Don't wake up, baby sister, keep dreaming

Did he fill your cup? Baby sister, keep drinking
Or he'll hit you
He'll bleach your eyes
So be a good girl
Just for the night -Damien Rice

o0o

"W-wait Tonks. You've got to be kidding me. I c-can't be, right?"

Tonks whipped out her wand.

"There's only one way to be sure."

She tapped her wand lightly on Ginny's shoulder and said something that she couldn't understand.

A little pink minus sign erupted from the end of Tonk's wand.

Tonks sighed in relief.

"That means you're not pregnant for now Ginny. Please be more careful I don't want to go through this again with you. You could still get pregnant. Some women don't know they are until a few weeks after. When's the last time you had your period?"

Sudden realization dropped on Ginny like a boulder being dropped in her stomach.

"I-I haven't," Ginny mumbled sadly.

"Ah," Tonks said nodding.

It was true. Ginny hadn't had her period since she had gone back to school after christmas break. It seemed unreal that it had been that long and Ginny hadn't even realized it. She had had so many other things on her mind since then that she didn't even give it a second thought or even think it was strange that she hadn't gotten her period like every other girl her age. She had gotten so skinny since then that her body had stopped functioning normally all together.

"Well Ginny it looks like you are off the hook," Tonks said. "You should really work on getting better sweetie."

Ginny nodded and couldn't bring herself to say anything else.

o0o

Ginny was staring out her bedroom window for a long time that night, just thinking. She felt as though a gift that she previously taken for granted when she actually had it and now it was gone altogether.

She couldn't believe just a few hours ago she had been worried that she might have a baby and now she was sad that she was never going to have one. Not unless she got much better. Even if she were to be better that far into the future, she would have to start now.

She felt incomplete. She couldn't stand the irony of it all. She had spent all this time to make herself perfect and no matter what the therapist had said about her subconsciously trying to look for happiness by perfecting herself, at the end of the day all she could think about was Harry. She would lie in bed at night and dream about him as she drifted off to sleep. Sometimes she could almost see herself married to him, living in a big house with little black haired boys running around. Now that dream wasn't going to happen at all because of the way she had been for the last year.

Ginny's eyes found an old photograph on her nightstand. It had been taken many years ago and showed a little Ginny about six or seven years old sitting on the lap of her oldest brother who was already about to be in his last year of Hogwarts. She had long and thick red hair that looked so different from her thinning and brittle hair now on her bed and there was a much healthier glow on her little face. Bill looked almost exactly the same as he did now, just a little more boyish. His arm lay protectively on her little shoulders. He was smiling at her while she laughed at the camera.

She was so lost in thought that she almost didn't hear a strong knock on her door.

"Come in," Ginny said snapping out of her thoughts.

She had been thinking about Bill and wasn't expecting the boyish and goofy grin that greeted her when the door opened.

"Charlie!" she shouted as she leapt up to give him a hug.

"Hey Ginny! It's so good to see you! It's been to long," her older brother said ruffling her hair.

Ginny started to feel self conscious as she let go of Charlie.

Charlie stared at Ginny with an unreadable expression for a full minute before speaking.

"Blimey Ginny, you look...not as I remembered. You're so skinny."

"I know Charlie," Ginny replied quietly. "I'm sorry you even have to see me like this."

Charlie sighed. "Nah, it's ok Ginny. You know you're still my favorite little sister."

"Thanks," Ginny laughed. Bill and Charlie both always said she was their favorite little sister, even know she was the only one.

"Alright well, Mum is yelling at me to come downstairs so she can chase me around with her wand and give me a "decent haircut' so I'll see you later. Night Gin," Charlie said.

"Night."

o0o

Ginny spent the next few days in a daze. Her family was worried about her. She mostly kept to herself, was silent at meal times, and spent her evenings over the toilet.

On the third day after her pregnancy scare Ginny had an epiphany. The only way to get better was to start over and have a clean slate. The only way to heal from a snake bite would be to suck all of the poison out. Wasn't this the same thing? The only way to heal from her eating disorder would be to suck all of the poison out of her life.

The very next day she wrote a long letter to Dean explaining the difficult year she had and the mistakes she had made. She told him that she wanted to take things slower and only go so far physically when she was fully healed and wanted to do it for all the right reasons. Hopefully Dean would understand and respect her in her decision. If he didn't, that was ok too. Ginny knew she was doing what was right for her.

The day after that she wrote out four separate letters to each two girls in her dormitory and her two fellow Gryffindor guys, who atleast used to be her closest friends at Hogwarts. Unfortunately, she had spent her entire fourth year distancing herself from them. She explained to them how sorry she was that she had avoided them and how much she wanted a fresh start so that they could have a great fifth year together.

On the third day of her healing plan, her mother made her visit the therapist again where she cooperated this time and talked in detail of her plan to recover. Her therapist was impressed and reported to her parents that she was confident Ginny would be on her road to recovery soon. Her parents were proud of her, something Ginny had not experienced in a while.

On Ginny's sixteenth birthday she gave herself the best birthday present she ever could have gotten. She ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner that day. She had not eaten three meals in longer than she could remember. It was so hard to eat all that food but Ginny promised herself at breakfast that she would do it. She did and it was great.

Her mum served a pink and white birthday cake that night with sixteen candles. She savored each bite. Nothing had ever tasted as good. Everyone was surprised that she actually ate her cake, but there was no way she could let her mother make her a beautiful sixteenth birthday cake and not eat it.

After opening her presents Ginny, her brothers, and Harry played Quidditch out in the orchard. Ginny's stomach hurt the entire time but she ignored it. It was something she told her self she would have to get used to. Just like the hunger pains in the very beginning, they would stop over time.

Ginny only thought for one little minute about throwing it all up at night as she lay in bed, but she resisted. Her stomach hurt from having more food than it had had in a year but she was determined to digest all of it. Maybe she would take it a little easier in the next few days as she got accustomed to food again, but this was her birthday and she was going to enjoy it.

Ginny had a great birthday that night. She fell asleep listening to the sound of summer crickets outside in the garden with her stomach squirming. It hurt, but it was also the best she'd felt in a long time.

o0o0o0

A/N: Ah, I've been having trouble updating. I've been SO busy! But something happened this weekend that really reminded me of Ginny (in my story) so I decided I really need to update. I've also decided that this will be the LAST chapter! (except for a nice epilogue right after this) I'm sorry I know some of you will be mad at me and sad to see this fic end and I will as well, but if you listen to my reasoning I think you'll really see why it's time.

So there's this girl in my school. We'll just call her Suzan. I've known her for about three years now. She's always thought she was better than me and everyone else for that matter. She's part of that popular clique we all have/had/will have in school. She's gorgeous. She's smart. She gets any guy she wants. She's a star athlete in school...I've also known for a long time that she's bulimic (just so you know she's probably the most fake and bitchy girl you would ever see in your life)...and last night she tried to kill herself and the word spread throughout the school. It just goes to show that all those things do not make you happy and it really reminded me of Ginny. Ginny's popular, alot of guy's like her, girls are probably jealous that Harry Potter stays at her house every summer,she had an awesome family that we all would love to have, and yet she's still not happy. She's got problems (in my story atleast) and sleeps with guys just to find some artificial happiness like alot of girls like Suzan do. Talking to a friend of mine, we realized that Suzan is going to really get some perspective and maybe it would just take something as big as attempting suicide by jumping into the local river and having to get saved by some guy would make her see the error in her ways just like I think it would take Ginny having something as big as a pregnancy scare to see the error in HER ways. It's really just the climax of my story and I really want to end it right and do it justice while making it still as realistic as possible.

Epilogue is next! I'm wondering would you guys rather see the epilogue depicting Ginny while she is going out with Harry during Half Blood Prince or post battle Deathly Hallows? Let me know in the reviews or if you'd rather a PM! Thanks loves!