So Much For Secrets

Ron's fist connected with Harry's face, square in the centre, breaking his nose. Harry staggered backward. Ginny and Hermione screamed, and Harry was in in the middle of saying, "What the hell Ron?" when his best friend grabbed him by the collar and threw him to the floor. He continued to punch Harry multiple times in the face until Hermione and Ginny managed pull the enraged redhead back. "Let go of me!" he hollered, ripping himself out of their grasps. Harry used a table to pull himself up, wiped some of the blood off of his face, and stared at Ron.

"Ron," he said in an oddly calm voice. Well obviously this secret's been blown, he thought.

"Don't even talk to me!" He shouted. "I know what you did! I know what you did to her!" He pointed to Ginny.

"Ron, let's talk about this."

"Talk? Harry, YOU KNOCKED UP MY LITTLE SISTER!"

"Ron, I understand why this upsets you but-"

"UPSETS ME? YOU THINK I'M THIS JUST UPSETS ME? FIRST I FIND OUT THAT MY SUPPOSED BEST FRIEND IS TAKING ADVANTAGE OF MY LITTLE SISTER, AND THEN I FIND OUT THAT HE GOT HER PREGNANT! UPSET? I'M LIVID, AND I'M GONNA GONNA RIP YOUR FUCKING HEAD OFF!" He lunged for Harry, who managed to hop away just in time. Harry put his hands in front of his face to block Ron's fists from hitting him again. They continued to jump around the room, Ron throwing punches, and Harry trying to defend himself.

"This is madness!" Hermione shouted. The girls ran after their boyfriends, trying to pull them away from each other.

"Ron - get - off - of - him," Ginny said, trying to pull her brother away from Harry. He ignored her and continued to throw is fists in Harry's direction. "Ron," she said again. He continued to ignore her as if she weren't even there. This was starting to bother Ginny greatly. "RON!" she shouted. Ron paused for a moment. When she was speaking in that sort of volume, it was hard to ignore her. "Ron, could I just say something?"

"Ginny, you're too young for this, you don't know what you're talking about," Ron said dismissively, barely turning to look at her whilst still glaring at Harry in a face that Harry had never seen Ron make before in the entire time that he'd known him.

"I am not too young!" Ginny screamed with enough power that anyone who didn't know it was her would have thought that her voice had belonged to a giant. Ron turned around in shock. The immense power and volume of her voice was almost unreal. "Do I have your attention now Ron?" She snipped, her voice still blooming with power. Each of her words ended with a bit of a clip to them. Ron nodded at her dazedly. "Good," her voice was now quiet and calm, but it still had the clip to it. "Firstly," she said, making firm eye contact with him. "I don't want to hear any more of this rubbish about Harry taking advantage of me. It was one hundred percent my choice-"

"Ginny, you're fifteen," Ron interjected. "There's no way you made that choice without him pressuring you too-"

"Do not interrupt me!" She said, her voice booming again. Ron quieted instantly; legitimately scared of the small girl standing before him. "And if you must know Ronald," she said, her voice once again back to normal, "I seduced him."

Ron was stammering in disbelief of what he was hearing.

"Furthermore," she said powerfully, "I am not a child. In fact I'm carrying a child. So I would appreciate it if you would not treat me like one. And finally," She raised her voice on the last word to prevent Ron from interrupting her again. "You know just as well as I do that you would never want to do harm to Harry, he's like a brother to you, and you'll regret all this later, so stop acting all tough and cut the crap."

The room was completely silent. Every one stared at Ginny - who was just radiating strength - in complete disbelief. Where had that come from? "Ginny, I... you... my little sister..." Ron tried to say.

Ginny lowered her voice to a soft tone finally and her strange powerful demeanour came down faster than it had even come on. She moved to stand right in front of her baffled brother. "Ron," she said, looking up at him. "I'm not a little girl anymore. You don't need to protect me."

"B-but-"

"Harry loves me," she said. "And I love him, and we're going to have this baby together. But as happy as that makes me I know that that means hard times ahead of us. We need all the support we can get right now, and I know we won't be able to get through this without you, so I'm asking you Ron, as you're your little sister, to stand by me, and to stand by Harry."

Harry stared hopefully at Ron who was looking down at Ginny. For such a small girl, she seemed extremely large in the power that she was displaying. Ron huffed and looked from Harry back to his little sister, as if deciding upon something. Finally, in a low, strained voice he said. "I'll do that for you," he paused. "As your brother." ," He turned around and made his way toward Harry. They stared silently at each other, as if mentally deciding if there was going to be another fight. "And... and I guess..." He mumbled. Harry looked at him pleadingly. The last thing he wanted was to lose Ron as his best friend. "And I guess I'll stand by you too," he said reluctantly. "After all you are my best mate."

Harry smiled and reached out to shake Ron's hand. "So, we're good then?"

Ron paused in hesitation, then took Harry's hand and shook it, saying, "We're good."

Hermione rolled her eyes and whispered to Ginny that she didn't understand what it was about boys and their aversion to hugging. Ginny laughed at this and she placed a hand on her stomach, rubbing it softly.

"Blymie," Ron said, looking at Harry's bloody, mangled face. "I really did go hard on you, didn't I?"

"Er - yeah," Harry said.

"Sorry 'bout that mate, but you get it, right?"

"I totally understand," Harry said, happy to have his friend back.

"Right then," Ron said. "Best be getting Harry to the Hospital Wing."

Harry and Ron sat alone in the hospital wing. Ginny and Hermione had gone to bed, but Ron, feeling bad about what he'd done - just was Ginny had predicted, insisted on staying with Harry until his whole face had healed completely, which Madame Pomfrey had said would only take a few hours if Harry drank all his potions. "I s'pose you'll be marrying her, then," Ron said suddenly, completely out of the blue.

"What?" Harry asked, wincing at the pain he felt in his jaw when he spoke. He took another sip of his bone healing potion. His nose was starting to feel almost normal again,

"Ginny," Ron said. "I mean, she's having your baby and all, you're going to marry her aren't you?"

Harry laughed. "If I could," he said, "I would marry Ginny today, baby or not. But you know your sister, strong willed. She won't marry me just because she's having my child. She'll want to be convinced."

Ron chuckled, "And besides," he said. "It's nearly eleven o'clock at night. It'd be a ruddy time to have a wedding."

Harry laughed again, happy that Ron seemed to have regained his good humour. "But between you and me," he said. "I'm planning on asking her pretty soon."

Ron nodded in approval. He smiled suddenly. "I just realized," he said. "That'll make us brothers."

"I guess it will."

Ron sat quietly for a moment, as if thinking about something. "Was she right?" He asked. "Ginny, when she'd said that you loved her. Was she right? Do you love her?"

Harry looked at him seriously, but smiled at the same time. "More than anything else in the whole world," He he said.

Ron smiled as well. "Good," he said. There was a long silence again. "And if you if marry her," he added, "Treat her well, will you?

Harry nodded. "I'll do my best."

Oh, I know, another short chapter. Sorry, I promise the next one will be longer.