And it's all in my head
But she's touching his—chest
Now, he takes off her dress
Now, let me go

I just can't look its killing me
And taking control
Jealousy, turning saints into the sea
Swimming through sick lullabies
Choking on your alibis

Mr. Brightside-The Killers

The next morning when Ginny woke up, she was freezing. She opened her eyes to see that her blankets had been pulled off. Groaning, she decided to grab on to a corner of the comforter and roll over, rather than use too many muscles in her arm and wake herself up.

She'd miscalculated just how close she was to the edge of the bed. Ginny convulsed in midair, clutching the blanket, but to no avail, as she soon found herself face first on the cold, unforgiving wooden floor.

She turned over to see Blaise staring down at her. "What are you doing down there?"

"Oh, you know," Ginny said as she pulled herself up. "Just felt that the floor needed a nice hug, that's all."

Blaise laughed, a true laugh. Ginny's eyes brightened.

"You're too kind," he said, chuckling as he pulled himself out of the bed. He continued to snigger a bit as he pulled his robes from the wardrobe.

It was then that Ginny realized that he had slept the night before with no shirt on.

She would have contemplated on that longer, and she would have loved too, if two thoughts hadn't stopped her first-she couldn't do this to Harry when he could do nothing about it, and that he looked so strange when he laughed.

He looked so happy.

And she wasn't the one who'd made him happy.

Yes, he'd laughed at HER joke, and he'd smiled at HER.

but would it have been that way if SHE hadn't met him?

That Izzy had been here not even a day and she was already ruining everything.

"Do you want the shower first, Ginny?"

Ginny's focus snapped to Blaise, who had turned away from the wardrobe and was watching her inquisitively.

Ginny shook her head to clear her thoughts and tried to smile. "No thanks," she said, standing up completely. "I'll just-whoa..."

It was either because she stood up too fast or because of how hard she hit her head, but she was suddenly too dizzy, her eyes too fuzzy to walk. She fell back on the bed and watched as the room spun around.

She didn't notice for several seconds that it wasn't the bed that she had fallen on, but Blaise had come forward to catch her.

"Easy, now," Blaise whispered.

He was holding her with almost no effort.

Ginny blinked hard. "Thank you," she said breathlessly. "I-I-I don't know what's wrong..."

Blaise chuckled some more. "You probably hit your head a little harder than you thought. Are you sure you're alright? Would the shower help?"

Ginny shook her head and tried to stand steadily. "No, it's alright. I have to go take the locking charms off of the kids bedrooms."

He rose an eyebrow at her.

"Thinking about Bellatrix last night got me worried," Ginny said, shrugging. "She's after Hermione, we can't let her get in."

"Right," Blaise said. "Good thinking."

Ginny smiled, happy of the compliment, and slid into her bathrobe. She then proceeded to test how well she could walk. It was proof enough when she made it across the room with only two stumbles, and she picked up her wand and headed across the living room.

As Ginny removed her spells, she had a strange feeling that they had been tampered with.

But her worrying stopped when she opened the door and saw the two of them sleeping soundly in their little beds.

She smiled-they were so adorable!-and tiptoed over to wake them up. "Draco...Hermione..." She whispered, sitting in the chair between their beds and rubbing their backs. "Time to wake up..."

After the deed was done and she'd successfully manage to dress the two of them and bring them to the living room, Ginny entered the horrible task of brushing Hermione's hair.

Her mother had been doing it until now, but now it was Ginny's turn. She took a deep breath, holding the brush out at shoulders length away, and she began to brush.

About two seconds after digging the brush into Hermione's skull, the brush got caught, and Hermione shrieked.

Ginny's eyes widened in horror. "I'm so sorry, Hermione! Hold still, please!"

Hermione stopped screaming and sniffed a little bit. Ginny tried again. Hermione burst into tears.

"Please!" Ginny exclaimed. "Please don't cry! Oh, Merlin."

Ginny started at the bottom and worked her way to the top of Hermione's head, working through the snarls and tears until her hair was silky smooth, but still as poofy and bushy as ever. Ginny sighed and flexed her hand once she was done and had set down the brush on the table next to her.

She turned Hermione around and hugged her. "I'm so sorry, sweetie. Will you forgive mommy?"

Hermione nearly broke Ginny's heart when she actually had to THINK about her answer.

So she had always been the type to think too much.

Hermione finally smiled. "No!"

Ginny's eyes flashed. The demon child.

Hermione started laughing. "Mommy, I want braids in my hair."

"We don't have the time. Daddy, Aunty and Blaise have already eaten. You need to go eat your toast so we can go to school."

Hermione's face fell.

"But I want braids!"

"Hermione, I said no," Ginny sighed, just wanting to eat something and get to class. Who knew Hermione was such a brat?

"Come on, Hermione, let's go down to the Great Hall so we can eat and catch up with Daddy and Blaise."

"No!" Hermione shrieked.

Ginny's eyes widened and she pulled back, shocked by the word.

She now understood why parents hated that word above all else.

"Hermione, I said let's go!"

"No!"

"Hermione, I am very cross!" Ginny yelled. "Do you want to go to your room?"

"Yes," Hermione said with an evil grin.

Ginny was astounded. Why had she not been like this before?

"That's it!" Ginny yelled. She picked up and book bag and slung it over her shoulder, then pulled the screaming Hermione over her other shoulder and brought her down to the Great Hall.

Ginny received many stares and whispers as she walked to the Life Project students on the other side of the hall.

"Hermione..." Ginny whispered into Hermione's ear as she dropped her down around her waist, so her head was level with Ginny's. "You're embarrassing mommy. Can you stop screaming?"

"No!" Hermione screamed.

Ginny sighed. Not even eight and she'd done that more times than she could count.

And to make things worse, her head was beginning to throb where it had made contact with the floor.

The day already felt far too long and she hadn't even gone to class yet.

"Ginny, what's up with Hermione?" Blaise whispered, leaning over so he could talk to her.

Ginny sighed. She felt like crying. "She hates me," Ginny said as she made Hermione a plate.

Hermione found it numerous to chew her food and spit it back onto the plate. "Hermione, if you don't eat, you don't get a snack later, so I think you should eat."

"But dis is ucky!" She exclaimed.

"Well, then, I'll get you something else," Ginny nearly choked, giving her a clean bowl with cereal in it.

Hermione ate two bites and dumped the rest on her dirty plate.

Ginny sighed.

"Do you want me to take her?" Blaise said.

"No, it's fine..." Ginny said. "But she's just making this so difficult!"

Blaise smiled sympathetically and rubbed Ginny's shoulder.

"Why are all of the other kids so well behaved?" Ginny complained.

"Well, Parvati and and Luna are having a hard time getting Harry to eat," Blaise said. "He keeps saying 'Save it for Dudley, he hurt me.' Who's Dudley?"

"His cousin," Ginny said, looking despondently at her scrawny little boyfriend.

"And Dean ate nearly everything in sight and has a stomach ache, that's why he's so laid back. Draco grew up with LUCIUS as a father, so he's pretty well mannered. Plus, having Bellatrix as an aunt must have whipped him into shape as well."

"Yes, I heard that, too," Izzy inputed.

"Anyways, Ron can't figure out how to use a fork, and Chi keeps saying everything is Yucky. So I guess we're not the only ones."

Ginny sighed. "I guess. I'm going to go to class now. Come on, Hermione," she said, standing up and holding out her hands.

Hermione was singing a song about mermaids being really pretty and playing with her forks. She didn't seem to want to interrupt her song even to say no to Ginny.

"Hermione, please?" she begged.

"No!" Hermione exclaimed.

Ginny groaned exasperatedly and grabbed Hermione's hand, yanking the forms from her grasp. "Let's GO, Hermione."

Hermione immediately started crying, but Ginny was too exasperated to care any more.

She picked Hermione up, ignored the hair pulling and the hitting, and carried her to her class room.

Finally, Hermione fell asleep.