I don't have time for a long author's note, so I guess what I need to say is that this fic is nearly done (and it's gonna feel really weird once it's finished) and... please review this chapter! Super nervous about this one here!

Hermione, however, said nothing. No matter how hard Harry pressed, she wouldn't budge. In fact, in the end, she had gotten rather angry, and refused to talk to Harry for an entire day. Ron gave Harry an 'I tried to tell you' look. Harry answered him with a 'no, you didn't you prat' look.

Ginny avoided Harry's gaze in the corridors, and during Quidditch practice she obeyed him but never commented on his tactics unless "They suck."

Dean had been ignoring Harry all week because Katie was back and replaced him on the team, which Harry honestly thought was for the best, though he didn't say anything.

"So, any more news on the," Ron mouthed the word horcruxes. Harry rolled his eyes. It was typical Ron trying to make conversation.

"Honestly, Ron, you shouldn't talk about that here!" Hermione whispered. They were sitting by the lake, enjoying the little sun that had come out for the Friday afternoon. Hermione had had her head buried in a book, and Harry was surprised at her sudden involvement in the conversation. And then he had a suspicion at Ron making the conversation to distract Hermione from her book. He had obviously been bored, poking a worm with the tip of his wand until he had accidentally set it on fire.

"Everyone's occupied," he said lightly. Hermione slammed her book shut.

"Since you're not going to let me read here," she said, standing up, "I'm-"

"Going to the library," Harry and Ron chanted.

With a "Hmph!" she swung around and stomped back up to the castle.

Harry looked at Ron, and he shrugged.

"What was that for?" Harry asked.

"I'm bored," Ron said. Harry raised his eyebrows. Ron surrendered. "Okay, Okay! I wanted to talk about The Prince. D'ya think he could help me with my potions homework?"

Harry grinned and passed the book he had been scanning over to Ron.

"If Hermione finds out, she'll kill me," Ron chuckled.

"Not to mention me. I'm a bad influence on her favorite boy," Harry taunted. Ron's ears turned red as he opened the book, and he was obviously trying hard to ignore what Harry had just said.

Harry smirked to himself and picked up a leaf and started to rip it, bit by bit… his mind was somewhere else, the same place it had been during the whole week. Had Felix been wrong?

"Harry. Harry. Oi, Harry!" Harry jumped awake, and Ron pointed behind the tree Harry had been leaning (or sleeping) on. A certain red-head was walking towards them purposefully towards them. "Lazy git," Ron muttered.

Harry immediately stood up and brushed himself off self consciously, without entirely knowing why. He heard Ron smirk from the floor, but ignored him.

"Hi, Harry," Ginny said.

"I – uh – hi."

Ron smirked again.

"I've decided to accept," Ginny said.

"Wha – huh?"

Ron smirked again.

"The date," Ginny said.

"Oh, right. I – um –" he coughed. "Yeah, cool."

Ron made a horrible strangled noise, and choked a bit.

"Cool," Ginny said, and before she left she stuck her tongue out at her brother, who was still coughing.

When Ron finally managed to stop coughing, Harry had a dazed expression, and a stupid grin on his face.

Ron, however, far from being pissed, spent the whole way back up to the castle laughing and making fun of Harry.

"'I – um – I just – uh… yeah, cool,'" he said, again and again. "Merlin, that was priceless. I should have agreed to this months ago, would have made my life much easier!"

Harry, however, didn't care, and let Ron to talk to himself as Harry thought about what had happened, and how much he appreciated everyone right now, and how great life was… he felt as if he had just taken Felix again. Which he hadn't. Because that would be stupid.

Naturally, the whole school had heard about it by dinner time, and Hermione was one of the first to know. She came running down the stairs, looking giddy.

"Harry! I heard-"

"Who hasn't?" Ron interrupted, and Hermione gave him an icy glare, which he ignored.

"That's probably why Dean won't look at me…" Harry said thoughtfully.

"You should have seen him," Ron said to Hermione, pointing at Harry. "It was hilarious." Hermione looked at Harry sympathetically, but Harry shrugged.

"It was kind of funny," he admitted. Ron laughed.

"Kind of? He just stood there! 'I – um – uh…' You choked so bad," he said.

"So did you," Harry reminded him.

"Oh, yeah. Well, it was funny, watching you there…"

"Oh, leave him alone," Hermione scolded.

"Really, Hermione, I don't mind."

But, by the end of dinner, however, it was pretty annoying.

"Would you just shut up!" Harry exploded. Ron gave him a hurt expression and Hermione gave Ron an 'I told you so' look. This time, nobody could argue that Hermione had, indeed, told him so.

Ron scowled and stood up, muttering something that sounded like, "Hufflepuff," and went over to said table. Hermione looked rather smug at the fact that Ron had listened to her, and Harry looked grateful that Ron had finally left it alone. Hermione stood up too, but, as Harry went to stand up, she put a hand on his shoulder and pushed him back down.

"Ow! What -?"

Hermione looked purposefully at Ginny.

"I don't think you've set a time yet," she told him, a small smile on her lips.

"Oh. Yeah," Harry said, realizing. "OK." He nodded. Hermione and Ron left for the common room, and Harry went up to where Ginny was sitting. She had stayed after her friends had left.

She looked up, and he felt his guts drop inside his stomach.

"I… uh…" Why did he have to lose his voice now, of all times?

"Hogsmeade, tomorrow," Ginny said, with an expression that said nothing. "I'll meet you in the Entrance Hall."

She got up and left, hiding a great smile upon her face, which Harry didn't get to see as he watched after her, his dazed expression returning to his face.

This feeling… it was definitely worth Ron's punch. In fact, it was worth a lot more.

He felt as if tomorrow couldn't come fast enough, and, unsurprisingly, sleep took forever.

"Harry," was heard minutes after he had closed his eyes, or that was what it seemed like. "Get up, you lazy prat."

A pillow hit him in the face, and he jumped up.

"Thanks," he tried to say sarcastically, though all that would come out was a 'mcz'. He wiped his eyes, and when he opened them Ron grinned at him.

"C'mon, I've got a bit of money this time," he said gleefully, jumping out of his own bed and grabbing his clothes.

"Wha –" Harry put his shirt on. "Where from?"

"Found it," Ron said, shrugging. Harry raised his eyebrows. "O-K, the Hufflepuff bloke gave me money to tell Lavender that he was already dating someone," he said happily. "She's his problem now, anyways… I wonder when we'll find his corpse tossed over the astronomy tower…"

"So, she'll leave you alone now? And Hermione, too?" Harry asked, putting his shoes on.

"Yeah. And I got something out of it too!" Ron said, jingling his pocket. Harry looked at him doubtfully.

"Just … don't tell Hermione where you got that money from."

Ron shrugged.

"Wasn't really planning on it. But hey, this time I'll pay for the drinks," he said. "What'll you have? Not that you have to decide now, of course." Ron laughed. Harry, once again, felt painfully sorry for Ron's lack of money.

"Um, well, I … you see, I don't think that … uh …"

Ron's eyes widened.

"Not again –" he frowned, and Harry could see he was putting two and two together. After a pause: "You're going with my sister, aren't you?" he said loudly.

Harry would have given anything to keep Ron quiet, because Dean was at the door. Harry squirmed a bit as Dean froze, but then proceeded to open it.

Harry grimaced, and Ron seemed apologetic.

"Poor bloke," he said after Dean.

"Lavender had it worse," Harry pointed out.

"Yeah, but she's mental, isn't she?"

He was obviously missing the point.

As they made there way down to the common room, something seemed to tick in Ron's brain.

"Hey!" he said, stopping and putting a hand on Harry's arm. "If you're going with Ginny… then it's just going to be me and Hermione…"

Harry nodded. "Yeah … ?"

"Does that mean that it's a date?" Ron asked, going red. Harry blinked.

"Ron, you've been dating for –"

"Without actually dating!" He looked like he was starting to panic. "What am I going to do?"

Harry shrugged. "Ron, it's Hermione. I don't think that she cares much."

"Yeah, but she's a girl, isn't she? Who knows how their mind works?"

Harry's insides squirmed a bit. What was he, Harry, going to do?

Ron seemed to be running things through in his mind.

"We'll go to the bookshop… but I don't even know which one that is… but Hermione likes books. Right? Right?" He hit Harry on the arm.

"Ah! Yes, sure. Whatever."

That seemed to be good enough for Ron.

As they got into the common room, Harry breathed a sigh of relief. Ginny wasn't there. Though that probably wasn't the right thing to feel, at least now he'd have more time to worry… ugh.

"Hey," Hermione said, coming towards them. Ron gulped. Hermione frowned, surprised. Harry shook his head. Ron didn't notice. They made their way down to the Great Hall.

"Harry – Harry's going with my sister," Ron told Hermione. Hermione beamed, not noticing Ron's strange behavior, or choosing not to.

"That's great!" she said. "What do you have in mind?"

Both Hermione and Ron were now looking at him, expectant.

"I – uh… I just – well, I –"

Hermione looked at him sympathetically, as Ron started to laugh.

"What did I tell you?" he asked her. "This is great," he sighed.

"Yes, Ron, it's wonderful," Hermione said sarcastically. She put a hand on Harry's arm. "It'll be fine."

"Oh yeah, I forgot, you two are right little schemers," Ron said, giving them accusing looks. Hermione rolled her eyes, but failed to not look guilty.

Breakfast went by only too fast, and in no time they were going out to the courtyard. But Harry reluctantly stopped at the entrance. Ron and Hermione turned back.

"Oh," Hermione said. "Well, bye!" she said.

"Ginny better like it," Ron said, half jokingly, half threatening. Hermione didn't hear, and he turned back to her, looking scared. Harry tried to suppress a snigger, but failed.

"What's so funny?" Ginny asked, appearing behind me.

Harry's heart nearly jumped out of his chest.

"Oh, your brother," he marveled at the coolness of his voice. "He reckons this is his and Hermione's first date."

Ginny nodded, and they made their way down the steps to the courtyard, which was empty already.

"He's right. When did he figure that one out?" she asked.

"Uh… about five minutes ago," Harry said, stopping, and laughed a bit. Ginny stopped too and smiled, but then her face fell.

They looked at each other, the awkwardness of the situation finally hitting them.

"Er…"

"Yeah…"

"We should g-"

"Yes."

Ginny nodded in agreement, and then she took a step forward.

Then Harry breathed out.

He put a hand on her shoulder.

I can't believe I'm doing this, he thought.

She turned to look at him.

"You know what?" he asked her.

She raised her eyebrows. "Yeah?"

"I like you," he breathed. A lot," he added, nodding his head thoughtfully once, as if punctuating what he said.

"Oh," Ginny said.

"I mean, I think about you all the time." He laughed awkwardly. "And, I just thought that… I thought that you should know that."

He looked at Ginny, and she blinked.

Harry nodded. "Good, then." He felt a lot better. He felt liberated. He felt that he could finally breathe, properly, for the first time in months. "Should we go then?" he asked. Ginny stayed where she was.

"Harry?" she asked. He turned back around as fast as humanly possible.

"Yeah?" he asked at once. Ginny blinked again, and then shook her head quickly. And then, in that same second, she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. A kiss which he answered after only a split second of blissful surprise.

When they broke apart, Harry couldn't help but beam at her. She beamed back, arms still around his neck. For all he cared, her arms could stay there forever.

"I like you too," she said quietly. "A lot," she added, after a second's thought.

Harry couldn't help but grin even wider.

"That's cool," he said.

Ginny raised her eyebrows. "Only cool?"

Harry blinked. "OK, then. It's great."

And so it was.