Hey, thanks for reading on to the second chapter! Hope you like it!

Disclaimer: This goes for my whole story, I don't own Harry Potter or any of it's characters, they belong to JK Rowling... who is the god of writing. Just saying

The Realization

Six weeks had passed since Ginny and Harry had spent the night together on NewYear's, and everyone was back at school. Harry and Ginny were closer than they'd ever been (though neither of them had thought that was even possible) after the experience, but as a result - and much to Ron's dismay - the couple simply could not keep their hands off each other. Of course, with all the strict rules and secret watching eyes of Hogwarts, sex was out of the question, but the two of them still appreciated the time they could spend together.

But this week, however, Ginny was not in any sort of frisky mood. Quite to the contrary, she felt sick. It had started on Sunday when Ginny found herself peculiarly aware of the smell of things. She'd felt revolted by the scent of the black pudding which someone was eating all the way at the other end of the Gryffindor table at lunch. She shrugged this off - she'd never much liked black pudding anyway. But things only worsened after that point. By Tuesday she was completely nauseous all through her morning classes, by Thursday she was nauseous again, plus she was suffering frequent headaches at night as well as an increasingly nagging fatigue, and by today, which was Saturday, she was experiencing all of these things, and a constant need to urinate. Ginny assumed, and Hermione agreed, that she was having the worst flu ever.

It was very early on Saturday morning - so early, in fact, that the sun had only just come up. Ginny didn't bother to check a clock, but she figured it was about five. She was sitting on a couch in the Gryffindor common room curled up with a book and covered in a large blanket, as it was always chilly in the castle this early in the morning. She was reading Hermione's copy of Hogwarts, A History which her now best friend had left on the coffee table after yet another attempt to get Harry and Ron to read it. Ginny had woken up with a start about half an hour earlier; feeling the strong urge to vomit. Afterwards she hadn't been able to fall back asleep, so she'd grabbed the first book she'd seen and began to read it, and now here she was, three chapters later, learning about the school's protection charms.

Harry came down the stairs groggily, rubbing his eyes and nearly knocking his glasses off in the process. Ginny looked up at him as he finally reached the bottom of the stairs. "Morning Harry," she said.

Harry's tired eyes snapped open. "Ginny?" he said, adjusting his glasses and staring at her. "What are you doing up, love?"

Ginny sighed, dogeared the page of her book, and closed it before placing it back on the coffee table. "I'm not feeling well," she said. "Couldn't get back to sleep. Why are you up?"

"Neville woke me up talking in his sleep, or, er, shouting really," he said. "I think he was dreaming about his parents."

Ginny nodded sadly, remembering The Battle of the Department of Mysteries and what they'd learned about Mr and Mrs Longbottom. Harry was looking at her empathetically. "You're still sick?" he asked. Ginny nodded. Harry moved to sit down on the couch next to her. Ginny scooted over to lean against him and he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. She looked up and smiled at him, and he pressed a soft kiss to her lips. "Are you staying home today?" he asked, regarding a scheduled trip to Hogsmede. "I'll stay home with you," he offered.

Ginny shook her head. "You go, have fun. I'll be fine."

Harry smoothed Ginny's long ginger hair. "No Ginny," he said. "You're sick, you need to be taken care of. Let me take care of you."

"But-"

"No buts," Harry insisted. "I'm staying here. Besides, it'll be nice to get some alone time."

Ginny smiled. "How did I get so lucky?" she asked.

Harry smiled back. "Luck has nothing to do with it. I'm in love with you, luck or not. If anything, I feel lucky to be with you."

Ginny, who felt uncannily like she was staring in some cheesy romance movie, leaned in and kissed Harry, darting her tongue into his mouth and thus clearly stating to him what kind of mood she was in. Harry, shocked at her pouncing on him, didn't kiss back at first. When his mind and his body finally caught up to each other, Harry's arms found they're way around Ginny's waist and he deepened their kiss. They kept at this until the rest of the Gryffindors awoke.

Harry and Ginny spent the remainder of the day sitting in the Gryffindor common room playing cards and comparing their teachers. It was decided that Hagrid was best of all, Snape the worst, and Trelawney the most irritating. Though Ginny was a year below Harry, they had all the same classes, but at different times. Ginny had said that she was considering switching to sixth year Transfiguration. "I'm really good at it, so I can catch up, I doubt Professor Mcgonagall will mind."

Ginny felt nauseous for the majority of the day, right up until dinner, when the remainder of the school had returned from Hogsmede. Ginny, after taking a fourth large helping of shepard's pie, agreed to go to the library with Hermione afterwards to help her study for her Arhythmancy test on Monday.

The two girls sat alone in the empty library, pouring over books by candle light. It was getting late, but they weren't tired. How could they sleep when they had things to talk about?

"Enough about Harry and I," Ginny said as she turned to the next page of Arhythmancy Level Six. It didn't make much sense to her because she was still working on level five. "Tell me about you and Ron."

Hermione blushed. "We're doing quite well," she said quietly in an embarrassed tone. Hermione was modest and liked to keep her love life to herself, which Ginny respected, so she dropped the subject - not that she had much of a choice; she was suddenly hit with a splitting headache, forcing her to stop talking.

"Are you okay?" Hermione asked, seeing the pained expression on Ginny's face.

Ginny nodded and closed her eyes, wincing slightly at the throbbing sensation in her head. When the feeling started to fade almost as suddenly as it had come on, she spoke. "Stupid flu," she grumbled.

Hermione spoke quizzically. "This... doesn't seem like the flu Ginny. I mean you've been sick for a week, and a stomach flus don't usually last more than a few days. Furthermore, a stomach a stomach flu doesn't have many symptoms other than nausea. Maybe you were hexed," she said worriedly. Ginny thought about it for a moment. Had she accepted any strange candies from Fred and George recently? "Tell me again what your symptoms are, Ginny?" Hermione asked, snapping her out of her daze.

Ginny thought about it. "Well, nausea, and headaches, and I'm always tired, and I can smell everything, and I swear I could eat this whole castle lately..." she trailed off, seeing the look of realization on Hermione's face. "What?" Ginny asked her. "What is it?"

She looked as though she was putting a jigsaw puzzle together in her mind. "Ginny," she said hesitantly. "You and Harry... you two haven't...?" she was staring at Ginny now.

Ginny knew exactly what she meant without needing to hear her say it. "No," she lied quickly. That was between she and Harry, no one else needed to know about their private life, and Ginny didn't see why that mattered at the moment anyway.

Hermione raised her eyebrows at her. "We're best friends Ginny, I know when you're lying. Just tell me."

Ginny gulped and smiled devilishly. "It happened on NewYear's," she said. She'd expected Hermione to scold her or 'tsk' her, or even just ask her how it had gone, but she did neither. She just looked at Ginny with that same analyzing look she'd had before.

"Did you use protection?" she asked.

Ginny thought about it. To her memory, they hadn't. They hadn't really thought of that. It was a night of passion, there really wasn't much thinking involved at all. All her brain could process was that she loved him, and that what he was doing felt really good. "No, I guess we didn't," She said, slightly embarrassed at her idiocy.

Hermione stared at her, clearly at a loss for words. Lost in the memories of that night, Ginny hadn't quite caught on yet, but she could tell by the look on Hermione's face that whatever strange ailment she thought she had wasn't good. "What is it?" Ginny asked, trying to see what her friend was seeing. Hermione blinked at her and whispered. "Ginny, how long has it been since you last had your period?" she asked

Ginny's jaw dropped and she gasped.