Author's Note: Again, I'm really, really, really sorry about the last chapter. I know it was cruel and mean to do that, and I know that right now it seems like Ginny and Harry are just being stupid, but I promise in the end they will be together.

Warning - This chapter is not going to be fun either. In fact, you will all probably hate me at the end of it, but I swear, this is the last bad chapter, the rest will be nothing but sunshine and rainbows and lots of kissing!

PLEASE KEEP READING...THINGS WILL GET BETTER!


"Ginny, I just don't understand. I thought you and Harry were friends. Why are you so upset?" Riley asked once Ginny had told her the whole story. The two were still sitting on the couch, and Ginny was feeling sick from crying so much.

"I'm in love with him, but he doesn't l..l..love me back!" Ginny said, breaking into a sob once again.

Riley rubbed Ginny's back in small comforting circles, but nothing could soothe the heartbroken girl. At one o'clock in the morning, once Ginny's sobs had subsided and she fell asleep, Riley moved her so that she was comfortable on the couch and wrapped a blanket around the two of them. Normally, Riley would have left Ginny on the couch and gone to her bed, but tonight, Ginny needed someone near her.

...

A week had passed since "the incident" as Riley referred to it in her thoughts, although she wouldn't dare call it that in front of Ginny.

Ginny herself pretended it didn't happen, although it was obvious to Riley that she was still heartbroken and that it would take a while for her to get over this. On a positive note, Ginny could now talk to Harry almost as if things were normal, although Riley suspected they weren't as close as before.

Harry had noticed Ginny's distance, although he couldn't for the life of him figure out what had changed.

It was difficult for him to look at her everyday when he was so in love, and not be able to grab her and kiss her, but it was even harder now that she wasn't as exuberant around him as she normally was.

The week that Ginny had off from the ballet passed quickly. She had a practice now and then, especially towards the end of the week as the first performance of the Nutcracker drew near. It was the beginning of December, and the ballet would be performing the Nutcracker all month in honor of Christmas.

Ginny had been hanging out with Anthony a lot more often than before, around the same time that she became more distanced from Harry. It was Riley's suggestion in the first place; to get Harry off of her mind with a new guy. Anthony wasn't necessarily a rebound guy, considering they weren't dating, but he was great to hang out with and take Ginny's mind off of Harry.

One drawback about Anthony was that he asked her out every single day. Ginny had to hand it to him, he was persistent, but she didn't want to date him. That is, she didn't want to date him until Saturday, two days before the first performance.

Ginny was sitting in the kitchen reading the Daily Prophet when she flipped to the third page and saw a picture that made her want to crawl into a hole and die.

The picture showed Harry sitting in a cafe, very cozy with a gorgeous blond haired woman. The caption above the picture read, Hero Falls for Swedish Heiress.

Ginny's eyes were the size of a teacup. She knew that Harry wasn't seriously dating anyone, but in the picture he looked pretty comfortable with the girl...and an heiress no less! No doubt she was absolutely perfect and he was probably drooling over her every second they were together.

Ginny felt the tears come up to her eyes. Sure the story could be fake, but you can't fake a picture like this!

Ginny knew that the reason this bothered her so much wasn't the fact that Harry went on a date, after all, one date isn't a committed relationship, and she hadn't heard anything about the girl so that meant he probably wasn't crazy about her, but still a date was a date. It was just another piece of concrete evidence that Harry had no feelings for Ginny, and it felt like a knife stabbing into her heart.

She crumbled the newspaper and threw it across the room, as she blindly wiped away tears that were falling. She took a deep calming breath, and performed a charm that would remove the blotchiness from her face.

Then, Ginny walked into the fireplace and flooed Anthony. She needed to get her mind off of Harry Potter, and she knew just how to do it.

...

Harry came back from a Quidditch game with Ron at around 4 in the afternoon. He walked into the kitchen for a glass of lemonade that Ginny had made yesterday.

As he stood in front of the refrigerator about to open the door, he saw something at the bottom that made him stop. A ball of crumpled paper sat on the floor, looking sadly out of place in the clean but cluttered kitchen.

Harry bent down to pick it up, and opened it to see what the abandoned scrap of paper was. He was immediately enraged when he saw the picture of him and Sophie Davidson on the third page of the Daily Prophet. The caption and story that followed was what enraged him.

Sophie and Harry had not been on a date, why would he date anyone when he was living under the same roof as Ginny, his dream girl? As always, the papers had it wrong.

Sophie and Harry had met when Harry was training to become an Auror. It was true that Sophie was an heiress to a fortune in Sweden, she in fact had sponsored many training programs for the Aurors-to-be, due to the fact that her BOYFRIEND, was in the program.

Harry had been friends with her boyfriend, and likewise became friendly with her. The day he went to the cafe with her was supposed to be a day for the three of them to catch up, and it seemed that the papers got a picture of him hugging Sophie, and then conveniently left out her boyfriend in the shots. Typical.

Harry threw the paper out after glaring at the story for a minute. He hoped that Ginny hadn't seen that...not that she would care, but the story was messed up and he didn't want her to think he was hiding things from her.

...

After Ginny talked with Anthony through floo powder, she went up to her room and cried for several minutes. She had agreed to finally go on a date with him, and it was safe to say that Anthony was ecstatic.

Ginny finally calmed down and looked through her wardrobe for something to wear. She wanted to look nice since he was actually going to put forth an effort today, but she couldn't find any outfit that looked decent.

She dug around in the back of her closet, hoping to find a dress that might have dropped or something, when her hand latched onto a bag thrown at the bottom.

She pulled it out and noticed that it had the Madame Malkin's logo on it...when did I go to Madame Malkin's? she wondered to herself.

She reached into the bag and pulled out a mass of green cloth and immediately remembered. These were the dress robes Hermione had insisted she buy, well actually, Hermione insisted on buying them for her.

Ginny smiled a little at the memory. Yes, these robes would do.

She pulled the dress robes on, charmed her hair so that it went into a graceful bun at the back with loose tendrils in the front, and did her makeup in soft neutral colors with dramatic mascara to bring out the blue in her eyes.

As hesitant as she was to admit it, she thought she looked very nice, the dress robes fitting perfectly to her body, and hugging every curve.

She glanced at the clock and saw that she had 10 minuted before Anthony came to pick her up. With a big sigh, and a glance at a picture of her and Harry on her nightstand, she stepped outside of her room, and walked carefully downstairs, moving slowly so that she wouldn't trip in her heels.

...

"Where's Ginny?" Harry asked Ron and Hermione as the three sat in the living room playing exploding snap.

Hermione glanced at Harry and hesitantly said, "She has a date tonight. I expect she's getting ready."

Ron and Harry both snapped their heads up to look at Hermione.

" She has a what?!" Ron bellowed, outraged at the very idea. Harry's eyes were wild Hermione noticed, and he seemed to be saying exactly what Ron said on the inside.

"Oh, you heard me Ronald, she's going on a date." Hermione said exasperated, both with Ron's over-protectiveness and Harry's stupidity at letting Ginny go.

"I know I bloody heard you woman, I just hoped I heard you wrong! Who's she going out with?" Ron said once again, wincing a bit when he saw Hermione's eyes flash.

"If you must know, she is going out to dinner with Anthony Stewart. You remember Anthony I trust." Hermione replied, glaring at Ron, but directing the last part of her question towards Harry.

"I bloody remember him...and I'll remember to rip his bloody head off when I see him," Ron growled.

Harry just looked straight ahead at a wall, not seeming to take anything in.

"Ronald, you will do nothing of the sort. Ginny has just as much right to date as you do, whether you take advantage of that right or not is your choice," Hermione said a little indignantly.

Ron looked shocked. "Just because I don't want to ask out any girl I can, doesn't mean I don't date!"

"Oh really, then when was the last time you went out with a girl?" Hermione said, allowing the conversation to change to Ron.

"I go out plenty!" Ron shouted, "Besides I've never heard you complaining about my lack of dates before!"

Harry tuned the two out. They were just going to argue in circles again, until they realized that they were no longer fighting about Ginny.

Something else had caught Harry's attention though. Ginny was walking down the stairs slowly, as if making sure she didn't trip, which Harry suspected was probably the case.

She is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen...ever.

Harry could not remove his gaze from Ginny's tiny frame. The dress she was wearing had become Harry's best friend. It was the perfect color for her complexion and hair, and the gold trimmings and decorations on it helped to enhance the golden streaks in her hair. The dress fit her so well it was as though it were sculpted for her. Harry couldn't believe he was looking at something as beautiful as she, and she was actually real!

Ginny seemed to hardly even notice the audience she now had as she walked down the stairs. She was so focused on each step one at a time, and Harry couldn't help but once again find her clumsiness off-stage endearing.

Harry gazed at her, pretending that she was walking down the stairs to go on a date with him, not Anthony.

He closed his eyes and imagined Ginny running up to him, slowly because of her heels, jumping into his arms, and kissing him with as much passion as he wanted to kiss her with.

The thought made Harry very, very happy, but once he opened his eyes he saw Ginny at the foot of the stairs looking at him oddly.

"You alright there Harry, you looked a little funny," Ginny said stiffly. Why did Harry have to be so bloody good looking!? Here he was looking at her, his eyes filled with an emotion she couldn't identify, and all she wanted to do was jump into his arms and snog him right here and now!

The look in Harry's eyes passed, although Ginny could still feel his gaze.

"Yeah, I'm fine Gin. I was just thinking of something." Harry said sadly. He clenched his fists to keep himself from grabbing her into his arms.

"You look really nice tonight Gin. Got a big date I hear." He said trying to sound neutral.

Ginny could feel the tears starting to brim up in her eyes. Why was she bloody crying all the time lately? Instead, she bit her lip, gave a small smile and said, "I wouldn't really consider it a big date, I just figured I would give Anthony a chance. It's not like I'm bloody dating anyone else."

Harry missed her sarcasm. All he could focus on was her lips, and how adorable she was as she bit her lip. He had noticed that she would bite her lip when she was nervous, or if she thought of something she wanted to say but couldn't say it. He had even seen her bite her lip before she cried, but this probably wasn't one of those times.

Ginny and Harry both turned when they heard a loud pop outside. Seconds later the doorbell to the Burrow was ringing.

Ginny held in her sigh, and walked forward slowly to the door. When she opened it, she saw Anthony standing outside looking nice, although no one in her opinion compared with Harry. Anthony had a huge smile on his face and held out a bouquet of flowers.

Harry rolled his eyes slightly when he saw Anthony. Why did he have to bring the bloody flowers? You would have given Ginny flowers if you went on a date with her.

Harry watched as Ginny and Anthony left the Burrow, both with smiles on their faces. Suddenly he couldn't stay in the Burrow any longer. He had to get out.

He told Ron and Hermione that he would be back soon, and he apparated to the apartment building he and Ron and lived in just two months ago.

...

Harry looked around his once destroyed apartment.

He and Ron had hired construction workers to rebuild the front rooms, although they would often stop by and fix the work with their wands.

Harry noticed that most of the work was done, in fact, all that was needed was a fresh coat of paint, and some clean furniture. Harry did this all with his wand, and ran downstairs to an outdoor pay phone.

He looked up the construction company in the phone book, thanking Merlin that he remembered how to use it, and called to tell them their services were no longer needed.

He then apparated back to the Burrow, to tell Ron the "good" news.

...

Harry found Ron sitting inside the kitchen at the Burrow. Hermione was apparently in the bathroom. Harry wasted no time in telling Ron his plan.

"So everything is fixed, and you want to move back tonight?" Ron said as Harry finished his narrative.

"Well, yes." Harry said timidly. He wasn't sure how Ron was going to take the news. Not that it mattered, he could always move in on his own, but he wanted Ron to come.

"Brilliant! I didn't realize the work would be done so soon! We'll finally have our flat back!" Ron exclaimed excitedly.

Harry picked up on the excitement. Good, Ron was on board. "Great, so do you want to move tonight?"

Ron's eyes flashed with something Harry could only identify as guilt. "Well mate, as much as I want to, I don't want to just leave without saying goodbye to Ginny. I'd hate to leave her here without telling her first."

Harry agreed of course, it would be awful for Ginny to hear that he and Ron were just gone, but at the same time, Harry wasn't sure if he could handle hearing about her date after wards.

Ron apparently saw the look on Harry's face and mistook it for eagerness to move. "Tell you what mate, how about you go and stay at the flat tonight. I'll stay here one more night just to say goodbye to Ginny and such, and then I'll move in tomorrow."

Harry liked this plan. He could stop by tomorrow morning for breakfast and talk with Ginny, instead of seeing her tonight, fresh from her date.

"Yeah, let's do that. I'll go pack my stuff and say goodbye and thanks to your mum and dad." Harry said as he turned to walk upstairs.

Hermione came out minutes later and heard about everything from Ron. She knew Ginny would be crushed that her new best friends were leaving her, but at the same time, Hermione knew that it might be best since Ginny was dating Anthony.

...

Harry unpacked everything at the apartment after saying goodbye to the Weasleys. He lay on his bed and stared at his ceiling, wishing Ginny were across the hallway from him once again, but knowing that this was for the best.


Author's Note: I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I know once again that I will get people upset in this chapter, but this was the last bad one, things will get better by the middle of the next chapter!

Keep reading, don't lose faith!

I posted this chapter so quickly because I got so many reviews! I know it's awful, but I am holding the story hostage again. IF YOU DON'T REVIEW I WILL MAKE YOU WAIT FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER! so just review, because I promise I get them out quicker when you do!