Chapter 15-

Ron sat himself on the chair at the Leaky Cauldron and glanced around. It was a quiet evening with hardly anyone around. Apart from an old hag in the corner, there was no one else. Tom, the barman, was sitting at the counter gloomily. Perhaps because there weren't many customers, Ron supposed.

Sally wasn't here yet but he wasn't worried. There were five more minutes until six o'clock and plenty of time for her to show up. He didn't have to wait for long though as Sally showed up at exactly 5:59. Ron guessed that she was extremely eager to meet her boss, whoever it was. When he saw Sally's eyes wandering around the room, he knew his cover would be blown any second. He waited for her eyes to land on him and her almost definite expression of fury.

Sure enough, in a matter of seconds, there she was, staring at him in disbelief.

"What are you doing?" she asked furiously after stalking over to where he was sitting.

"I want to talk to you. Take a seat," said Ron.

"Well, I don't want to talk! I'm leaving," she glared at him and started to walk away.

"I know your secret, Sally," said Ron calmly.

Sally stopped and turned around. She sneered, "Oh really, what secret would that be?"

Don't give it away yet, Ron told himself. The fact that she stopped as soon as she heard the word 'secret' gave him the boost to continue.

"The one absolutely no one knows about," said Ron not letting any sign of nervousness cross his face. He had to do this. He had to get Sally to spill the beans.

Sally started to look a little pale, "I have no idea what you're talking about," she said with less confidence than before.

"Yes, you do," said Ron concentrating very hard on keeping his face smooth. "I know everything, Sally; you might as well drop the pretense."

Sally's face drained of all colour.

"How did you find out?" she whispered, her eyes wide with fear.

"I did my research," Ron shrugged.

"You can't tell anyone," she licked her lips nervously.

"That's for me to decide. I'm not sure yet…how about you convince me?" said Ron with a smirk.

"Please, Ron. You can't tell anyone. I'll be ruined. I'll do anything. Anything! Tell me what you want and it's yours," she said desperately.

Ron puckered his lips and pretended to think for a moment.

"Why don't you take a seat first?" he gestured to the chair opposite him.

Sally heeded him immediately and sat down.

"Tell me what you want, Ron," repeated Sally.

"I have one condition and you have to comply by it," said Ron warningly.

Sally nodded unfazed, "Whatever you want."

"I want to know who your boss is," announced Ron.

Sally stared at him in shock and shook her head. "I can't tell you," she said flatly.

"Then I guess I'll have to let your secret out," said Ron evenly.

"Please. I'll do anything else. Don't make me do this," pleaded Sally.

Ron shook his head and attempted to push his chair from the table, "I'll see you then."

He stood up and started to walk.

Please let this work, he prayed.

"Alright, I'll tell you," said Sally with a sigh.

Ron smiled smugly before turning around and sitting down again.

XX

To say that Ron was elated would be an understatement. He couldn't remember the last time he had felt so happy. He had finally got to know who the 'boss' behind the article was. Things were finally going his way. He knew that although Hermione wouldn't be forgiving him completely anytime soon, he would at least make up for some of the wrong he did to her by giving her this information.

If he was very honest, getting the information out of Sally hadn't been difficult. After calling her yesterday, he had spent all night thinking about how to get the identity of the boss out of her. After some serious brainstorming, he had finally worked out a plan.

The truth was that he didn't know any secret of Sally's. He figured that almost every other person had a dark secret they wanted to share with no one. He decided to take the chance that Sally had one and took it from there. He believed himself to be purely lucky that she had a secret that was so dark that she was willing to give up almost anything to keep it hidden. He had simply called a bluff, deciding it was his best shot. He was curious, however, as to what she was hiding.

Currently, he was standing outside Harry's house. He was working up the courage to go in there. He had no idea where Hermione was having checked her house already and decided that Harry was the only one who would be able to help.

He told himself that he was about to do a good deed for once and straightened his shoulders. He walked to the door and knocked thrice trying to erase the fear from his mind. In a moment or two, the door opened and Ginny's surprised face loomed.

"Ron, why exactly are you showing your lousy face here?" asked his sister ferociously.

"I need to speak to Harry," said Ron nervously. Ginny was quite scary when she was angry.

"He doesn't want to speak to you!" exclaimed Ginny.

"It's okay, Ginny, let him in," Ron heard Harry speak from behind her.

Ginny shot him one last glare and walked away huffily.

Ron walked in and smiled at Harry gratefully. Harry, in turn, looked at him coldly.

"What do you want, Ron?"

"I have something important to tell you."

Harry scrutinized his earnest face and said, "Let's talk in the living room."

Ron nodded. He looked around for his nephew.

"How's James? I haven't seen him for so long," he said.

"He's good. He's sleeping upstairs," replied Harry settling down on the sofa.

Ron followed suit and sat down. He hated the tension between the two of them.

"So what did you want to talk about?" asked Harry shortly.

Ron cringed at his less than friendly tone.

"First of all, I would like to apologize. I'm really sorry for being such an arse. I was selfish and a coward," said Ron sincerely.

The expression on Harry's face softened.

"Yes, you were. However, I'll forgive you in due course," he conceded.

Ron nodded gratefully. He said, "Well, I'm supposing you read the article about me in the Daily Prophet?' scratching his head nervously and turning red.

"I might have glanced at it, yes," said Harry sarcastically.

"I know who's behind it."

Harry gaped at him and immediately stood up. He strode to the fireplace and reached for a flower pot placed on a shelf right above it.

Ron stared at him with a bemused expression. "Er..Harry? What's going on?"

"Are you sure your information is authentic?" asked Harry urgently.

Ron nodded puzzled. "Yes, why?"

His question went unanswered, however, as Harry scooped some powder from the flower pot and threw it in the fireplace.

"Come on, Ron, fast!"

Ron stood up astonished as the flames in the fireplace turned green and asked, "Where to?"

"The Malfoy Manor," replied Harry.

XX

Don't kill me! I still have about two more chapters to go. I'm really sorry for dragging this story but I didn't want to squeeze everything into this chapter. Hopefully, you enjoyed it. I promise I'll update in a day or two or even tomorrow if I get the right amount of feedback. ;)

Now I would like to clear some things up. Firstly, I know I've been really vague about where Sally lives. Well, she's from Australia but she lives in London. Which is why she was able to meet Ron at such short notice. Secondly, Sally's secret is not important to this story and will not be revealed. However, if a lot of you are extremely curious, I might write a spinoff. Let's say, about 10-15 of you? Leave me a review if you're interested. Thirdly, I had absolutely no idea what to call Malfoy, as in Draco's, house; so it's to be assumed that his house is called the Malfoy Manor even though I'm well aware that it's Lucius Malfoy's house's name too. That's about it. If you have any other doubts from the previous chapters, let me know and I'll be glad to clear it up. I'm repeating again though that the plot wasn't well thought-out earlier.

Also, I'm so very grateful to all of you who are still reading my story. Really, I feel blessed. Thank you so much for reviewing, favourite-ing and putting the story on alert! I have plenty of time, at the moment, so I won't disappoint you this time. Plus, I have the rest of the story mapped out in my head so I just need to write it all down. If I'm motivated enough (hint: review), I can probably finish this story in two days.

I've been thinking about starting a new story after I finish this one. If you've got any ideas please let me know. If there's something else you would like to read let me know about that as well.

Okay, I'm done. Phew, that was long.

Thank you so much, once again!

Until next time,

EpitomeOfImperfection