Okay, folks. This is it. The big one. Aaaah! I can't believe we're actually here (I'm not usually this disciplined.)The endings are as follows:

ENDING #1(Aka: the Harry ending): Chapters 21 and 22
ENDING #2(Aka: the Ryan ending): Chapter 23, and possibly 24, if it gets too long.

So all those Ryan fans... please be patient:o)

I wish I could promise the next chapter is coming soon, but I'm going to America (New York City...whoohoo!) for the month of July and I'm not sure how much time I'll have to write...I have started it though so no worries- I'll be done before the summer's up!

S'lata!

Gnomes :o)

p.s. Thanks to Natacha, SnowDragon and Jade for your reviews. You've all made me a slight nervous...Everyone (including you three), please let me know --cringe-- what you make of this ending...

Her nerves raw from exhaustion, anxiety and a plethora of other emotions, Ginny turned the knob and pulled the front door open. On the porch sat Fred and George, with several teenage witches and wizards- no Harry. She checked the back porch, thinking he may have wanted to ride his Firebolt again. No Harry.

Ginny went back inside, perturbed. Could he be with Ron and Hermione? she wondered. She climbed up the rickety steps to Ron's room and opened the door. Hermione and Ron were sitting on his bed, Ron's head shaking violently back and forth as he brilliantly manipulated an invisible guitar, Hermione's eyes closed as Flown Away played loudly in the background. No Harry.

"Sorry," said Ginny, hastily closing the door.

She checked Bill's room, then Charlie's and finally Percy's; he wasn't in any of them. She climbed back down two flights of stairs and stopped at her bedroom door. There was definitely someone in there. Had any of the guests decided to...? Ginny flung the door open, and there stood Harry, well, there he stood bent over, his head stuck out the window.

"What are you doing here?"

Harry started, slamming his head against the window pane.

"Bloody hell!" he groaned, putting his hand to his head, his eyes squinting with pain.

"Are you okay?" Ginny asked alarmed, taking a step towards him. "What were you trying to do?"

"What? Nothing. I was...nothing," lied Harry, rubbing his head. "Well...fine. I was actually trying to figure out how you'd sneaked out of this window here. It's-" he clumsily approached it. "Partially jammed, see? And I was, well, I was wondering how you managed to squeeze through...not because you're overweight- that is, you aren't overweight, but nevertheless it is quite small, I mean-"

"So you were in my room to figure out how I escaped?" Ginny asked slowly, having trouble digesting the scene before her.

Harry gulped.

"Well-"

"Never mind," she cut him off, suddenly ashamed. "I don't deserve an explanation from you."

Harry was silent. Closer up, Ginny could see how strained his face looked, and a pang of guilt shot through her. Rousing her courage, she said quietly,

"But you deserve one from me."

She took a deep breath. "I deceived you, and that was unforgivable of me. I risked the -well- one of the things you cherish most, and with purely selfish motives. I'm not asking for your forgiveness," she added hastily. "Because that in itself would be unforgivable. I just want you to know that I am desperately sorry. It's a small word and perfectly inadequate, but it's all there is. I'm sorry."

Her heart had begun to beat so hard it hurt. She wanted to run out, but her legs were being uncooperative again, and wouldn't stir. Harry's eyes, which until now had been darting madly from the bed, to the desk, to her clothes closet, carefully avoiding hers, now met them. When at last he spoke, he sounded short of breath.

"You left...you ran away without even a thought about what that would mean to those you left behind."

"Oh," she said stupidly, sitting on her bed. None of her family had mentioned anything of it. In typical Weaslian fashion they had pretended as if Ginny had merely gone on vacation, but Harry was giving her the vaguest inkling of whather family and friends must have suffered before Bill had insisted she contact them. Selfish, selfish, selfish!

Harry was ignoring her, pacing the floor, letting the words tumble out of his mouth.

"And I didn't get it, naturally. I didn't get why I couldn't eat, sleep, why you never left my thoughts for more than a few minutes a day. Cho's family invited me to their house in the country for a fortnight. I was there less than forty-eight hours."

Ginny goggled at him.

"Why?"

"Because I spent all my time in their fireplace, contacting different people, trying to find clues that would lead to you. And when I wasn't, I was walking around with ashes on my head."

"And, um...Cho found this...unattractive?"

"She asked me whether I'd rather pine for you than hang with her," explained Harry, still nervously pacing the floor. "And I asked her if she understood the extent of what the Weasleys- your family- was going through. If she realized that the Firebolt was a gift from my godfather. And she asked why I was worrying in vain, for you were bound to turn up any day "safe and sound and spoiled as ever", and if you were prone to running away you "shouldn't be allowed to be taken seriously". And I got angry and said, "Ginny Weasley isn't prone to anything but being intelligent and warm-hearted, which you obviously aren't." And then she asked me to leave."

"Oh," Ginny said again. Although it was the last thing she wanted, it still touched her to witness the dedication Harry had towards her family, embracing the role of an older brother even when his own interests were affected. In some ways it didn't seem fair to Cho.

"Harry," she said with great effort, "you know Mum and Dad and...all of us think of you as part of the family, but you shouldn't have fought with your girlfriend to protect-" She hesitated.

Harry stopped pacing, staring out the window at the blackening sky.

"Cho's not my girlfriend anymore."

Every new announcement was less and less foreseeable. Ginny felt uncommonly happy for having sat down before he made his little speech. Her level of remorse had risen a couple of notches since, and her mind and legs were both in a state of serious unpredictability.

"I'm sure she'll take you back, though," she said, trying to leave any traces of misery out of her voice. "I mean, you were both really angry, and now that everything's back to normal.."

"I broke up with her," Harry quietly interrupted, turning from the window to look at her.

"You...what?" Ginny gaped at him, and became inexplicably angry with him for it. "Harry, over a silly argument? Over a broomstick? Surely a girl is worth more than that!"

"What's your obsession with the Firebolt?" Harry asked abruptly.

"It's driven you mad! It ruined your summer and made you break up with Cho! And it's all my fault!"

"The Firebolt?" Harry suddenly laughed. He bent down and kneeled beside the bed. "Ginny, you can keep the Firebolt if you like! When your dad contacted me to say you'd gone missing, I went ballistic. It hit me like a bludger in the stomach, the reality of my feel-"

He paused, his eyes landing on her necklace. Ginny looked down and saw that the chain had twisted, and Harry was reading the inscription.

"That's...that's from Ryan, isn't it?" Harry asked, trying to keep his voice steady.

"Um..." Ginny guiltily straightened the necklace. "Yes."

Harry stood up, his feelings masked once again. "He must really care about you," he said stiffly.

What was going on exactly? Ginny's thoughts were a blur. One second they were arguing about Cho and the Firebolt, and the next Harry was trying to tell her something she was pretty sure had nothing to do with either. Um...alright, let's see now. He doesn't care about Cho. He doesn't care about the Firebolt. He does care about the necklace...oh my gosh. Harry likes me. HARRY LIKES ME.

It's a pity we lose control of ourselves in situations like these. Or mabe it isn't. Maybe it is the way it is because our vulnerability heightens the beauty of the moment. The recognition of Harry's feelings for her made Ginny start trembling all over, and then- she couldn't understand why- she began to cry and laugh at the same time.

"Yeah...we got really close," Ginny said, as tears dampened her face. "He wanted me to transfer to his school. I was offered the seeker position on their Quidditch team, but I turned it down."

Harry, quite startled by her reaction, but thinking her tears were meant for Ryan, asked dejectedly,

"You did? Why?"

The tears still flowing unchecked, Ginny's face broke into an irradiant smile as she said, "I couldn't very well engage my heart in two different places at once, especially when those places are half the world away from each other."

Harry studied her, still unsure. His lips slowly parted and formed the adorable grin of his that made her knees weak.

"I'm just a bloke," he said in a confessional way. "I think I got you, but…would you mind being a tad less abstract? I mean, you do mean-"

Ginny's heart was pounding, her face glowing with pure, radiant joy.

"Yeah," she said with a laugh, her eyes still liberally dispensing tears.

"Yeah?" Harry's eyes lit up.

"Since we first met."

Harry sat down right beside her, his eyes very tender and very bright. Timidly, he brought his hand up to her face, his forefinger gently skimming the tears on her chin.

"Can't ask you to forgive me," he murmured. "But...give a poor bloke one last shot?"

Ginny opened her mouth to answer when Ron burst into the room.

"Oy! Were you two hiding or something?" Ron asked, panting. "I've been running around the house shouting both your bloody names for the past ten minutes!"

Harry was still watching Ginny carefully. Her smile provided him with the answer he needed.

"Sorry, Ron, we didn't hear you," he said, beaming at her.

"You both need you ears checked, then. So 'you coming?" queried Ron, impatiently, seeing neither his sister nor his best friend anxious to move. "Fred and George are putting on a fireworks show. Come on, they're gonna start any second!"

He flew out before hearing their reply, and this suited the pair just fine. Harry took her hand and, both their hearts very full, they joined the others on the back porch. You can just imagine what a sweet couple they made; watching the fireworks display with the rest of the family, and yet not with the family, because love can get quite exclusive, and puts its members in a bubble which very few can penetrate.

And this, I'm both delighted and sad to say, is where the tale ends.