Esme flew in with the rest of the post owls at breakfast that morning; cause quite a stir amongst Parvati and Lavender who were in absolute raptures. Landing daintily beside Ginny's plate she held out her silver leg and allowed Ginny to untie the letter attached. With a singing hoot Esme took her leave as Ginny opened the letter.

Ginny, Keep a sharp eye out this morning, revenge phase one is about to begin,

love you, Gred and Forge.

Ginny smiled evilly causing Jess to momentarily choke on her porridge. She looked around for clues as to what her devious brothers had planned. The first thing that caught her eye – and the eyes of every student in that hall – was a small group of post owls huddled around Draco, each one carrying a Howler. The owls dropped their post on the table and took off leaving the Prince of Slytherin to deal with the hate mail on his own; his face was, if possible, paler than usual and his lip was curled up in what Ginny understood to be a nervous sneer. The first howler began to smoke as Draco resigned himself to his fate. Bursting into flames it screamed in Fred's voice, "YOU STINKING LITTLE FERRET, HOW DARE YOU TREAT HER SO, IT'S LOW EVEN FOR YOU" as that one finished another began, "RAT FACED IS RIGHT, CAN'T KEEP A PROMISE CAN YOU," "WORSE THAN YOUR FATHER" "YOUR WIFE SHOULD HAVE HEXED YOU WHEN SHE FOUND OUT" "HOW'S THAT GOING ANYWAY, BEING A MARRIED SCHOOL BOY?" and so it went on, the staff unable to prevent a single word. Ginny didn't glare at Draco when he looked at her imploringly she merely smiled saucily to let him know that this was nothing less than he deserved.

Dean, Harry, Neville, and Ron were laughing so hard by the end of it that they could hardly stand up when the bell rang for class. On the other hand, Terry and Seamus looked worried and a little upset. Terry showed this by offering to escort Ginny to her first class, she denied his offer on the grounds that she didn't want to talk about Draco with him. Seamus showed how worried he was by hiding behind a suit of armour and pulling Ginny out of the crowd as she walked by,

"He kept looking at you, when the howlers were going off, is there something I should know?" his strong hands gripped her shoulders and his face was set, "Because if Malfoy did something to you, I'll blow him up I promise," Ginny relented and smiled as he teased himself,

"You don't need to blow him up, I think Fred and George about have that covered, as for Draco and myself, we are nothing to be worried about," she tried to sound nonchalant but slipped as she called Malfoy by his first name – something Gryffindors never did.

"There's nothing between you two but you call him Draco?" His hands slid from her shoulders to her waist and Ginny crossed her arms,

"Just trying to be more polite is all," she said with a bright smile,

"You ain't fooling me Ginny, he's gone and messed with your head and your heart and anyone who was paying attention this morning could see it,"

"Well, it's over now, as you may have noticed he's married and I'm quite happy," Ginny tried to pull out of his grasp but seventeen years of flying had made Seamus a formidable foe,

"Don't do that Ginny, you can lie to Boot and tell him everything's fine, but you can't do that with me," Ginny heard the late bell ring, Snape was going to be furious with her for being so late,

"Fine, Seamus you win, I'm screwed up and I'm angry and upset but most of all right now, I'm late for class so please if you must talk about this with me, let's talk about it later," She fought valiantly to keep the tears from her eyes,

"We will talk about this," Seamus said, his voice more husky than usual as he bent down and kissed her on the forehead, "Remember Ginny, you can't lie to me," smiling he picked up his bag and rushed off to join his charms class; leaving Ginny frozen behind the suit of armour for a half second before she came to herself and began sprinting towards the dungeons.

"Late , very late may I ask what was so important that you decided to skip fifteen minutes of my class, honestly girl I don't remember anyone every being so late not even Potter," his quiet voice gave Ginny goose-bumps, as evil as he was Snape had a sexy voice.

"I'm sorry Professor, no excuse sir," she took her seat, which she had learnt was the best thing to do in order to draw attention away from herself. Snape was looking at her with his dark eyes, it was a penetrating stare that made Ginny go cold all over again.

"Five points from Gryffindor for your lateness, at least unlike Potter you are aware that there are no excuses for being late," Ginny nodded at him and looked up at the board expecting to see the instructions for the potion she would be expected to make, she was not disappointed; there in Snape's cramped handwriting were the ingredients and method for mixing Armortentia. She had to be hallucinating; love potions were banned from the school grounds. Before putting her hand up to ask Snape the meaning of it she turned to Jessica who was hard at work beside her,

"Aren't love potions banned?" Ginny whispered as she lit the fire beneath her cauldron,

"Well yes and that's what you missed, we'll talk about why you were late later, he was explaining that we're making this because the method is something similar to what we'll find on our NEWTs next year, he's going to be very careful and make sure that none of us who are successful get to keep any," Jess turned back to scooping the jell out of her aloe plant, beside her Natalie was carefully slicing yarrow root.

Ginny nodded to herself when she saw how difficult the potion was, of course something like it would come up in their NEWTs. In a bit of a daze Ginny began to assemble the ingredients, which each movement she became more and more relaxed until she was hardly moving at all,

"Ginny wake up!" Jess jabbed her in the side with her elbow, "You mustn't breath so deeply, the smell remember," Ginny shook herself and began taking shallow breaths in; instantly her head cleared.

"Thanks Jess, just out of curiosity, what does it smell like to you in here, cause I'm getting like a spicy, salty, fresh air sort of thing," Jess laughed at her,

"I can smell lots of things Ginny, my grandmothers perfume, a new book all inky and papery smelling, and something a little spicy as well, I think Lindy might be getting something that smells like Blaise though, cause she keeps putting her head on her hand and going all dreamy looking," the girls giggled but were silenced by a glare from Snape who was currently bent over a Slytherin's cauldron looking thoroughly disappointed.

"By now you should begin seeing the characteristic spirals in the smoke, if you have not managed this I shall have to enquire as to how you managed to get into this class in the first place, have you all not passed your OWLs with an Outstanding?" the class nodded, of course they had passed that exam with Professor Slughorn teaching them but still.

Ginny looked around the room at everyone else's potions, most of them seemed to have achieved the smoky spirals, looking back to her own potion Ginny noticed that it too was emitting a misty smoke that was curling around in the air. She had actually managed to produce a reasonable quality Armortentia. Breathing deeply once just for the pleasure of it Ginny was sure she could pick out the most prominent scents hiding in her potion; Draco Malfoy, Terry Boot, and Seamus Finnigan, all mixed in with the smell of her mother's cooking and the air after a thundershower.

Putting a sample of her potion on Snape's desk Ginny returned to her cauldron and looked longingly at it,

"No , you cannot take some in order to solve your boy troubles," Snape's voice came from the back of the room,

"Sorry Professor, I was just thinking about something else, evanesco," she vanished her potion and hurried after her friends to their next class. In the hall she passed Terry who gave her a smile and Seamus who looked at her with a worried expression but then winked and lastly Draco who barely looked at her for a moment but his expression was so heartbroken that Ginny wanted to go and hug him and cuddle him and tell him that everything was going to be alright. But of course she didn't, however his expression haunted her right through Transfiguration, lunch, and double Herbology with the Ravenclaws which she had to spend under the watchful eye of Luna Lovegood who had evidently been told by Terry to keep a sharp eye on her.

Finally at the end of class Ginny was able to escape from the humid greenhouse, wave a quick hello to Hagrid and dash off to the common room in an attempt to hide. Hiding didn't work out so well. Seamus, who was apparently determined to make an honest woman out of her and force her to talk about that morning, was waiting for her in the common room.

"Let's walk shall we?" he suggested, "Before Dean shows up and demands to know what I'm doing with his ex,"

"If you insist," Ginny ran up to her room to drop her bag and grab a sweater before returning to the common room and the awaiting Seamus who looked charmingly nonchalant with his shirt un-tucked and his tie loosed just enough to allow him to undo the first two buttons on his shirt.

They hopped out of the portrait hole and were well on their way to the lake before Draco saw them.

"Careful Finnigan, you'll lose your soul before little Red lets you keep her," Draco was dazed and seemed for all the world like he was drunk but Ginny knew it simply wasn't possible; more likely he was just upset.

"No worries Malfoy she's already make it quite clear that she doesn't belong to people, people belong to her," Seamus gave her a shifty smile; making sure it was okay if he spoke to Malfoy on her behalf.

"Well ain't that the truth," Draco sighed and wandered off towards the castle.

"You still gonna try and tell me that it's over?" Seamus looked at her, his brown eyes honest, begging her to confide in him.

"It's over for me, he made his choice to marry Lacey, who by the way I'm on good terms with, and now he's miserable but it's not my problem," Ginny slipped her hand into Seamus's and began to swing their arms back and forth, "He was more charming that you could imagine once he stopped being an arse hole of course," she gave a bittersweet smile, looking up at Seamus she was surprised to find that his expression was rather torn.

"Yeah I just can't picture a charming Malfoy," Seamus chuckled then sighed, "I've got to tell you Ginny I…." He paused and looked away; pink in the cheeks again, "I might have lured you here under false pretences," he finished, this time looking her in the eyes,

"You didn't lure me out here Seamus," Ginny squeezed his hand in her own,

"And now I have to ask about Boot," he looked away again; Ginny could practically hear him mentally hitting himself for asking about Boot so quickly,

"Terry, Terry boy," Ginny hummed to herself for a little while, she was going to have to lie to Seamus from this point on, lie to Seamus and Terry and herself, "Terry is wonderful and caring but nothing is official, as you already know, I don't belong to anyone," Ginny smiled up at him and was disappointed to see him frowning,

"Will he murder me if I kissed you now?" he looked at her with a guilty expression,

"I don't see him around, do you?" Ginny pulled them both to a halt as she said this and using her grip on Seamus's hand she swung him around to look at her,

"I don't want to sneak around Ginny," he whispered, "Not if someone else has any sort of claim to you,"

"How is this sneaking, we're in the middle of the grounds for any and all to see," Ginny tried not to sound sharp, "Besides, if I'm seen too publically every guy within a mile radius gets all jealous and hormonal," Seamus laughed and shook his head a little,

"Is this what Dean felt like? Like he was the special one being picked out of a crowd, because if it is then it's no wonder he isn't over you," he lowered his forehead to Ginny's and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her up onto her tippy toes. Ginny could feel Seamus smiling as he kissed her and Ginny giggled as he bit her lip gently,

"See, there was nothing sneaky about that," Ginny teased,

"But I'm not allowed to do that in front of Boot, or Ron or Harry, is that correct?" Ginny nodded coyly,

"Not yet anyway," she tucked her lip under her front teeth, "Maybe someday," Ginny's voice drifted off as she remembered that Draco had once wished 'someday' to come faster. But he didn't matter now; what mattered was that Ginny had found her drug and was well on her way back to being completely high on it. Seamus was so perfectly, impossibly the only person she wasn't supposed to be with; she had dated his best friend, he roomed with her brother and Harry, and Ginny was pretty sure that every girl who heard him speak swooned, it was cheating and unfair for Ginny to take him as well as Terry but she needed them both if she wanted to feel as intoxicated as Draco had once made her feel.

xxx

Ginny sat at the Gryffindor table for dinner, as per usual, what was different this time was that her ankle was wrapped around Seamus's. He was talking to Dean and she was talking to the Hydra so it didn't look suspicious, unless you were a certain Ravenclaw, sitting at just the right angle so that you could see the sandy haired boy's leg wrapped around the denim sheathed leg of the red headed girl beside him.

(A/N – who likes Terry? Who likes Seamus? Who's still pining over Draco? Honestly, I won't bite if you review!)