Author's Note: Oh, boy, am I sorry. It's been, what, like a week since I last posted? YIKES!! RL was crazy last week.

Again, my sincerest apologies. And since I am in a confessing mood, I will tell you that I coerced one of my camp minions into telling me the Deathly Hollows casualty list. I am pretty disappointed, but I rather expected that. I am going to continue on with this story the way I have it, and it's sequel, planned. I pretty much expected it to become AU, but I am really not willing to just abandon it.

Speaking of planning, I was looking at my outline and realized that we are more than halfway through If You Can! Hurray!!!! I can't wait to get started on the sequel. I am really looking forward to that one.

By the way, 100 house points to whoever can figure out where the title to this fic came from.

Chapter XV

All he wanted was some quiet time to himself. Just twenty Goddamn minutes! Was that too much to ask? Apparently it was because no sooner had Draco collapsed on the worn sofa in the common area than he heard caterwauling from the bottom of the stairs.

"Hermione!" screamed the voice. He closed his eyes. Maybe, if he was REAL quiet, the person would just go away.

"Hermione!" Now the voice was sobbing as it got louder. Great. Oh, wait a second, he knew that voice. That was the voice of…

"Ginevra," he said in surprise as he jumped up off the couch to stand when she finally appeared in the doorway. Stupid ingrained manners… She was a sight. Hair in shambles, eyes red and puffy, tear streaks down her cheeks… Oh God. He did NOT want to deal with THIS.

"Uh… why don't you sit down?" he offered as she was already making her way to the couch.

"Where's Hermione?" she asked abruptly.

"She's at a prefects' meeting. She should be back soon," but not soon enough, unfortunately. "Uh… what's wrong?"

Her head swung up so fast she could have given herself whiplash.

"What makes you think something's wrong?" she asked defensively. He rolled his eyes.

"I'm a diabolical bastard, not a moron. Obviously there's something wrong or you wouldn't be crying."

"Why do you care?"

"Because all I wanted was some alone time in my rooms. But here you are, leaking all over the place." She stared at him.

"How can you be nice and such a dick at the same time?"

"I dunno, practice?" They stared at each other as Draco came around and wearily sat on the other side of the couch. "Look, you obviously got your knickers in a twist over something, and as my roommate isn't here to tend to you, you may as well get whatever it is off your chest so you can start to calm down."

Ginny remained stubbornly silent, arms folded across her chest, face and eyes forward. She was doing a very good impersonation of someone who was ignoring him.

"Well, it looks as though I have a mystery to solve," he began saccharinely, "from observation, I can tell that you are upset. And it isn't 'death of a loved one' upset or 'state of the world in general' upset. This is 'boy' upset," he leaned in a little closer, "and there's only one boy who could possibly get you to be bawling your little eyes out," he leaned closer still, "so, what's Potter done now?"

Her head whipped around, jaw hanging open. Their faces were only inches away.

"How did you…" she sputtered in shock.

"If you want to keep secrets, you shouldn't speak so loudly or so much." She closed her mouth and just looked at him.

"So…" he egged her on, "what did he do?" She turned again to face forward.

"It's none of your business," she replied indignantly.

"Oh, come now, you made it my business by screaming the walls down."

"I was looked for Hermione," was the heated reply.

"Well, she's not here."

"So I'll wait."

"Sure you will." He could be patient. He didn't really understand why he was so interested. Maybe it was the idea of playing "knight in shining armor." Those goodie-goodie wankers always managed to get a lot of tail. And it was significantly different tail from what he got. Maybe it was because he would love to hear anything that would knock Potter's stupid freak ass off the pedestal everyone always insisted putting him on. And he would just love to hear Potter's former darling bad-mouthing him.

Or maybe it was because he was genuinely concerned about Ginny. He had spent quite a bit of time with her since the beginning of term. He liked her well enough; he should care if she was upset.

No. That couldn't be it…

Regardless of the reason, Draco bided his time. He leaned his head back against the edge of the sofa and closed his eyes. He knew she would come around.

Three...

Two…

One…

"Somehow I convinced myself that things would be different. What with Ron and Hermione…" he turned to look at her. She was staring off into the space directly in front of her nose, not noticing him.

"I take it they weren't."

"Of course not," she spat. "It was the same old speech… they'll come for the people I'm closest to, Ginny… I couldn't let anything happen to you…" blah…blah…blah…

"Who'll come?"

"Deatheaters, Voldemort, MI-6…who knows, who cares? Everyone." Yet another mark in the "Potter is NOT retarded" box. He looked away from her.

"He's right, you know. They would go for you. He's doing you a favor." She looked at him hard, now realizing who was participating in the conversation with her.

"So hurting me is doing me a favor?"

"It's better than letting you die. Everybody's hero couldn't have that on his conscience, now could he?"

"But he doesn't push everyone away. Just me."

"He's not going with anyone else, is he?"

"No, but he doesn't push Ron and Hermione away. Just me."

"They can defend themselves."

"So can I!" she erupted. That arrogant, fancy-ass prat…! And then, if that wasn't bad enough, he started laughing at her.

"Ginevra, you have so much to learn…" he continued chuckling as he turned to look at her casually, one arm draped over the back of the sofa, "are you aware of how much information you just gave me? How do you know I'm not going to kidnap you and whisk you away to the Dark Lord's secret lair?"

"Because you can't…they'll kill you…" she backpedaled, realizing too late that he could do just that.

"No, you told me all this because you trust me. And that is a very foolish mistake. Look at how we are sitting," she looked at their body alignment, licking her lips in fear, "now, where is your wand?"

Oh, shite. It was in her back pocket, where it always was. He could see the light dawning in her eyes as she began realizing the multitude of her mistakes.

"Exactly. I could tackle you to the sofa before you would ever reach it. I could grad it out of your pocket and snap it before you even knew what was happening. And I know that's where it is, because that's where you always keep it. Or I could wait around and pump you for information until you gave me something really juicy. What that prophesy was that everyone was wetting their pants over perhaps…"

The look Ginny gave him now was one of real fear. How could she have been so stupid! She felt her eyes start to prick up. No! She would NOT cry like a little girl, not again!

"Ginevra, look at me," his voice was different now, softer. The voice of a friend. "I know that he likes you, it was really obvious even before you two were going out. But he was right to keep you at arms' length. You are in danger knowing him, yes, but you are also a danger to him. There is no way that you are ready for the war, not yet."

She swallowed and looked at him. "So what should I do?"

He sighed and looked away. "You should pay more attention. Watch your brother; watch Granger. Learn from them. As much as I hate to admit it, your brother is always paying attention now. He's almost ready to face them. And Hermione, well…, I would really hate to be on the receiving end of anything she could throw if she really set her mind to it. The crap that she has been working on up to now is child's play compared to what she'll do when she needs to."

"You like them." It wasn't a question.

"I've always secretly respected Granger, she's pretty amazing really. She's one of the reasons why I began questioning everything that Voldemort stands for. How could she be as gifted as she is if she's supposed to be tainted? And your brother, well, he's not so bad when he's not trying to curse me or beat me up."

"Well, if there's hope for you," she said tartly, "then there has to be hope for me."

"Oh, I'll turn you into an evil genius yet." He smiled slyly at her. She was about to reply when they heard the door to the suite being opened and Hermione and Ron's voices on the other side. Before she knew what was happening, Draco had launched himself off the couch and was standing across the room from her, near the TV.

The couple stopped talking when they entered and noticed Ginny sitting on the sofa.

"Ginny, what happened?" Hermione asked, wearing her concerned face.

"Just a misunderstanding," Ginny replied, eyes going to Draco before she could stop herself. She looked back to Hermione, realizing what she had just given away and that the other girl had noticed. Damnit, she really did have a lot of work ahead of her.

"I was going to go down to the kitchens to get some ice cream, do you want to come?"

"Sure, that would be swell."

"Great. Let me just go put my stuff down," Hermione walked off to the left to drop her bag in her room, giving Ron the opportunity to notice Draco standing in the corner.

"What are you doing over there?"

"Nothing, nothing…" Draco replied, hating the fact that he sounded petrified, hating the fact that he was petrified, and hoping that Ron either wouldn't notice or wouldn't comment.

"Alright, Final Fantasy. Are we playing?" Ron asked, noticing the game that Draco had hastily grabbed to make it look as though he were doing anything but sitting very close to Ginny on the couch.

"Yeah." Draco replied, thanking whatever gods existed for yet another reprieve. The two boys sat down on the couch and got the controllers.

"You boys want anything?" Hermione asked as she walked back into the common room.

"Yeah, I could go for some chocolate, please," Ron asked, tilting his head back so his girlfriend (that's right, his girlfriend) could kiss him before she left.

"Sure, Draco?"

"No, I'm good." His stomach was still a bit knotty and he would be trapped, alone, with Weasley for a good while. No need to upset his stomach any more.

"Ok, we'll see you later," Hermione called as she dragged Ginny out the door by the arm.