A/N: Do I even need to say it? That it's been eons since this fic has been updated? I don't think so. Good Lord, how can I apologize? Thank you all for the kind comments, the ones from before and the ones that kept coming after I had abandoned the fanficiton world for a short spell. I hope you'll be so kind as to forgive me and give this latest addition a read through and a review!

Three days passed Adrienne by with little definition. She was refining brooding to an art. She sat, motionless on her bed and let that hollow feeling that had wormed its way into her stomach grow bigger and bigger and bigger until her whole soul felt like a squeezed out tube of toothpaste, wrung out till the last drop. When she wasn't sitting, she was sleeping. Adrienne had found it more bearable if she kept the lamps extinguished, unable to see more than a few feet around her bower. She drifted in and out for awhile, lost on her own open sea. Someone kept bringing in food. She ate what she had to and allowed the rest to vanish the same way it came, vanish away into the non-space she willed her mind to go every night.

It was in the midst of one of these depressive meditations that the young red-head girl opened the door and slipped inside, closing it quickly and silently behind her. Adrienne, her back to the door, craned her head over her shoulder. An eyebrow disappeared into her unruly dark brown bangs.

"Hello."

The girl stepped slightly away from the door with a quiet "Hello". Adrienne watched as she carefully crept nearer to the bed, her brown eyes watching intently for signs of displeasure on Adrienne's face. The thief sighed and turned away. She sat crossed legged on the bed, staring out into the blackness of the non-window.

"It's Adrienne, right?"

She tried to bite back a sigh. Yep. The sweet thing was going to try and start a conversation.

"Yep."

There was another brief breakdown in communications.

"My name's Ginny."

Adrienne turned suddenly, shaking the hair out of her face violently, giving the young lady her full attention. "You're really going to try this, aren't you? I mean, you're determined, truly."

Ginny appeared slightly taken aback, but more on balance than Adrienne would've expected. "Excuse me?"

"Try to have a conversation with me? Set up a report, get to know me, begin a relationship – with the dangerous, unstable, powerful, very possibly evil and untrustworthy thief?" She smiled, her thin lips taking on a strange appearance of sharpness around the edges. "I can't believe your elders have approved this move."

"They haven't." Ginny perched herself lightly on the very edge of the bed, back tense and fingers digging into the rumpled sheets. "They keep telling us to stay away from you. That you can't be trusted, that you'll try to use us to get out."

Adrienne perked up slightly at the last phrase, reaching one hand up to push her hair behind her ear as her jaw hung open loosely. "What? What do they think; I'm going to start taking children as human hostages?"

Ginny shrugged noncommittally, but the pained grimace on her face was a clear enough answer. Letting loose a dramatic scoff, Adrienne flung herself backwards onto the bed, sprawling out across the mattress. "Wonderful! The people I'm going to be stuck with for a year think I'm some sort of monster. Ah, this keeps getting better and better!"

The young girls face swam into focus above her as she leaned in. "I don't think you're a monster."

It was a simple enough phrase and coming from a teenager who had known her for all of fifteen minutes, it was little comfort.

Adrienne smiled softly, bringing her arms back under her head. A little comfort was just enough at the moment. "Thank you, Ginny."

There was a silent pause between them. Ginny's nose wrinkled up and she sat back suddenly. "Of course, that's not to say you couldn't use a shower…"

"Oh, right!" Adrienne pulled herself up sharply, scooting as far away from her guest as possible, actually blushing. "I'm so sorry about that, yeah, um…" She bit her lip as she brought her knees up to her chin, hugging them tightly to herself. "To be perfectly honest, I've been too shy to ask anyone where they might be. I found the water closet in the middle of the night, but the baths and showers elude me somewhat."

Ginny smiled brightly, jumping up with an unusually perky bounce, her long skirt flouncing out around her. "I can show you if you'd like! Get you set up with some towels and a robe and the like!" She was at the door before Adrienne could answer. Swallowing down her nervousness and misgivings in one huge gulp, she had little choice but to follow her young companion out into the hallway, blind to what sort of life would be waiting for her out there in Grimmauld Place.