have anything useful to say?"

"You knew he called?"

"Of course. Nosy prick saw me when he flooed." Draco said. "He better not say anything or I'll beat him to a bloody pulp." He added without thinking. As soon as the words left his mouth he regretted it, but when he looked up at Ginny, he could see she was vaguely amused.

"I wouldn't mind entirely if you did, for all the trouble he's caused me." The as an afterthought she added, "That's not permission, mind you."

He grinned. "Of course not, that would be ever so wrong. So what's the blond wonder done to get your knickers in a bundle? I thought it was, like, illegal for Gryffindors to fight. Isn't that one of the rules of pink fluffy bunny land?"

She snorted. "Hardly. You should see Ron and Hermione when they've had a row. It's terrifying."

There were many responses he could have said to that, but seeing as not one of them seemed likely to endear himself further to her, he turned the subject back to safer ground.

"Your mum seemed pleased to have him call, Seamus I mean."

Ginny paused, looking near to exasperated. "She thinks he'll want to date me again. She's convinced she ruined me as a lady, by letting me hang around with the boys so much. Says I ought to have worn more dresses, gone to formal teas and such. By the time I was thirteen she'd all but decided I was never going to marry. Should've seen her when I first met Harry. I think she was more set on making him her son-in-law than I was."

"And that's saying something." He said unpleasantly. "I never understood what you saw in 'ole Potty."

"He was kind." She told him sourly. "You should try it sometime."

"Malfoys aren't kind. We're charming, debonair and handsome. Not kind."
"Could use a bit of work in the modesty department too." She snapped, but she was smiling again.

He shrugged. "No one's perfect. I just happen to be really close."

"Well, if you're done gently probing me for information I think I'll head up to bed."

He opened his mouth to protest.

"Oh don't bother." She said. "I have enough brothers that I recognize the signs. I must admit, you have a gift. I was nearly through my rant about Percy before I realized what you were doing."

He looked at her. "What are you doing here, Weasley?"

It wasn't the same, light tone he'd been using. It was serious, almost cold, and oddly reminiscent of how he would have spoken to her weeks ago. She looked at him, and found she didn't know exactly what to say.

"I don't know, exactly. It just seems like you could…use a friend right now."

"And what makes you think I'd choose you?" Draco sneered. Then he cursed himself for saying it.

She laughed. "You're utterly predictably. Did you know?"

He couldn't tell at all whether she was upset or not. She didn't seem particularly distressed. Instead she just regarded him with a curious expression, as if she were trying to figure out an especially hard Arithmancy problem. While he pondered how he was supposed to be responding, she stood up and went to the door.

"Goodnight, Malfoy."

Still at a loss for words, he sat in silence for a moment, and by the time he figured he should at least say goodnight back, she was gone.

Draco couldn't help but smile a bit. Perhaps she wasn't quite as helpless as he thought. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes for a moment before sighing and sitting up. He went to his trunk and found a bit of parchment and a quill and began a letter to his mother. He hadn't sent her his weekly update, and he wanted to make sure she was alright. When he finished scribbling out a quick note, he stood to send it, before realizing that he hadn't brought his owl with him, and he had no idea whether or not the Weasley's had one. Potter had one, a great bloody, white beast, but he would drop dead before he had to ask Potter for a favor. He sat back down on his bed and put the parchment on his bed stand. He'd have to wait to send it tomorrow.

Turning off the lights, he laid down and looked at the ceiling, replaying his conversation with Ginny. She had been right when she had said he was probing her. He needed to find out as much as he could about Ginny Weasley, and in the past day all he'd found out was that he knew absolutely nothing. Well, not nothing. He knew her family was important to her. Not in the same way that the Malfoy family was important to him, that was pride of a name not necessarily the people who bore it. No, instead they were important to her in the way that his mother was important to him.

And he knew that she was trying as hard to figure him out as he was her. For entirely different reasons, of course. The real question was why? She was probably convinced she could befriend him and turn him away from his life of evil. He almost laughed at the thought of himself going around just like Potty, trying to rescue the damsel in distress. No, if that was what she wanted then she was going to be sorely disappointed.

The other possibility, which in his opinion was much worse, was that she was beginning to like him. In any other girl this would have been expected and deemed a good thing, but not with Weasley. If she started to actually like him, he knew she would be looking for a commitment, not just the holiday amusement he had in mind. That, of course, didn't mean he would use her, it just wasn't as much fun. Girls who wanted commitment always wanted to stop making out to talk about their future. That was most unfortunate, because he was an aesthetic, and the degree of beauty he required in any women who dated him usually came without the thought capacity needed to carry on a conversation.

Although, maybe the idea of Ginny actually liking him wasn't so terrible, because the more he thought about it the more unsure he became that he could win her over any other way then if she had feelings for him and thought those feelings were reciprocated. He didn't take her for the kind of girl who would be at all please to find out that she was simply being used as a good snog and a distraction from his boredom. Again he had to choke down his laughter as he pictured how that conversation would go.

The next morning, he woke up at nine o'clock. He rolled over trying to go back to sleep, but, of course, he couldn't. The window was open and the sun was shining straight at him in some cruel mockery of cheerfulness. And he really had to find a bathroom.

"Stupid sun." He mumbled as he crawled out of bed and stumble down the stairs. He turned the handle of the bathroom door only to find that the door was locked. He knocked.

"Oh, shove off, Ron! I said I'd be out in a minute!" Ginny's voice answered.

This time he pounded on the door. "Hurry up, Weasley!"

"Hold on!" She called.

He continued to pound on the door until it opened beneath his blows.

"Would you stop that?" Ginny asked, wrapped in a light blue bathrobe and a pair of long, pajama pants. Her hair was dripping wet and he could only assume she'd just stepped out of the shower.

"Move." He snapped. "I. Need. To. Use. The. Bathroom."

She grinned, leaning against the doorframe. He noticed that she had a clean pair of jeans and a t-shirt shoved under her arm. "Now, that's not very polite. Is wittle Draco not a morning person?"

"No."

"Well, we'll just have to change that, won't we?" She said, drawing out the torture on his bladder.

"Weasley, if you haven't moved in three seconds, I'll make you move."

Ginny looked amused. "Really, and how to you plan to do that."

"Three." He said, and then snatched he clothes from out from under her arm.

"Hey! Give those back, Malfoy!" She said, straightening up, but not moving from in front of the door.

"Come and get them." He said, holding the small bundle out of her reach.

"If you think I'll going to jump for those you're mad." She said.

He shrugged.

"Fine, Malfoy, have it your way." She said, then, securing the tie on her robe, she rushed forward and tackled him. He groaned as he hit the ground and she, sitting on his chest, triumphantly snatched the clothes back from him.

"Ugg…Weasley, you're heavy…. my bladder…"

She laughed. "That's what you get." She said, chidingly.

"Get off. I can't feel my legs."

"But, you're much more awake now, aren't you?"

"Am I interrupting something?"

Ginny and Draco looked up into the cold face of Professor Snape. If Draco hadn't known how angry Snape must have been at the moment, he would have said the professor looked almost amused.

Ginny was on her feet in an instant, blushing bright red and trying to smooth her robe. "No Professor."

"Good." He said, turning his gaze on Draco, who was still lying on the floor. "Molly said I'd find you up here."

Draco smiled, even if he did know he was about to die. "How you been, Professor?" He asked. Snape was about to kill him, he knew that much. But how had he been found? And why wasn't Ginny looking more surprised as to the fact that the potions master was in her house?

"Ms. Weasley, would you excuse us for a moment while Mr. Malfoy and I have a chat?"

"Of course, Professor." She said, still blushing, and rushed into her room.

"Actually, Professor," Draco said. "I was just headed to the-" Just then Harry walked by, on his way down from Ron's room and gave them an interested look. After a second, he seemed to either determine that they weren't up to anything menacing, or if they were it involved Malfoy getting injured, which also wasn't a bad thing, and turned away.

"Ron!" He called, started down the second flight of stair. "Bathroom's empty."

"Finally!" Ron, a red blur was throwing the bathroom door closed before Draco could utter a word.

Snape looked down at him wryly. "You were saying?"

Draco sighed. "Let's just go have a chat then, Professor."

"So, how'd you find me?"

"In a rather compromising position, I'm afraid." Snape said, dryly.

Draco looked at him incredulously. Not only was the professor joking, he was joking at a time he should have been furious.

The tips of Snape's mouth turned up in what was almost a smile. "I know it may be hard to comprehend, Mr. Malfoy, but my life doesn't revolve around you. You should have known I'd be here."

Questioningly, Draco stared up at the professor from his seat on the bed, waiting for the man to explain. When he did, the almost-smile feel from his lips.

"You don't understand where you are do you? You little fool, you've stepped right into the middle of the Order of the Phoenix."

"This- Ginny Weasley's house- is the Order headquarters?" Draco asked. That, at least, explained Ginny's lack of surprise.

"Of course not." He snapped. "This is just where everyone's spending their Christmas holiday. I warned them it was a stupid idea, to leave headquarters. Deatheaters will have this house under constant surveillance, and then, so must we. No one listened, though, even Dumbledore sanctioned it."

The boy scoffed. "Crazy old bugger."

Again Snape's mouth twitched. "You have too little faith in your headmaster, Mr. Malfoy."

They sat in silence for a moment.

"This is the last place your father will look. At least you'll be safe and out of trouble here. That is if you survive Ms. Wealsey's brothers." Snape said after a long pause, standing up.

"You're leaving?"

"My turn on guard." He said shortly, already at the door. "Be careful Draco."

"You too, Professor." Then, just as the man was about to leave, Draco called, "Oh, Professor. How should I reach you? I can't use my owl, obviously…"

The older man examined him for a moment. "I have one you can use, I'll send him over." He said finally and was out the door, leaving Draco staring in wonder.

Snape hadn't killed him. Draco hadn't told him a thing about where he was going, and then run off with the Weasleys of all people and Snape hadn't killed him. He hadn't even seemed angry. Draco would have thought that after the shock of finding him at any place called the Burrow, had worn off, that Snape would have been livid with Draco for running off without a word of his whereabouts to anyone. Instead, the professor hadn't yelled at all. And, Draco realized with a start, he hadn't acted very surprised either.

Was it possible his mother had told the potion master her son's location? Draco didn't think so. He had debated for a long time about telling his mother. In the end, he had simply because he knew that someone had to know where he was in case something happened, but he had never even considered telling Snape. His mother was one thing. As far as Lucius was concerned, she was a loyal wife. Snape on the other hand was under quite a bit of suspicion and scrutiny. If his father found out that Snape not only knew where Draco was, but had also helped him….

Draco didn't even want to think about his father. He couldn't even picture how enraged he must have been when Draco simply didn't come home from King's Cross.

But then, if his mother hadn't told Snape- which he knew she hadn't for the same reason he hadn't-how had he known? Was it possible that Ginny….? No. He clearly remembered that night in the dungeon when he'd been so convinced she'd been listening to Snape and himself discussing his father's plan for the holiday, but now he wasn't so sure that she had. If she did, she was a much better liar then he gave he credit for. Besides, he could hardly see the girl just marching down to Snape's office to tell the man that she had been eavesdropping, which would have of course had to of been what she had done if she had told him Draco was staying with her. And even then, the necklace wouldn't have allowed her to do anything of the sort.

He winced thinking about the necklace. He hadn't allowed his mind to wander there for several weeks now. He hadn't used it since that night…Draco forced an image of Ginny unwrapping her scarf to reveal a hand-shaped bruise around her neck where no bruise could possibly be out of his head.

Honestly, Draco didn't want to use it again. He was afraid of what he might find. He fingered the golden ring- the necklace's counterpart- that he'd taken to keeping in his pocket at all times, picturing her again.

There was a small knock on the door.

"Yeah?" He called.

The door opened very slightly and Ginny poked her head in, looking almost like a groundhog afraid of its shadow. When she saw that Snape had left, she pushed the door the rest of the way open.

"I thought I saw him leaving. Coming downstairs?"

She'd exchanged her bathrobe for the clothes he'd taken from her earlier.

"Depends. What'd you have planned, Weasley?" He asked.

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe just a friendly game of Quidditch." She said smiling.

"Are you mad! It's, like, ten degrees out there!"

"Exactly, Malfoy. That's half the fun."

Thanks so much to my reviewers! I love you all so much. You rock. Like seriously. Anyway, swim team started up again so don't expect an update TOO soon (see, I didn't break my promise), but I'm really excited because the climax (oh my gosh! A climax! As in what concludes a plot? There's a plot? I missed it!) is coming up soon, so I really want to get the next few chappies out. Anyway, go and hit the pretty little review button and make me happy. Mad love.