"Stupid! Bloody! Prat!" Ginny screamed, throwing a random book against the wall, and subsequently tossing herself on the bed with a big thud. Hermione sat in the corner, picking at her nails, her patience was waining. Ginny had been at it for ten minutes. There was certainly something to be said for blowing off steam, but Hermione thought that this, er, display, had gone a bit too far.

There was silence, apart from heavy breaths from Ginny, she had worked up quite a sweat.

"Are you finished?"

"Yeah."

"Good. Then will you explain to me what happened, because last I knew, you were starting to get over him."

"Well, Hermione, it's all fine and dandy to decide to get over someone. And I was doing quite well with it, thank you. Until that stupid git had to push every single inch of his body against mine." She squirmed visibly, "Breathing in my ear and all that. That, Hermione, is bound to wake up ANY dormant crush. Don't tell me you wouldn't go all limp if Ron pushed every inch of his body against yours?"

Hermione gasped, "Excuse me!?"

"Oh, don't deny it. I see how you look at him and get all defensive when he's around." Ginny let a smile crack through her rock hard demeanor.

"This. Is not about me. We're talking about you, Gin."

"Well, there's nothing to talk about. Because Harry made it quite clear today that he's never going to see me as anything but his surrogate little sis and, well, that leaves me with really no choice than to move on, like I had already been doing. I just...relapsed. That's all. I'm fine now."

"Are you?"

Ginny sighed, Hermione could see a bit of the Ginny Wall fall from her eyes. "Yeah...I am...that just sucked. Hearing him say that."

Hermione smiled and moved to sit on her bed. It was safe now.

"I bet." She paused, maybe this wasn't the right time, but, "You, know, he might not see you like that forever. Just give him time, to you know, grow up? And let yourself have some fun while you're at it."

"What are you talking about?"

"How's Harry going to notice that you're more than just a little sister if he doesn't see any proof?"

Awkward pause, "Again, you lost me."

"Oh, for Merlin's sake Ginny, go flirt with some other boys. It'll do you good. You might even find one that actually sees how fascinating you are."

Ginny paused and looked at the girl sitting next to her, eyes studying.

"Thank you." she stared at Hermione slightly stunned, it was quite possibly the first time another girl had sincerely complimented her. And it was a very nice feeling.

"Okay, I'm exhausted, can we go to bed now?" Hermione didn't wait for Ginny to answer. She crawled right into her bed and blew out her candle. Ginny got up, sighed, and reached for her bed clothes, tugging them on as she walked over to blow out her candle.

"Good night, Gin."

"Good night." She blew out the candle. "Ron lover."

And silently, she was hit with a pillow to the face.


Much to the surprise of the little firey red head, Hermione was actually right. Boys were actually easy to come by at Hogwarts, and many of them were quite charming, and a few of those charming boys were actually quite cute. And a few of those cute charming boys actually seemed to find Ginny quite cute and charming.

The first months of her third year were wonderful. She really felt, for the first time, that she had staked her own claim on Hogwarts, she'd finally found her place within those walls.

"Cat, you've got to just go up to him, kick that prat in the knee caps, and tell him its over." Ginny said, stuffing her face with a treacle tart. Catherine was having boy problems, something Ginny didn't have much patience listening to.

"I think I'm just going to dump him. He wasn't really worth my time anyway. Plus he kisses like a chicken." Catherine made a pecking motion as Billy spit out her pumpkin juice in laughter.

"That's terrible! I'd have dumped him just for that!" Billy quipped, wiping up her mess.

"Yeah, I kind of thought about it but--oh no. They're coming this way." Catherine grimaced as she set down her pudding spoon defiantly. Ginny nudged her on.

"You can do it." she sneered.

Terry Boot walked straight up to the table along with two other boys that Ginny had never met.

"Hey, um, Catherine, you want to go to the Yule Ball with me?" he looked nervous, probably why he had his entourage with him, Ginny suspected. More manly support.

"No I do not! I wouldn't be seen anywhere with you. Not after you went hen pecking Sarah Sherman!" Terry blanched. A smirk played across Ginny's face as he backed away slowly, turning on his heel without a word. She caught the eye of one of his friends, who she could tell was biting back a laugh. She winked at him as he turned away to follow Terry.

Catherine huffed, "I can't believe that bloody git asked me to the Yule Ball. I really wanted to go to that thing too!"

"Oh, I wish you were going. I have to go with Neville Longbottom. It's going to be a terrible night."

"Long...bottom?" Billy giggled, "Just the name is terrible."

"Oh, he's nice enough but, well, the first girl he asked turned him down. I felt bad for him, I guess. He just asked me at lunch." She shrugged. "Too bad you're not going Cat."

"Meh, I'll live. Just let me do your hair for the ball."

"Deal." Ginny and Cat shook hands.

"Time to go work on my charms." Charms always cheered Cat up. The Ravenclaw girls stood up from dinner, waved good bye to Ginny, and headed out of the Great Hall.

Ginny took one last bite of her treacle tart before she got up and began to make her way back to Gryffindor Tower for the evening. As she rounded the corner a body ran headlong into her, knocking the wind out of her lungs.

"Ron? Ron, what's wrong?' He was frantic.

"Flu--Flu..." He couldn't speak. His eyes were the size of saucers.

"Ron, do you need to go to the hospital wing?"

"N N No. I just." He put his head between his legs, trying to catch his breath. Then, quickly, he shot up, grabbing Ginny by the shoulders. "Help me!" He squeaked out. He was scaring her. She took his hand.

"Okay, Should I take you back to the common room, or should I get help?"

"Common. Common." Eyes still bugging.

She led him to the Fat Lady, "Fairy Lights." The Fat Lady winked and the portrait swung open. Ginny plopped Ron down in his favorite chair. He was twitching.

"Okay, what's up?"

"I asked the Flu-- the Flu--"

"Uh huh?"

"Veela!"

"Oh my god. You didn't." She wasn't sure how she'd deciphered the code. But she was quite sure she had.

"I did."

"Oh Ron." She hugged him, holding back racks of laughter.

"It, it was terrible! I don't know what made me do it. That horrible girl! She's a magnet. I just walked right up and asked her. And she was talking to Cedric Diggory, and, Oh Merlin!" He buried his head in his hands as the portrait swung open. Harry trotted in, looking almost as bad as Ron.

After explaining Ron's horrifying experience to Harry, Harry tried to comfort him. Ginny's entertained bubble broke at once.

"Cho Chang?" She asked, quietly, but Ron and Harry ignored her as they blabbered on about what they were going to do for dates now that they were both turned down, Harry by Cho Chang. She shook it off immediately. She, in fact, aleardy had a date to the Yule Ball, even if it was Neville. Why did it matter who Harry went with.

"Ginny." Ron cut into her thoughts.

"Huh?"

"Ginny, you go to the ball with Harry and--"

"I can't"

"What?"

She stared at Harry, trying to gauge his response to Ron's idea, but there was nothing in his eyes. She wasn't even sure if he recognized that she was in the room. Once deciphering that Harry would get no satisfaction taking her to the ball, she made up her mind.

She swallowed hard and declared to the boys that she was indeed going to be attending the Yule Ball with one Neville Longbottom and she couldn't be bothered with the prospect of Harry. Then she quickly excused herself to dinner, though she had just had dinner, and got the hell out of there, shaking in dissapointment and frustration.

She ran to a deserted corridor and slid down the wall. She wasn't going to cry, or pout, or throw things, she just felt empty.

What hurt her wasn't that she wasn't going to be able to go the ball with Harry. What really hurt was that she would have been a pity date. She'd tried all year, and succeeded for the most part, in letting her crush for Harry go. But those deep seated feelings hadn't quite vanished fully. She couldn't dismiss the fact that her stomach still flipped lightly when he laughed at a joke of hers or shot her his piercing smile. But, she knew all too well, and needed to accept that, it just wasn't the same for him.

She exhaled. This wasn't Harry's fault, it was her own, and she set herself up for this pain. She decided silently, at that moment, body against a cold stone wall, that she was more important than some stupid raven haired bespeckled Boy-Who-Lived. She was Ginny. And she was utterly amazing. And someone was going see her utter amazingness, damnit. Harry or not.


It's hard to write the scenes that actually happen in the book because I don't want to use J.K.'s dialogue, so I hope that the final part of this chapter was still effective. It's just a building chapter, anyway, more up tonight! Thanks to all of my lovely readers, keep reading!