"Hogwarts Castle!" She cried as she threw the floo powder up into the air, and the green flames engulfed her instantly. It was a testament to her completely distracted mind that she couldn't even feel the gut wrenching motions of floo travel. Her mind and the knot in her stomach were dedicated to Dean and her reunion with him. Said knot in the stomach was not of the butterfly nature, but rather it felt like a rope twisting around her insides. Needless to say, it was not pleasant. If she was honest with herself, she didn't want to face him at all, especially not after the letter he had sent her.

Originally, Luna's letter had given her some perspective:

Dear Ginny,

I put on my Dad's wackspurt siphons to help me because I'm not quite sure how to best help. After sitting with them on and allowing them to clear my mind I was able to have some good insight. If Dean loves you, then he loves you. If you don't love him, then you don't love him. It's really quite simple. You can't make yourself have feelings, they just have to grow from inside of you. And I think, if Dean loves you, he will respect you for your feelings. Or, at least, he should. Maybe I should bring the wackspurt siphons back with me and he could get some insight with them if he's having problems accepting your answer. However, I believe you did the right thing. Never play with feelings that you don't really have, they will only bite you in the end.

My holiday is very nice, thank you! I did some painting in my room and I'm helping my father with an extra large printing of the next issue. It's going to be a good one!

With warm thoughts,

Luna

If anything, it had made her realize that if she did have any kind of feelings for Dean, it would be good to write him.

After agonizing over what to write, and after decimating endless amounts of parchment and chewing through two quills, she finally just sent him the chocolate bar that she had originally planned on giving him for Christmas, and asked about his holiday. Keeping it short, sweet, and to the point, she tried to subtly emphasis that she did actually care.

What she received back, however, was short and to the point, but she couldn't say it was sweet.

Ginny,

I hope you had a nice holiday, too. Thanks for the chocolate bar. Come see me when you get back to school tomorrow.

Dean

There was just something missing. An exclamation point, maybe? A 'Can't wait to see you?'? She couldn't put her finger on it. All she knew was that after receiving that letter the last thing she wanted to do was see the boy who had written it, because it certainly did not seem like he saw things the way Luna did.

'Maybe Luna should bring back her wackspurt siphons,' Ginny thought with a dark chuckle as she watched fireplace after fireplace fly past her view. The floo trip to Hogwarts was a long one, with endless fireplaces in between. She had just started to feel the woozy feeling take over her body when the floo suddenly spit her out onto a rug. Instantly, the scent of Hogwarts assaulted her nose. She was back.

"Good Evening, Miss Weasley. Kindly brush your robes in the fireplace so you don't get too much ash on the rug. Welcome back," Professor McGonagall mumbled, not bothering to look up from the parchment she was scratching on. Ginny shrugged, did as she was told, and followed Harry and Ron, who had flooed directly before her, out of Professor McGonagall's office.

"I swear, every time I do that it gets worse," Harry moaned, shaking his head as ash fell from his hair.

"You just have to keep your mind on something else, I hardly even noticed I was flooing," Ginny said as she followed Harry around the corridor.

"Exactly. I was thinking about how good breakfast was this morning," Ron added.

Harry groaned, "The last thing I would ever want to think about when I'm flooing is food. I don't want to puke and have it end up on some unsuspecting witches' carpet."

"Awww," Ginny mock cooed, patting him on the back as Ron exclaimed, "That would be bloody brilliant!"

Harry swatted her hand away with a laugh, "Don't patronize me Weasley."

Ron grunted, "What did I do?"

"I was talking to your sister," Harry said, eyeing Ginny through narrow slits and a smirk. She shot him a radiant smile.

"Just trying to make you feel better!"

"And you did a great job at it, too..." Harry murmured, taking off his glasses and rubbing his face as Ron spoke the password to the Fat Lady.

The Fat Lady looked down and impatiently told Ron no. For a second Ginny smiled and wondered if the Fat Lady knew how much she didn't want to go inside.

"Harry! Ginny!" cried a voice that Ginny would know anywhere. Hermione was barreled down the corridor from behind them with a happiness that she hadn't seen from the girl since, well, to be honest, since Ron had started snogging 'Lav-Lav'.

Ginny couldn't help but smile as she was pulled into a hug and was assaulted by Hermione's bushy hair. Hermione let go and pulled Harry into a hug as well. Ron might as well have not even been there.

"Abstinence," Hermione said clearly.

"Wha--" Harry and Ginny said, only to chuckle as the Fat Lady nodded and the portrait hole opened.

The four walked into the bustling common room. Lavender attacked Ron immediately, plucking him off from their pack like a cheetah preying on a gazelle. To Ginny's amazement, Hermione didn't walk away or lose the smile from her face.

This would have hit Ginny as more odd if she hadn't spotted the back of Dean's head at that very second, sitting with Seamus on the far end of the common room.

"Coming Ginny?" Hermione asked from behind her. She turned to see Harry and Hermione staring at her expectantly. Every piece of her wanted to follow them instead.

She sighed, "No thanks, I said I'd meet Dean." She waved half heartedly goodbye and crossed the buzzing common room. Seamus spotted her as she was weaving through three second years in a group 'welcome back' hug and gave her a jovial wave. She pulled on a smile and waved back. Dean didn't so much as turn around.

"How was your holiday?" Seamus called as she got closer. She answered with a smile and a silent thumbs up as she took the open seat next to Dean.

Any compulsion to give Dean a hello hug or kiss vanished as he glanced at her and then went back to the card castle they were building without so much as a 'Hi.'

She recovered quickly. "Hi," she said casually to Dean, trying to keep her voice neutral.

"Good break?" He asked, adding a card to make a turret.

"...Yeah. It was nice," she said, "Yours?"

"The usual--"

"He came to my house for New Years and we went to the Kestral's match against Puddlemere on New Year's day," Seamus said, hardly able to hold in his excitement.

"Oh I'm jealous! That was a good game. We listened to some of it on the wireless," Ginny said, finding it a relief to be talking to Seamus instead as she turned her attention to him.

"You are so wrong. That was a fantastic game!" Seamus exclaimed as he went into a play by play for Ginny, Dean continuing to build his snap castle throughout it all. It did sound like it had been a fantastic game, and Ginny nodded and half listened to Seamus's retelling. The other part of her mind was completely preoccupied by the icy reception she had received from Dean. It felt like a tangible wall was between them. Though, to be honest, it was close to what she had expected.

"They actually had to test the snitch to see who'd gotten their fingers on it first," Seamus said, "I've never seen that before, have you?"

Ginny shrugged, "I don't think I have. Er...have you Dean?"

Dean looked up from his castle with a blank look on his face, "Not until then. It was pretty interesting," and he went right back to focusing on what he was doing.

Ginny squirmed, Seamus didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. Gesturing wildly, he laughed, "Pfff! Interesting? That's the understatement of the yea--".

Time suddenly slowed. Ginny saw what was coming from a mile away. She had grown up with six brothers and knew from experience that it was time to duck and cover. She winced and ducked low in her chair as she watched Seamus's hand connect with the exploding snap castle in the middle of a huge gesture. The castle burst with a ferocious and smoky 'boom!' and cards and parchment scattered everywhere.

Coughing out some rogue ash that had gotten into her mouth, Ginny hesitantly ducked her head out from under her hands to assess the damage. Regardless of what the feeling at the table had been before, she couldn't help but burst into laughter.

Seamus was a sight. Frozen in the same wild gesture he had never been able to complete, his eyes were wide, his face and clothes covered in black soot, and his hair shooting out at extreme angles. Ginny's laugh rang through the common room, and quickly Dean's laugh became even louder.

"That was classic!" Dean cried through hiccups of laughter,"That couldn't have gone better if I'd planned it!"

"Seamus!" Ginny got out with some difficulty, "Are you alright?"

The two only laughed harder when Seamus made the tiniest of nods, his eyes still wide like he had seen a ghost and his face completely blacked out. Slowly, he removed himself from the table and walked up the dormitory stairs without a single word.

The fit of laughs slowly died down at the table that was now solely occupied by Ginny and Dean. Ginny couldn't deny it and thanked Seamus in her head, that was exactly what she had needed. Laughing with Dean felt good. Each laugh seemed to break though the awkward ice a bit more. Ginny wiped the tear and batted her fringe from her eyes, looking up at Dean. He leaned back in his chair, assessed the damage, and brought out his wand to right the explosion. Once that was done, he brushed off the ash that had landed on him and stood up.

"Want to go down to dinner?" He asked as he stood up quickly and took an advancing step toward the door.

"Sure!" Ginny replied with relief.

Without looking back, he made his way to the portrait hole with her in his wake. Quickly, he stepped out of the way and let her pass before him through the portrait hole.

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

The new term picked up speed and within a few weeks it felt as though there had never been a Christmas holiday at all. Quidditch was back on and homework was piling up. Everything felt pretty much the same in Ginny's Hogwarts world. The one distinct difference was her boyfriend.

From the beginning of their time together, Dean had been an exuberant and warm person. He had been a loud talker with a great laugh. He had liked to hold hands and cuddle in front of the fire on cold nights and he'd always enjoyed sneaking into deserted corridors for a little snog session. Generally, he'd been a very fun boyfriend who had a lot to offer to a relationship.

The Dean that came back from break was not really any of these things. This Dean was sullen and aggressive. He kept a distance from prolonged physical affection and he was generally just cold. Though there was really no reason to, Ginny felt guilty and somewhat responsible for this change. The only logical explanation was that he was just still hurt and was putting up walls. The real Dean still had to be in there somewhere, she just had to bring him back.

It was weird, the feeling of having to force physical interaction, the feeling that she didn't know if he'd be okay with his hands down the hallway or if he would turn her down for that occasional impromptu kiss. But strides were made. The old Dean would shine out intermittently. He'd shoot her a great smile or pick her up and throw her over his shoulder on the way back from the pitch. However rare these moments were, she latched onto them as proof that the real Dean was still in there and ready to break back out.

But the process was proving to be arduously slow. January faded and February was in full swing and he still would avoid eye contact, he still wouldn't kiss her deeply. Though she wanted to, she couldn't deny the hurt that she was feeling because of the change. But more so, she definitely couldn't deny her growing frustration with this guy that was no longer acting anything like her boyfriend.

Their relationship had boiled down to one definite talking point. Dean was always old Dean when it came to Quidditch. So that's what they talked about. That's what they did. That's what their altered relationship based itself on. Talking Quidditch, playing Quidditch, flying together. It was the only time that they resembled the Ginny and Dean that they were in the beginning. The ones that laughed with each other, bantered, could talk endlessly.

Ginny found that the more time they spent together in the sky, the better their relationship got, which was positive because they were in the air a lot training for the match against Hufflepuff.

"It's really too bad they canceled the Hogsmeade trip tomorrow," Dean said as they reentered the castle after a very successful practice, bumping himself into her on purpose, "It would have been really nice to just spend the day with you."

Ginny looked at him in surprise,"Oh. You'd never mentioned you wanted to."

"Yeah, well.." Dean shrugged, neglecting to finish his sentence.

"Um..." Ginny stuttered and then grabbed onto the topic, "if you want to, we can still spend the day together tomorrow. Who needs Hogsmeade?"

Dean chuckled and was silent for a second while he rounded the corner, "I guess."

"...okay," Ginny said hesitantly. Was that all she was going to get?

"Okay," Dean said.

The walked in silence for a minute.

"Um...what do you want to do tomorrow, then?" She asked.

"I don't know."

Ginny had an odd feeling like she was pulling teeth, "Okay. We could...go on a fly over the lake? Go to the kitchens?" She paused, feeling a little brave and hoping that maybe she could get some sort of rise out of him, "Spend the day in the abandoned corridor??"

She saw the hint of a smile on Dean's face at that last bit, "All those sounds good. I do have that Apparition class, but I've got the rest of the day free."

"Okay!" Ginny said, latching on quickly, "Well, we've got all day, so we can do all of that."

"Sounds good," Dean said.

"Right, sounds good." But somehow it didn't sound as good as she wanted it to. All she wanted to do was scream 'Have an opinion!', but she decided to let it slide. Maybe some good strides could be made on their day together.

However, the fates aligned against them. Those strides were going to have no way of being made on that day.

Ginny and Dean met in the common room Saturday morning. She gave him a tentative smile which he actually returned. The two went down to breakfast, talking about what route they'd want to take on their fly for the day after Dean's Apparition class.

"Meet me in the common room after your class and we'll go down," Ginny said as she stood up from the table and pecked him quickly on the cheek.

"Okay," Dean said, helping himself to more breakfast.

"Okay, we'll I'll see you then," Ginny said, hesitating in her leaving.

"Okay," Dean said without looking at her. He turned to Seamus to start talking about their upcoming class.

A fire of frustration that had been kindling inside of her flaired up, but for once she held her tongue and walked away, shaking her head. It was definite, she couldn't handle this much longer.

Ginny entered the common room and had barely sat down before the portrait hole burst open.

"Ginny!" yelled a voice in a combo of panic and relief, making her jump out of her skin. Turning to the voice, she was terribly surprised as she saw Harry running at her.

"What?" she asked skeptically, her nerves suddenly on end as she took in his blood drained expression.

Harry hesitated, "We need to get Hermione," he said quickly, "Where is she?"

"Um...we'll find her. What's going on? What happened?"

Harry was silent for a second. He was shaking.

Ginny's nerves spiked. Grabbing his arm, she steered him to a couch.

Harry took a breath and steadied himself as they sat on the couch, "Um...," he said, glimpsing at Ginny before quickly looking away. He took another breath. "Ron...he...Ron was just poisioned."

Ginny's vision went black. Panic exploded through her veins, "What!" She screamed, jumping up from the couch.

Ginny's outburst seemed to have calmed Harry. Quickly, he grabbed her hand and attempted to pull her back down onto the couch. She didn't budge, "What happened!?"

"Ginny, he's fine. Sit down and I'll tell you what happened," he said, giving her hand a slight tug. She obeyed, her eyes wide as plates.

Harry relayed to her the stor of how Ron had accidentally eaten the Chocolate Cauldrons that Romilda Vane had spiked with love potion, how he had taken him to Slughorn's office and fixed him up, then how Ron had been the only one to drink from the poisoned mead that Slughorn had given them, and finally how Harry had instinctively found the bezoar.

"He's up in the hospital wing and I think your family knows by now," Harry finished, still holding Ginny's rigid hand. He gulped, "I'm so sorry I ran in here in a panic and scared you."

"Damn right you did!" Ginny burst before pulling herself together. "Sorry," she said, giving him a small apologetic smile as she felt herself relax slightly, "He's going to be totally okay?"

Harry hesitated and nodded, a slight pain shooting across his eyes, "They say he's going to be completely fine. He's going to need to stay up there for awhile but...I'm just really lucky I got him a bezoar in time."

The weight of Harry's last words hit her with force as she started to envision what could have happened. The reality of it made Ginny shake. Her brother had almost died. Ginny tugged Harry to her and pulled him into a fierce hug, "Thank you."

Ginny had hugged Harry in the past, but this time was different. He hugged her back, hard. The sudden realization of how close they had both come to losing Ron emanated between them. Ginny breathed deeply in Harry's arms and felt herself relax. His scent was...calming. Slowly he untangled his face from her hair and pulled away, looking her in the eye.

He was so close.

"Um..." Ginny stuttered, "so...I guess that's three now..."

Harry straightened up, his face twisting into confusion, "Three?"

"Weasleys you saved," Ginny said with a smile, "You going for four next? Are you trying to break a record?"

Harry laughed, "I really hope I don't," he said, "But if I have to, I'll do it a fourth time."

Ginny sighed, a laugh building up inside of her, "See," she pointed her finger into his chest, "this is precisely why my mum is trying to arrange our marriage. She wants a guard dog."

Ginny felt her face go momentarily hot as Harry laughed awkwardly. "Yeah, something like that," he said through a chuckle.

What followed was quite an awkward silence.

"Do you, uh... Do you want to go to the hospital wing?" he asked.

"Oh! Oh, yeah," she said, standing quickly.

The daylight outside the windows turned to a late afternoon haze, which slowly blended into a dark and starry night as she spent the entire day in and around the hospital wing with Harry and Hermione. Family members came and went. The story of what happened was retold again and again, along with a constant debate between Harry and Ginny about what had happened and why. Fierce hugs were doled out by Mrs. Weasley, and Fred and George too.

All in all it was a long and emotionally exhausting day. Seeing Ron unconscious in his bed was a hard reality to face, but she could only hold onto the fact that the fates had aligned to save him. It was nothing short of a miracle.

The sky was black as pitch when she wearily walked back to Gryffindor tower in the company of Fred and George. Mrs. Weasley had demanded she not walk back alone. It worked in her favor, however, as an excited Filch turned the corner yelling 'Out of their beds!' only to scream bloody murder and run the other way at the sight of Fred and George.

"Good to know we stuck with him, bro." George said with a cocky smile and a high five to his brother.

"Yeah, seems like he's having nightmares about us," Fred replied, "Ginny, why don't you give him more hell?"

Ginny laughed, "I do when I can, but I have more important things on my plate."

"There is no such thing," George said, rustling her hair.

"You really need to get your priorities in order, little sis," Fred added, "You're the only protege we have!"

"I'll keep that in mind," Ginny said with a smile as they reached the Fat Lady.

The Fat Lady, who had been snoozing, opened one bleary eye just enough and suddenly gasped in delight at the sight of the boys, "Well, are you a sight for sore eyes!" she exclaimed.

Fred and George removed their hats and bowed to her in an obnoxious manner, "How have you been Delilah?" Fred asked as he returned his hat to his head.

"Delilah?" Ginny mouthed.

"Alright sis," George said, pulling her into a hug, "No poison drinking."

"And stop dating that git of a boy," Fred said, taking his turn to hug her, "We all know that mum wants you to marry Harry anyway."

Ginny laughed, "I take it you heard her at Christmas?"

Fred stood tall and guffawed, "Heard her!? We're the ones that spiked her egg nog!"

"Best Christmas Eve ever, if I do say so myself," George added, "at your expense, of course."

Ginny only shook her head, "You are terrible people."

"Nah," Fred said, brushing her off, "We will just go to enormous lengths for a good laugh."

"Remind me never to drink anything you hand me," Ginny said as she turned to the Fat Lady, "Abstinence."

The portrait swung open as the Fat Lady sent Fred and George a final wink. "Fitting password Ginny, best you listen to it!" Fred said quickly as she waved goodbye and the portrait shut behind her. Shaking her head at the absurdity of her brothers, she entered the dark and empty common room.

"Where the hell have you been?"

Ginny jumped and let out a high pitched squeak as she turned to where the voice had come from. Dean was getting up from his chair in the corner. He was still in his day clothes.

"I have been waiting for you all day," he said in a low and aggressive voice that was full of steel, "I came back here after Apparition and you weren't here. No one had seen you all day. I went to the pitch, not there. The lake, not there. Hell, I went to Hagrid's, not there! I almost sent him into the Forbidden Forest to see if you'd crashed your broom in there or something. I have been sitting around all day waiting for you. Then Harry comes in twenty minutes ago...Where the hell have you been?!"

Ginny was speechless. Her plans with Dean had completely seeped out of her brain. "I--"

Dean advanced forward, "You're not even going to give me an excuse?"

The world flashed red in front of her eyes.

"Excuse!?"

Every bit of anger and frustration she felt for her mess with Dean melded with the emotions from the day and she exploded like a storm, "Excuse! Excuse Dean? How's this for an excuse! Ron was poisoned today. He almost DIED. I have been in the hospital wing with my family the entire day! Sorry I completely forgot to cancel my plans with someone who, may I add, didn't seem to want to spend the day with me anyway, but I had more important things on my mind. Like my brother's life!" She was shaking from her anger.

Dean paused, "What do you mean I didn't want to spend the day with you?" Dean shot back, completely ignoring anything about Ron.

Ginny threw her hands up in the air and let out an exasperated guffaw, "Don't give me that. You know exactly what I mean. Ugh! You haven't so much as looked me in the eye in a month and a half, Dean! You haven't given me the time of day. You haven't touched me, you haven't given me one bit of attention at all. Don't deny that you were completely less than thrilled about ANY of our plans today and--"

"No I--"

"Well if you weren't then bloody act like you care, alright? Because this whole 'silent treatment' you've been giving me isn't going to get you much further except for thrown out on your arse. I'm sick of it!" Her chest heaved as angry tears threatened to shoot from her eyes.

Dean advanced toward her a few steps, "Gin, I--"

"Don't!" she yelled, "Don't even try. If you want to try something, try and stop being a prat and maybe I'll continue talking to you. But not tonight, it's been a long day and all I want to do is go to bed." She huffed a final time and darted directly up the dormitory stairs without looking back.

We've got that Red head temper bleeding through a bit here, yeah?

This chapter is for Milkmamma, who inadvertently got me writing so much faster after sending me a bunch of reviews from the first chapters of the story. It was great! I started writing this a year ago. All I wanted to write was the kiss and their reunion after the battle. Somehow I ended up with this monster story and a year later I still haven't gotten to either one. Seeing those old chapters again really made me remember why I started this piece.

So talk to me, and lets get this story moving! Thanks for reading.