The bartender took a glass from behind and filled it to the brim with Guinness. He placed it in front of the young man at the bar. The man looked young, he was probably about eighteen or nineteen, so he just hit the legal age for drinking. He was wearing odd clothing. The bartender had been tempted to refuse to serve him from the start. Any man walking around in public wearing a maroon sweater with a R engraved on it had to be drunk. Yet, the man walked fine, he talked fine, he just seemed depressed. The bartender looked him over. His eyes were puffy, rather like he had been crying and he had some red stubble showing under his chin like he hadn't shaved recently. The red hair on his head was a tangled mess and he kept checking his watch like he was waiting for someone. The red head looked at the beer, gave the bartender a little cheers with the cup and said "to heartbreak" before chugging down the rest of the beer.

"ah female troubles" the bartender smiled, suddenly understanding the disheveled appearance. "they get us all down don't they?"

The man nodded and placed the drink on the table. "how much for a second drink"

"4 pounds." He waved his hand to have the drink filled. Just then the door opened. Another young man entered the bar. He was about the same age as the red-head. He was shorter and had jet black hair that was in an untidy mess on his head. He wore circular glasses over his green eyes and he wore a very haggard expression upon his face.

"Ron. I do not understand women." The man said as he sat next to his friend.

"Harry. I have given up on understanding them. One second Hermione and I are fine. We are laughing and joking around. And then I say a simple joke 'hey Hermione remember when I first noticed you were a girl?' and then she went ballistic." Ron sighed and picked up his second beer.

"You were continuing with the joke. You were making fun of yourself. Why did she get angry over that?" Harry responded.

Ron then did his best imitation of Hermione's angry tone "Ronald Weasley how dare you say that. Do you mean that you never realized I was a girl until we were 14 years old. What did you think before that? I was just a feminine looking guy?" Ron sighed and switched back to his normal voice " of course I responded by calmly explaining that I meant it was the first time I noticed her. Well that made things even worse. Apparently notice was the wrong word because I made it seem like she was invisible to me before that. But she was! I mean not invisible, but I never looked at her like I looked at other girls." He looked to Harry for support who just nodded. "well the argument just got worse and everything I said got her more upset. She kicked me out for the night."

Harry patted his back and responded by saying "I'd offer my place but well Ginny and I got into a fight again too."

"what'd you do this time?"

" well we were walking down the street and she pointed out Cho Chang and then she said that Cho seems to get prettier the older we get. I nodded. Apparently I am not supposed to nod when talking about another girl. I guess I was supposed to disagree and say that Ginny was prettier? Well how was I supposed to know that?"

Harry grabbed his beer and chugged down the rest of the liquid. "this is the third time this week we've fought like this too. And it's always over the stupidest things. On Thursday she got mad at me for saying I was going to meet up with you and George instead of spending time with her. So I bailed on you guys and told her we'd go out to dinner. Then she told me she had plans with Hermione and Luna anyway. A girls' night out. So she can have girls' nights but I can't boys' nights. And then yesterday, she was trying on a new dress while I was reading the paper. She asked me if it made her look fat but I wasn't listening to her so I just said 'uh-huh' well there was another explosion. It's like I can't do anything right."

Ron looked over at him and muttered "I'm sorry mate" he sighed before continuing "it was so much easier when we were friends with them. They would just accept our flaws and move on, now they keep trying to change them. Like Hermione is constantly yelling at me for chewing with my mouth open or spending time playing games instead of 'furthering my knowledge through reading' or my favorite my posture is too awful for her to even stand next to me. Honestly, when we were friends it was never an issue. I mean she would mention those things every so often but she would never try and change any of it."

Harry nodded his head in agreement. "exactly! And Ginny used to be so cool. I swear she was one of the guys. We would all joke around about other girls or make jokes about how skinny she was. We would even make fun of the girls who would fish for compliments. And now she is completely different. It's like ever since school ended and we moved in together everything is different, and not for the better."

The bartender laughed as he came over with their third beer. "this is it boys. I'm cutting you off after this drink. You can't wallow in self-pity all night long. Seriously when are you young people ever going to learn. Girls have the control. If they want to change you and point out their flaws then you have to accept that. It's either be whipped or be alone. You got to choose."

Ron and Harry looked at each other and at the same time said " I want to be whipped."

At that moment a breeze came through the bar as a young girl wearing a black coat stumbled through the door. Ron looked over at her and grinned sheepishly as she flung her arms around his neck.

"Ron I am so sorry, I don't know what got into me. I was being rude and overly sensitive. Please come home. I was looking for you everywhere. I checked every bar in Diagon alley and then every muggle place in London. Please just come home." She smiled at him and Ron felt his heart melt. He placed his money on the table and followed her out the door. As the door shut, Harry heard Ron say he would shave his beard right away if that made her happy. He laughed and thought that Ron was even more whipped than he was.

So, Harry placed in pounds down on the counter. As he was counting the change, he felt a small hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Ginny smiling down at him.

"Harry. I've been a mess the past few days. I am sorry. It's just I keep thinking about everything that's happened the past year and it's been making me all crazy. I shouldn't be taking it out on you. After all, you dealt with so much more and I really am sorry." Harry looked up into her eyes and placed his hand around her head. He pulled her in and kissed her.

"no Ginny" he whispered as he pulled away from the kiss "it's my fault. I haven't been listening to a word you've said to me and I should be more sensitive to your feelings. Forgive me." Ginny smiled and tugged at his hand. The two walked arm and arm out of the bar.

Meanwhile, the bartender cleared the counter and laughed. Those girls had their two boys completely under their control.