Author's Note: I'm aware that all the computer talk might be little confusing to some, but I'll try to simplify later. Or elaborate on it.

2: The Not Exactly True… Truth

Malfoy gazed at her nervous expression with confusion. The little weasel was scared… but she had mentioned his company, hadn't she? Did that mean she knew about the Firestarter? She knew something, no doubt, but her eyes flicked back and forth from his face to the ground with… guilt? Malfoy stared at her.

Stop staring! Ginny yelled mentally. She was sure he was looking into her head. The look he was giving her made her feel like she was being dissected from head to toe. Like she was a piece of meat.

"What are you talking about?" Malfoy asked, suspiciously. "There's nothing wrong with the company."

Ginny frowned, ready to say, I deleted everything, you idiot! But instead, looked around. She was sure everyone was staring at her. Them.

"Can I just talk to you?" She pleaded, clutching her messenger bag.

"Are you going to waste my time?"

"No! I- I only - Look. I really need to tell you something." She lowered her voice, shifting from one foot to the other. Why was it so hot all of the sudden? She looked up at him and saw the consideration. The little weasel knew something.

"Alright." Without saying anything else, he turned and the tinted glass doors of the office opened, and cold air hit her like a fist. She knew after she told him she was going to end in Azkaban. There was no doubt about it she was in for it. Ginny shuddered and followed his black robes to an elevator. Great. Ginny though. I hate awkward elevator moments.

Ginny slid into the handsome elevator, and bit her lip, as she was sure as soon as those elevator doors closed, she was sealing her own fate. Ginny tapped her foot once, and glanced at Draco, who was studying her. Draco tapped the elevator door and it started moving up with a jolt that tore a yelp from her lips. One minute later, Draco tapped the elevator door again, and it stopped. Ginny waited for the door to open, but was startled when Malfoy turned to her and crossed his arms across his chest.

"Alright, Weasley. What do you know?" Malfoy asked silkily, and tensed when a look of pure panic crossed her face. He knew people wanted to use the elevator, but it was too damn bad, he owned the damn building.

"W- What?" Ginny stuttered. His domineering presence was quickly chipping away at her built self-control and defenses. Her heart began to thump faster and she found herself drawing several deep breaths when his eyes narrowed and suspicion hung thick in the air. I- I… I know the Firestarter!" She nearly bellowed, the lie spilling from her lips before she could stop herself. Instantly, she clamped a hand over her mouth, and stared at him with horror.

"Do you?" Malfoy asked slowly and his own heart began to thump. Could it be? Was she lying? No, or else she wouldn't look so terrified. He gazed at her with the full force of his eyes.

Stop staring at me like that you stupid ferret! "Yeah. I mean. Yes. I do. I keep contact wit her because she's… well, that's not the point. I'm not involved with what she does because it's criminal – I mean, a crime and I just want to tell you that… I know what happened." She finished lamely when she ran out of air. She stared at his rather expensive shoes and stiffened when they took a step closer. She couldn't help it, she looked up and she gulped when his eyes were narrowed, and look of pure distaste was written all over his features.

"And how does that help me?" He said lowly, his voice slightly menacing.

"It… I feel responsible… I just want to help! Stop looking at me like a deceased rat, Malfoy." Ginny yelled, her temper making her bold. She squared her shoulders, and gazed at him.

She was fascinating! The angle of her jaw and the line of her neck were shadowed, but he still found his eyes flicking back to that spot. Then the defiant look on her face made her cheeks pink and her eyes flare with irritation.

"Who is she?" He nearly whispered, leaning closer watching the surprise and panic flick across her eyes.

"I can't tell you."

"Blast it! The how are you supposed to help?!" Draco grabbed her upped arms in a firm grasp and nearly shook her. "Don't you understand? There is nothing to fix, nothing to salvage. The only shot we have is to recreate what took three years to properly generate by the best software designers out there!" Draco yelled and this time, he did shake her. His frustration and rage showed this time and Ginny felt as if he had slapped her across the face.

"Morgan Burdett." She said softly, avoiding his gaze, but when his fingers tightened she winced and looked up at him.

"What? How do you know him?" Draco asked, and this time he was too confused. How did this little weasel know the man who had generated the main core of the program? She looked at him, and he saw the flash of something that gave her out in her eyes.

"Her. Morgan Burdett is a woman. She's my best friend. I helped her create your core, Malfoy. If you had looked closer, you would have seen it." Ginny warbled out. This time she was telling the truth. Morgan Burdett had been her roommate, best friend, sister since the day Morgan saved her from the Killing curse in a battle. Morgan had been ambitious, and reckless, driving herself to the top of the software companies in Europe. Now her headquarters in China had separated her and Ginny, but that didn't stop the phone calls, emails and actual letters they sent. Now that Morgan was wealthy beyond Ginny's belief, she had helped Ginny start off her own shop. The guilt that filled her when she mentioned her name made her wince. She should have brought her friend into this.

"I would have seen what?" Draco asked, his own temper spiking.

"Did you people ever run a search for 'weasel.exe'?" Ginny asked, a smile trying to form on her lips.

His people had. Draco thought back to when they had first ran the core and he had laughed at all that file. When he had asked Morgan what the hell was that file, she had responded simply. "Delete it, and you might as well take a blow torch and burn your company to pieces." Draco had shrugged, but he knew enough about programming to know that that file was the router of all commands possible on the core. Draco looked down at her face.

"You wrote the base of my company." Draco stated.

"A piece of it." Ginny felt like shuddering at the gaze he gave her. "Morgan paid me. She always trouble with that piece of code."

"And why do you want to help?" Draco's voice was calm now.

The question threw her off. Sure, it was her fault Malfoy's company was absolute rubble, but how could she answer that without giving herself away? The confusion must have shown on her face because Malfoy felt a humorless smile work onto his face.

"Alright, Weasley. We need to talk to Morgan Burdett." Draco said and tapped the door to the elevator. The elevator began to move again and Ginny felt some of the tension release when he turned away from her so he couldn't see her face.

The silence grew thick and when the elevator doors opened at the very top, Ginny sighed and then flushed when elevator doors opened and a large crowd of people wearing not-so-pleased expressions stared at them. Ginny blushed when eyes darted from Malfoy to her, scrutinizing her flushed face and simple clothes. Pride had her squaring her shoulders, and without a glance his way she elbowed her way through the crowd.

"How long where we in there for?" Ginny mumbled to herself.

"Half an hour." Was the reply from a displeased woman in dark red robes, and Ginny flushed again, this time mumbling a curt apology.

"In my office, Weasel." Malfoy said, and gazed at her when she flushed, but this time in anger.

"My name is not weasel." Maybe I should have left your company in ruins, Ginny thought.

He cast her a bemused glanced. "Ginevra. My office." He repeated, and watched her fume into his spacious office. He shut the door behind him, and nodded to Jack who was staring at him through the window of his own office.

He slid behind his desk and into the high backed leather chair. He slid an address book from the corner of his desk while Ginny watched, apprehension building. She watched Malfoy leaf through packed pages and bit her lip when he stopped, and walked to the fireplace in front of his desk. She had placed herself strategically in the middle of the room so she was behind Draco who picked up white powder from the mouth of a bowl the shape of a roaring lion. When he threw the powder into the fire, he activated the Floo network in his office so the flames turned bright purple before turning green.

"Morgan Burdett Software, this is Draco Malfoy." Draco said in a clear voice to the fire. Ginny stared at the flames, hoping Morgan was out. When the flames turned yellow Ginny swallowed and when Morgan's pretty head appeared, she sighed.

"Hello? Ginny?" Morgan's voice cut through the telephone like a knife. Back home, Ginny lay back on her bed and cradled the phone to her ear.

"Yes, Morgan?" She asked dejectedly, and waited. There was a heartbeat of silence, and then Morgan's came fast.

"What the hell is going on? I don't appreciate lying to my top buyer, Ginny. You better have a damn good explanation for not telling him you ruined him." Morgan's angry voice added to the new headache Ginny just developed. The meeting with Morgan had been nerve-wracking. The confusion had shown on her face when Draco said the Firestarter had destroyed the core, and there was the Firestarter, right next to him looking so panicked Morgan had only nodded, and asked what she could do to help. When Morgan had said that yes, Ginny had built a piece of the program, Draco rocked back on his heels and turned to look at Ginny. When he did that, Morgan sent Ginny a very pissed off look that quickly changed to professional composure when Draco turned back. Ginny had walked down the block after being dismissed from his office and had slid into her loft without a sound. Then she had immediately sat down and questioned her own sanity.

"Its… a long story." Ginny said, and was cut off.

"Shut up and tell me." Morgan snapped, fuming.

"Do you remember your last letter?" Ginny asked, and covered her eyes with her hand.

"The one I sent last week? With the picture of that really hot guy?" Morgan asked and then shook her head.

"Yes. That one. That wasn't really hot." Ginny said.

"Don't change the subject." Morgan warned, although the anger was fading.

"Well. You told me all about Malfoy, and his company but I didn't like how you said…" Ginny sighed, and continued, "I didn't like how you said that even I might have trouble hacking into that one." Ginny finished lamely. There was another short pause.

"Ginny. That's stupid. That's not reason to ruin-."

"I didn't mean to! All I did was just break into it, I watched the map for a little bit, and then I was going to sign off, I swear!" Ginny defended.

"Then you somehow got the urge to delete every file I created?" Morgan finished icily.

"No! Look, I was leaning back in that stupid chair and the phone rang and I kicked the cord." Ginny explained quickly, closing her eyes.

"You kicked the cord? But that wouldn't do anything, just disconnect you." Morgan paused, an idea forming. "Unless…"

"Unless I used Morgan Software's IIe, that was edited to make sure that everything the computer deleted everything it was hooked up to when the power went out." Ginny finished.

"You edited IIe to do that? How?" Morgan asked.

"I had to change some stuff. It took some time, but it worked. Too well." Ginny added. "Look, Morgan, it was an accident, and I fully intend to fix it." She said and sighed. Life was very, very bad right now.

"Why haven't you told him you're the Firestarter?" Morgan asked, her lips pursed.

"Are you joking? He'd send me to the Muggle and Wizard authorities in under twenty seconds." Ginny said, "With glee too because I'm a Weasley. And I ruined his company."

"Alright. You have too tell him sooner or later, or he's going to find out." Morgan warned, "I might have some files in the archives. I'll run it through tomorrow. Don't mess up, Gin."

"I wont. Bye, Morgan." Ginny hung up, and rolled onto her stomach. The phone rang once more and she picked up without looked at the number.

"What?" She asked testily.

"Is that how you talk to your future employer?" the familiar drawling voice asked.

"No. I'm tired." Ginny said and opened her eyes. How the hell did Malfoy get her number?

"Well, I need in my office tomorrow morning." Malfoy said.

"I'm working tomorrow!" Ginny exclaimed, sitting upright on her bed.

"Yes, precisely. In my office." Draco chuckled.

"No, I mean, my shop!" Ginny stuttered, and waved her hand erratically.

"I suggest you find a replacement. Temporary, because you'll be worked for me for the next ah… three months."

"Great."

"My thoughts exactly. Seven o'clock weasel. Don't be late." And hung up before she could reply. Ginny threw the phone down and rubbed her eyes. The guilt was absolutely eating her alive! She lay back down, and pulled her back and white-stripped blanket on top of her. Three months of working for a Malfoy couldn't possibly be so bad.

If only she knew.

-

AN: The aforementioned IIe is a cheap fictional system restore/antivirus program that was developed but never sold.