A/N: So here comes the next chapter! And now when I've been a good author and update, you should be a good reader and review!!

And thousand thanks to carolquin as usual, that girl saves this story from being a total disaster. Okay, maybe I was exaggerating, but she really helps even so.

Chapter Twelve: You took my pain and filled my empty heart

I stole your dreams, I broke your soul apart

Moonlight through the windows in the hall,
rainbows in your teardrops as they fall.
Constantly we move between the lies,
constant as trouble in your eyes.
You break and I'm bending, I.
You begin and I'm ending, why.

"Butterfly Man" by Lisa Miskovsky

Ginny sighed and closed the newspaper, downing the rest of her coffee. She grimaced at the bitter cold taste. The Daily Prophet had published a ridiculous article about her that her clothes were impropriate and that Harry had obviously fallen for her only because she could offer him so much in the sexual department. Apparently somebody had seen her and Harry in St. Mungos, and had told the newspapers about her clothing, which hadn't been something she normally wore on hospital visits.

Ginny decided not to worry about it though, it wouldn't make it any better. She remembered the first time there was an article published about her. It had been in the end of her fifth year, when she had returned home after Dumbledore's funeral. Which Weekly had found out that Harry had dated her for some weeks during the end of the school year, and had immediately come up with some rubbish story that she had lured a lot of money from Harry, and that was why he broke up with her. Ginny had been surprised to find out that she and Harry apparently had had a big fight in the Great Hall at the end of the year. She hadn't been able to recall anything of the sort. It was lovely to have newspapers, wasn't it? They always told you things about yourself that you had no idea about. What would the world do without them?

Rising from the chair, she stretched and yawned. It was a good day, she was at Harry's flat, enjoying a lazy morning. It was now three days since the night at St. Mungos, and Ginny still hadn't recovered from it. It had been such a shock, such an explosion inside her, to see her family. She hadn't been ready for it, but the fact that she wasn't made it all easier. She was quite sure that she hadn't really understood what had been happening that night, so she didn't act too funny and shocked. The realisation had slowly come to her now. She was walking around with a tingling feeling inside her all the time, she didn't know if she wanted to meet them again or not.

She had just put her mug and plate in the sink, when she heard a noise behind her. Ginny whirled around and found her face to face with an ashy Hermione, who was making her way out of the fireplace. Hermione looked around the room, and her face fell a bit when she noticed that she was alone with Ginny in the room. Ginny had been totally unprepared for this, she was just staring at Hermione.

"Hello." Hermione said, frowning a bit. "Ehh…is there anything wrong?"

Ginny shook her head. "No! Sorry, I… I'm just not used to seeing people walking out from the wall."

"The wall?" Hermione asked, confused. She didn't seem to be as cold as she had been the other day, Ginny noticed hopefully.

"Yeah, I know that you're using the fireplace, but seeing as it's not normal for people to have fireplaces in apartments, Harry hides it from muggles with some kind of charm. I only see a wall where I know the fireplace should be." Ginny said quickly, elaborating her lie.

"Oh." Was all Hermione said. Then that far away and empty expression dawned upon her face again. "I came to see Harry. Where is he?"

"He is in the shower, but I think he will be finished in a minute." Ginny said. "Well, he better be, or I'll kick him out of there."

Ginny tried to lighten the mood, but Hermione only raised her eyebrows at her joke. Ginny looked down at the floor, not knowing what to do. What had happened to Hermione? She didn't recognize her at all…

The silence laid itself like a hard, embarrassing wall between them. It was so obvious that Hermione disliked her, and that Ginny desperately wanted an acceptance, a moment of connection with the older girl. Ginny felt extremely sorrowful at this, she had missed her best friend so much. Why did things turn out like this?

"How did you and Harry end up with each other?" Hermione suddenly blurted out.

Ginny was taken aback by her question, she wasn't expecting this.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Harry isn't really the outgoing person, you know. You're not the type of girl I thought he would fall for. You are so…I don't know, different from anyone he has even befriended before."

Ginny honestly didn't know if she should take it as an insult or a compliment. She tried to smile a bit, but it turned out like a grimace. "I don't really know. We just did. Some people say that opposite attracts, maybe that's the reason."

Hermione nodded, and the silence settled between them once more. They stood there for several minutes, as far away from each other that they could come, glancing at each other now and then. Ginny swallowed several times, pushing the tears down her throat. What had she done wrong?

Then Harry was there, and Ginny disappeared, saying that she should take a shower. When she returned to the kitchen fifteen minutes later, dressed and showered, Hermione was gone. Harry had a newspaper in his hand, but he wasn't reading it. He was looking out the window with a frown on his face.

"I'm going now, I was supposed to meet Alex ten minutes ago." She said as she hurriedly threw things in her bag. Why couldn't she ever be on time?

"Sure baby. And promise me that you'll buy the dress you want, and not the one which is cheap. I really don't care about the price as long as you look as you want to look." Harry said, looking away from the window. He had told her that he would pay for her dress, because she had realised that she simply didn't have the money for it. Ginny hated to be some kind of object of charity, but this time she had accepted it. She really didn't want to turn up with an ugly, second-hand robe.

"I will." Ginny walked over to him and kissed him on the mouth. "Have you found the article about us yet?"

Harry groaned. "Don't tell me that they have come up with some cock and bull story about you too!"

"Not really," she smiled. "They are only commentating on my choice of clothes the other day. I really don't care about it, Harry."

He smiled at her. "Good, you shouldn't." He kissed her. "Now run off and buy that dress. I'm looking forward to seeing you in it."

Ginny gave him a last hug, grabbed her bag and was out of the flat in two seconds. She didn't even bother to bring a jacket; it was late May after all.

---------------------------

Once Ev was out, Harry sighed and rubbed his forehead. Hermione hadn't only come just to say hello, there had been a very interesting reason behind her visit. Hermione always saw obvious things that he never cared to think about. This time, she had come up with a very interesting discovery about Ev. He felt stupid for not seeing it himself; he was an auror after all. It was his job to see these kind of things. Hermione had come to remind him about the fact that every official Quidditch match is protected by an anti-muggle charm. At first he hadn't understood, but then it had dawned upon him. Ev had been at the Quidditch match with him. And Ev was a muggle.

So either there was no charm on the Quidditch pitch that day, which was very unlikely. Or, Ev had lied to him.

Harry didn't want to think about the other possibility, but it had to be that way. He knew that it very rarely happened that they forgot the charms on the Quidditch pitches, it was so important. What more, he had taken her to Hogwarts too. And there was no chance at all that Ev could have seen that if she was a muggle. So his beautiful girlfriend had lied to him. Ev was no muggle, she was a witch.

But why would she lie to me about something like that? Harry thought. He felt dizzy, he really didn't understand anything at all. At the same time as he felt confused, he felt as if there was something he was forgetting, something very important. Something that had bothered him, which had happened the same day as the Quidditch match…

Then he remembered. The red hair on Ev's pillow. Harry had completely pushed that to the edge of his brain, that day had been too good; he hadn't wanted to spoil it just because of some suspicious hair. Harry felt it itch under his skin, it all fit. Ev was a witch, who for some reason changed her hair colour from red to brown. But why?

Then a little voice spoke inside of him. If she changes her hair colour, then there is a chance that she changes more than that. Her nose perhaps, or her eyes. And then, there was of course the fact that Ev didn't seem to exist in any kind of register over the population. She had never explained that to him when he mentioned it at the café.

All these things pointed to one explanation. Ev wasn't at all who she said she was. Evelyn Flynn was probably not her real name, she wasn't a muggle and Ev didn't look the way Harry thought she did. Harry sighed. Why did he always end up with complicated relationships? And what would he do now? Ignore it? Or demand her to tell the truth? He didn't know at all.

When Hermione had told him about this, his whole insides had crashed down. He wasn't in a state where he could cope with a lying girlfriend. He loved Ev so much; he wanted everything to be perfect with her. It hurt Harry so much to think that she had lied to him, but she had actually made him happier than anybody had ever done before. No, he didn't want to throw away their relationship only because of a lie. There was probably a simple explanation. Maybe Ev was forced to keep a secret identity because she had been stalked by some maniac or something. Knowing Ev, she would probably tell him. Harry couldn't for his life imagine that she didn't feel the same as he did, it probably killed her to lie to him. No, he would wait for her.

Today is Monday, the Ball is on Friday. I really don't want to spoil that moment for her. But of course, if several months pass and she doesn't say anything, I'll bring it up. Harry felt satisfied by that decision. Sure, he hated when people lied to him. But sometimes, you have to do things you hate to keep the things you love.

----------------------------

"What about this one then? It's cute, don't you think?" Ginny said, showing Alex the dress. She looked at it critically.

"It's very lovely, if you're attending a funeral." Alex said.

"Oh come off it, it's not that bad. And I like black." Ginny said, running her hand down the silky, lacy material.

"No." Alex said resolutely, turning her back against the dress. Ginny sighed, she knew that Alex was right. She continued to look through all the dresses, making her way away from Alex. She had never thought that it would be so hard to find the perfect dress, there was always something wrong. Maybe there wasn't a perfect dress, but still. She wanted to look flawless on the Ball, it was going to be her first public occasion. The first impression was important, although people already knew who she was.

Ginny stopped breathless. Yes, she thought. This is the dress. It was dark red, with a high waist and short, puffy sleeves. Around the waist there was a black silk ribbon. Her eyes drank in the sight of the dress, it was perfect.

She turned her head and said to Alex: "I don't care what you think Alex, I'm buying this one."

Curious, Alex appeared around the corner. She looked at the dress for a few moments, and then she smiled. "Try it on. Now!"

The dress looked even better on. The cut made her look very elegant, and the neckline was very broad, showing off her creamy, white shoulders. Ginny smiled at herself in the mirror, this was really like one of her girly fantasies she had had as a little girl. She twirled around in front of the mirror, squealing with delight when the skirt spread around her. Alex ripped the door open and looked at her with a pleased expression.

"Every man in the whole room will fall at your feet, my lady. It looks fabulous."

"Thanks." Ginny smiled.

"You're buying it, I hope?"

"Of course!"

The two girls were giggling when they exited the shop, planned exactly everything that Ginny would wear that evening.

"Promise me that you will let me help you to prepare yourself. I just can't miss this moment!" Alex said.

"Sure. And Romain too, he's better than both of us with make-up and those kind of things."

Alex nodded. "Yeah, did you know that he's working as a professional make-up artist now?"

"No, I didn't." Ginny said. "How gay of him."

"It should suit him perfectly, then." Alex grabbed her hand. "Come on, it was a long time since we were at a café together. You don't have time for me anymore." With that, she dragged her towards the nearest café she could spot.

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With a frustrated groan, Ginny threw the book that she was trying to read on the floor. She just couldn't concentrate. Today was the 25th of May, 2001, precisely three years on the day since she had left her family and boyfriend behind in the dark. It was also the day of the Final Battle, and in the evening she had a Ball to attend to. Ginny didn't think of that right now, though. Harry with the rest of the Weasleys was at the cemetery, visiting her "grave" seeing as it was her supposed death day. Harry had asked her to go with him, but she had rejected. She knew that Harry was rather grateful for that, she guessed that he wanted a moment alone with his "dead" girlfriend.

Ever since he left, the guilt had dug deeper into her mind. When she had lived without Harry, she hadn't thought about it so much, but now she felt filthier and more unworthy every day that passed. Her family hadn't done anything wrong; they were only suffering because she had been so weak. But what if they turned themselves against her? What if they never wished to see her again? Ginny was dead scared to even think about it. How hard wouldn't it then be to tell them?

Her thoughts were cut off, as she heard a small pop in the kitchen, which meant that Harry had arrived.

"Hello!" She called. When no answer came, she frowned and rose from the couch in the living room and walked over to the kitchen.

Harry had sunk down onto a chair, with his head in his hands. Ginny was a bit surprised when she heard a sob escape through his finger. She could count on her left hand all those times she had seen Harry cry. She approached slowly, not really knowing if this was something that she was allowed to interfere with, maybe it was too personal for Harry. Ginny got down on her knees in front of Harry, moving her hand out to stroke his shoulder. To her surprise, Harry grabbed her hand with his and held if against his cheek, as if his life depended on it. Still sobbing, he pulled her towards him as far as he could, burying his head in her hair. With every burning tear that ran down her neck, she felt more and more guilt and grief. How had it come to this? Here she was, comforting her boyfriend, who cried over her death. She continued to stroke his neck, not really knowing what to do.

"Shhh…" she whispered, whishing to ease his sobs. His pain was slowly killing her too; she couldn't go on like this. Harry's thorax went up and down, and his firm grip around her shoulders almost hurt. It was right then when she sat there kneeling on the floor in front of a sobbing Harry, trying to comfort him, that she made her decision. No more lies. No more pretending that everything will be fine. No more escapes. Harry had to know the truth. Not tonight, but after that, as soon as she had the chance to.

"I miss her so much, Ev…I miss her so much…" Harry mumbled.

"I know, Harry. I know exactly how you feel." Ginny murmured. Harry gripped her tighter.

"I know that you know. That's why I love you so much." He stopped for a second, letting the sobs out. "I know that I depend on you too much, but I can't help it…I don't know what else I could do…"

"It's okay Harry, everything will be fine in the end." She said it maybe more to convince herself than Harry. He pulled back a bit, so that he could look her into the eyes.

"Do you really think so? That everything will just work out by itself?"

She nodded. Harry smiled slightly, stroking her cheek with his thumb. His face was wet and his eyes all puffed and red. For some reason, it only made her feel even more heartless. Harry sniffed a bit and gathered his voice.

"I really want to believe you, you know. But it's so hard sometimes, to believe that things will turn out right." He mumbled.

"I know." She whispered. "I felt the same, still do sometimes." She lay her hand ever his, holding it gently.

"You know," Harry mumbled. "When I feel like this, like everything worth living for is gone, I stop and think about you and then the feeling is gone."

Ginny realised that tears were falling down her own face now. Absently she dried her face with the back of her hand.

"I don't know what I would do without you either, you know. I'm still fucking scared that you will leave me." She whispered.

Harry caught a tears falling down her cheek with his finger. "I've told you, Ev. I'm not going anywhere."

She smiled at him, holding his hand a bit harder. This was one of those moments when she really dared to believe that everything would be all right, Harry would understand and forgive her. She leaned upwards and kissed Harry's mouth softly. They stayed like that, with Ginny on the floor and Harry leaning over her in the chair, slowly kissing. There were no aroused feelings, only softness and trust. Right then, the world was far, far away and everything would last forever.

---------------------------

About two hours later, Harry was sitting in the couch in his living room looking at Alex and Romain trying their best to make a respectable hairstyle out of Ev's wild locks. Armed with hairspray and a hair-dryer they fought bravely, and after about 45 minutes they had made it look really elegant and classy.

Harry still felt really uncertain about Ev. Honestly, he had dedicated his life to a woman whose name he didn't know. He didn't know anything about her past life, but for some reason, it didn't bother him as much as he thought should do. He guessed it was because he knew Ev, he just didn't know who she was. Harry knew what she loved, what she hated, how angry she was in the mornings, how much she loved to have fun with her friends, how much she valued life and how much she loved him. The only thing he didn't know was her name. There was probably an explanation for it, and Harry really didn't want to ruin their relationship.

This was the first time that Ev's friends visited his flat, but apparently the anti-muggle charms worked, none of them had noticed anything funny. Both Alex and Romain seemed to take their task very seriously. To Harry it didn't matter very much, Ev always looked gorgeous in his eyes, but he understood that this was important for her. Harry jumped a bit when he heard Ev whimper. Alex was standing over her with a pair of tweezers in her hand.

"Oh come off it, Ev. You're overreacting." Alex said, removing another hair from Ev's eyebrows.

"No, I'm not. Can't we just forget about the eyebrows? Nobody looks at the eyebrows." Ev grumbled.

"No, darling. You'll thank us later, believe me."

Ev sighed while Romain only shook his head, smiling.

Once the eyebrows were done, Romain continued with the make-up. Harry had never in his wildest dreams thought that applying make-up could take so much time. It took over an hour before Romain and Alex was fully satisfied. By then, Harry had since long lost interest and had picked up a book from the floor, which he guessed belonged to Ev. But now he came over to look though, and Ev really looked fabulous. Her lips were redder than usual, and her eye shadow was red closest to her eyes, and then it became pinker at the edges. Somehow her eyes seemed to be both darker and bigger, and her cheeks were wonderfully smooth and slightly pink. Her hair was pulled back from her face, and then it fell down in a cascade of curls over one shoulder.

"You look beautiful," he said. "Really beautiful."

"Thanks," She smiled. "I'm quite satisfied myself. But you're not allowed to kiss me during the whole night, you know."

Harry snorted. "Do you honestly think I will be able to control myself when you look this gorgeous?"

"You'll have to, I'm not letting you destroy my appearance tonight."

"Have you shaved you legs or do we need to do it now?" Alex interrupted.

"No, I did it when I showered." Ev answered.

"Good, then there's not so much left to do."

"Why do you shave you legs?" Harry asked, confused. "Nobody will see your legs under your dress?"

"No," Ginny agreed. "But I will know that they aren't shaved, and it irritates me. It makes me feel unbalanced, to look good on the outside but not underneath."

"But it's totally unnecessary!" He objected.

"No, it's not. It's just something that guys like you don't understand." Ev explained with a smile that made him feel like he was four years old.

Ev turned towards Alex and Romain. "Okay, I guess we should put on the dress now."

"Yeah."

Ev began to unbutton her cotton shirt, and it made Harry a bit uncomfortable as Romain was present in the room, but apparently it didn't seem to disturb neither Alex nor Ev. Harry simply guessed that things like that didn't matter when it came to gay people.

"Well," he said, "I should probably get ready to. Hermione and Ron are due in about an hour."

Ev only nodded at him.

Wizards had hooked up on the muggle trend to arrive in limousines at big public occasions, probably just so that the press could get even more time to take pictures of the celebrities. Seeing as Harry, Ron and Hermione were counted as celebrities; they were expected to arrive like everybody else. So they had made it a habit to arrive together, and that was why Hermione and Ron were coming soon. Inside himself, Harry felt very grateful towards Ev. He had always felt left out beside Ron and Hermione, even though he was the Guest of Honour at the Ball. But this time he wasn't going alone.

He smiled to himself as he walked towards the bathroom to take a quick shower, and realised that he was actually looking forward to the evening. Ev would finally meet his other friends, something that she had often talked about.

After a little more than half an hour, Harry had showered, shaved, put on his emerald green tuxedo and had made at least five worthless attempts to tame his hair. Giving up, he sighed and made his way from his bedroom towards the others in the living room. Ev was standing in front of the mirror, examining herself from every possible angle. Alex and Romain were looking at her with critical eyes, trying to find something to improve. Harry smiled at the fact that it had taken him less than an hour to prepare himself, Ev almost four. He really was happy that he was a guy.

The red dress suited Ev. It made her brown hair look richer and really beautiful and her make-up matched the dress. The black gloves that reached above her elbows looked good against ribbon around her dress and her black high-heels. Ev wasn't showing any cleavage, but a good deal of her shoulders. She had a simple silver necklace around her delicate, white shoulders with one single black stone. Harry drank in every detail, Ev had never looked better.

"You really look beautiful."

"Thanks." Ev said, smiling like a little girl.

Romain was surveying Harry up and down. "You really look gorgeous, love, but please tell me that you don't intend to go with your hair like that?" He said to Harry.

Harry was startled by Romain's comment. "Eh…well, I lived with this hair for twenty years, and it always does as it wants to. It simply look this way, I can't help it."

Romain shook his head disapprovingly. "That won't do." He said. "It looks fine on a daily basis, but when you're all dressed up like this, it just looks really silly." Then he walked over and grabbed Harry's arm, shoving him down on the chair that Ev had been sitting on before. Romain grabbed several suspicious looking cans and began to comb Harry's hair.

"Exactly what are you planning on doing?" Harry asked nervously.

"Don't worry darling, you will look so hot when I'm finished with you." Romain's answer didn't calm Harry's nerves one bit.

He heard a giggle behind him, and he turned his head towards a giggling Ev, who had a big grin over her face.

"Don't laugh."

"Don't turn you head." Romain said, and turned Harry's head back with a surprising strength. The giggling continued behind him.

It didn't turn out too bad actually. With the help of spray and mousse, Romain had parted his hair on one side, with his fringe falling in a sloping line, showing of his scar. On one side his hair was combed away from his face and behind his ear. It didn't look that bad, although Harry wasn't used to seeing his hair in any other way than the usual untidy fashion.

"I think you look really cute." Ev said from behind him.

"I don't know…" Harry said.

"You're not changing anything!" Romain said. "You look really hot, babe, no need to worry."

Just then, they heard the door open. Ron and Hermione usually used to apparate straight into Harry's flat, but since Harry had told them that muggles would be present they had chosen the "normal" way.

"It looks as if Ron and Hermione have arrived." Harry said, and walked past the kitchen into the hall. Apparently they hadn't bothered to press the door bell; they had just walked straight into his flat.

"Hello," Harry said. "good you came, we were just finished. You look absolutely lovely Hermione."

She smiled sweetly at him. "Thanks Harry. I didn't know if this dress suited me, but I must say I really like it now! And you don't look too bad yourself!"

Hermione gave him a quick hug, and then proceeded into the living room, where Alex was still fussing over Ev. When Harry and Ron had caught up with her, they realised that Hermione had stopped dead in the door opening.

"I think it looked better as it was before, change it back Al-"

"Alexandra!?" Hermione gasped, interrupting Ev. Alex immediately turned around on the spot. Then, she too gasped, looking at Hermione with big eyes.

"Oh my God." She said after some minutes. "Hermione Granger?"

Hermione continued to stare. The rest of the people in the room were looking between Hermione and Alex, wondering what the hell was going on.

Then Hermione slowly nodded. "Yeah…or…well, actually its Weasley now."

"I…see." Alex said slowly. The two of them stared at each other, both with a surprised and suspicious expression.

"Ehh…sorry to interrupt, but do you two kind of know each other?"

Both Hermione and Alex looked at Ev, then at each other and then back at Ev. Then Alex began to explain.

"Yeah, or, we did. Hermione and I knew each other in the past, from a period that I would rather not think about."

Hermione smiled a bit sarcastically.

"So you've realised that." She said.

"I realised that back then already." Alex said, with sadness in her voice.

"Sorry, but I really don't understand anything." Harry said, confused. "Would you mind elaborating a bit?"

Hermione sighed. "Before Hogwarts, I went to a school in my village. Alex and I were in the same class, and we weren't really best friends."

"That's an understatement." Alex snorted. "We hated each other."

It went quiet once more, while everyone seemed to take in the news; Hermione and Alex still looking at each other with interest. If they had hated each other before, Harry thought, they looked more interested than disgusted by each other now.

It was Alex who broke the silence.

"I'm sorry, for all I did to you, you know…"

Hermione smiled. "It's okay. I wasn't very nice to you either."

Alex snorted again. "I was ten times worse. I bullied you and turned all your friends against you, while you only told the truth about me. I was a nasty, insensitive little bitch back then who thought I could rule over everybody and had the right to pick on others, just because I didn't want other people to feel loved when I didn't feel loved myself."

Hermione only shrugged her shoulders. "Once your brother told me that your father raped and abused you, I didn't hate you so much; I only felt sorry for you."

"He told you about that?" Alex asked surprised.

Hermione nodded. "Yeah, he did. He always used to comfort me when I was feeling sad because you had been nasty towards me. I think he wanted to make up for you, somehow."

Alex nodded. "He was always so considerate and nice."

"Don't you meet him very often anymore? I thought that you and he ran away from home when you were sixteen."

"He's dead." Alex said shortly, clearly not wanting to go any deeper into the subject.

"Oh. I'm sorry." Hermione really looked so too. "He was always so nice."

She was quiet for a while, uncertain if she was allowed to ask what she wanted to ask. "How did he die?" Hermione whispered finally.

"He took to much horse one night, and then he was gone. I don't think he was very happy, so maybe that was the best." Alex tone was indifferent, but Ev had told Harry that she'd taken her brother's death very badly.

"I had no idea that you and Alex knew each other…" Ev said.

"How could you know? I don't speak about my past very much…" Hermione said. "That's actually one of the reasons for me being so cold towards you. I'm sorry about that. You reminded me of Alex so much, you wore the same skirt that Alexandra had worn that night when-"

"What skirt?" Alex asked.

"The pink one." Ev said. "You gave it to me about a year ago."

"Whatever." Hermione continued, sinking down on a chair. "You had her skirt, so at first, I thought you were Alexandra. And that reminded me of the night when I had been invited to a party, which didn't happen very often, and I had taken Viktor Krum with me. I had been out in the garden for a while, and when I returned, Viktor and Alexandra were snogging on the sofa. I knew that you had only done it to make me feel bad, and it did. It felt as if everyone was laughing behind my back. I don't think I hated you more than what I did that moment." Hermione said softly.

"I'm sorry." Alex said gravely. "I guess I couldn't stand the thought of a guy wanting you."

"You had your reasons." Hermione replied. Alex nodded slowly. They looked at each other for several moments. They both seemed to try and put this tragic and sad part of their lives behind themselves, to apologize and then move on. Harry knew very little about Hermione's past muggle life, she had never talked about it. Now he realised, that she had never spoken about any friends, probably because she had never had any. He wasn't very angry with Alex though, he knew that she was a great girl. Everybody made mistakes, and if her father had raped her, then he really couldn't blame her. Hermione had just been unfortunate to be the one who Alex picked as her bullying victim. Those times seemed to be over now that they were looking at each other with a careful interest.

"We should get going." Ron said who had been quiet during the whole scene. It was probably hard for him to deal with the fact that his wife had been harassed and he knew nothing about it.

"Yeah." Hermione said and stood up. "I guess we should probably meet some day over a cup of coffee, to talk…about things." She said to Alex, who nodded seriously, her pink hair bobbing.

Harry made a gesture towards Ev, and together they walked towards the door. The whole group went down the stairs down to the waiting limo. There was still a miserable silence surrounding them all when they entered the car. Alex and Romain told them to enjoy themselves and waved to them before they closed the door.

The car started rolling, but they hadn't reached the end of the street until the car stopped suddenly. The door opened from the outside, and Alex's pink hair appeared in the door way. Everyone looked surprised at her, and she suddenly blushed furiously.

"Ehh…sorry, but I forgot. I …ehh…I just wanted to tell you Hermione, that…that you look great tonight. That dress was really made for you." Without giving Hermione a chance to answer, she closed the door and the limo started driving again.

Pure shock was painted all over Hermione's face, but after some seconds, her face split up in a happy, content smile.

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In Chapter Thirteen:

Ginny's heart froze when she recognized one of girls. Harry had apparently said something funny, because she began to laugh lightly, showing Harry her perfect smile. Her brown eyes were fixed on him and a monkey could see that they were filled with adoration and want. Cho Chang never stopped to hunt her.

Hehe, yep, the next chapter will be the Ball, obviously. So, what do you think about the whole Alex/Hermione story? Personally I had really fun when I wrote the scene between Romain and Harry. Romain is offically my favorite character in this story, gay people are simply so much more fun that others!