"Mmnngggghhh," Ginny groaned to herself, pulling the blankets up over her face as sunlight poured through a crack in her bed curtains that she was never able to fully close. There were so many reasons why she didn't want to leave her Sunday morning cocoon. Had she really lost her temper that badly? Had she really shouted at Dean like that? He didn't deserve that...or maybe he did. Either way, it didn't make her feel any better about it.

She had been in the wrong in one sense, she told herself. He had waited for her the entire day without one word...she would have to at least apologize for that. Though, in her opinion, she did feel as though she had a good excuse. Other than that though, she felt the dread in her stomach for how true her words had been, and how she couldn't take them back. The little sleep she had gotten had allowed her rationality to seep through her anger. She was going to have to talk to him, soon.

Accepting the fact that she couldn't fall back asleep, she drug herself out from under her covers and got ready for the day, finding anything she could to make her time in her room longer. An extra long shower, wand curling her hair, playing with some makeup, and changing robes four times were all products of her stalling pattern.

A fully put together Ginny looked around the room and sighed. Wasn't there anything else she could do? Well, other than her potions essay, there was really nothing else. And as bad as it sounded to face Dean, a potions essay sounded worse.

Taking a deep breath, she left her room and descended the stairs, only to spot Dean the second the common room came into view. He was sitting in the chair closest to her stairway. She took him in nervously at first, breathing a sigh of relief when she had made sure that he wasn't in the same clothes he had been in the night before, taking away any fear that he had stayed up all night to speak with her. At the sound of her entering the common room, he looked up and caught her eye tentatively, and he moved to stand.

"Ginny!" called a voice from her right, making her jump in surprise. Dean's eyes tightened and he stopped in mid motion as he looked over at the interruption. As Ginny looked to see who had called, from the corner of her eye she saw Dean raise himself to his full height.

Harry was walking over to her from the boy's stairs, a brilliant smile on his face.

"Good morning."

"Hi," Ginny said, feeling slightly uncomfortable for reasons that she couldn't quite put her finger on.

Harry patted down his hair and straightened his glasses, "Do you, er, want to go get breakfast and then go up and see Ron with me?"

She gulped and tried to remove any hint of hesitation from her face, feeling Dean's eyes on her, "I...can't," she finally said, "I have some, er, stuff to take care of. Could you tell Ron that I'll be up later today? If he's awake, that is."

"Yeah, sure," Harry said, following Ginny's eyes to Dean. He shuffled his feet awkwardly, "I'll see you later then."

"Okay," Ginny said. Harry gave her a last fleeting smile and walked away.

Taking a deep breath, Ginny returned her attention to Dean. Dean was not turned to her. He was watching Harry go. As soon as Harry exited the portrait hole, he turned back to Ginny.

"Er, Hey," Dean said quietly, the steel that had been in his voice the night before was missing and replaced with a melancholy tone.

"Dean, I--"

"Oh! Guys!" Harry's voice broke through as he came running back to the couple. Dean rolled his eyes and let out a low groan. "Just wanted to let you know practice is going to start an hour earlier tonight because McLaggen is going to fill in for Ron the Hufflepuff match and we need to get used to him."

"Really?" Ginny asked, her voice thick with disgust.

Harry laughed and rolled his eyes, " I know Gin, but--"

"Fine. We'll be there." Dean glared curtly at Harry. It was clear in his voice that the conversation was explicitly over.

Harry stopped short and looked at Dean oddly, "Well, alright then...I'll," he glanced at Ginny, "I'll see you later then."

"Er...bye," Ginny said with a hint of regret before turning her calculating eyes back to Dean. Once again, Dean watched Harry go. "What was that about?"

Dean tore his eyes from the portrait hole, "What was what about?"

"You just totally brushed off our Quidditch Captain..."

"No I didn't," Dean said, "But...but he's not important," his teeth gritted and he paused, before taking a deep breath, "Ginny, I'm...," he glanced shiftily to the portrait hole once more, "I'm sorry about last night."

Ginny bit her lip, "I shouldn't have--"

"No, you were completely right," Dean replied, turning to her and finally giving her his full attention, "I've been a total berk lately and I...I'm gonna work on it."

"Oh," Ginny said, her eyes wide in surprise at his clear apology.

"Give me a chance, and I'm going to work on it," Dean said, reaching out to touch her arm, but pulling away in hesitation.

"Listen, I shouldn't have exploded at you last night," Ginny started, staring at her wringing hands, "I should have remembered to tell you where I was. I just--"

"It's okay."

"I just..." she looked up at him and could feel the truth knocking on the back of her teeth, "Dean, you've been right unbearable lately. Ever since...Christmas. And you can not treat me like that."

Dean hesitated before muttering, "I know, I'm sorry."

"Some girls might sit around and take being ignored and brushed off, but I definitely will not," her voice sounded undeniably strong.

"Gin, I never meant to...I just....I don't know, I've got a lot on my mind about us and I--"

"Things used to be really good but now it's just all messed up. And there's no reason for it, neither of us did anything wrong."

There was silence for a moment as Dean seemed to contemplate something. He took a deep breath and looked back up at Ginny from his feet. "I don't want to mess this up," he said, honesty making his voice sound normal for once.

"Then don't," she replied honestly, "because I don't want you to, either."

"It's just. Ginny," he said, looking at her more deeply than he had in weeks, "I don't know how to act around you anymore. Ever since...Christmas, I..."

"Dean, I just want the old Dean back. It's as easy as that," she said, shrugging, "Believe it or not, I kinda liked that guy."

Dean smiled and reached out again, this time he made contact, "I'll send him a note and see if he'll come back."

"Good," Ginny said.

"Can I...umm..." he bit his lip in nervous habit, "Can I hug you? Is that allowed?"

Ginny rolled her eyes and felt a smile creep onto her face, "Well, what would the old Dean do?"

Dean smiled fully and without another word he pulled her tightly into his arms. As Ginny returned the hug, she couldn't helpful but feel hopeful that maybe, just maybe, that mess was over. Maybe.

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

"He's a nightmare."

"The worst."

"The worstest worst," Ginny said with a laugh as she and Dean made their way out of the locker room after their last practice before the Hufflepuff match. Changes in the team were not going well, to put it lightly. Cormac McLaggen was proving to be worse than anyone could have imagined. Ginny and Dean found themselves on the same side of the fence, and it was definitely the opposite side from McLaggen, which made for endless amounts of conversation, venting, and joking at his expense.

"I really wish you hadn't held Peakes back when he was about to send a bludger at his head," she said, smacking him playfully in the arm.

"Hey, you want to win tomorrow, don't you?" he quipped back, grabbing her arm and pulling her into him.

"You know," she mused, tapping her finger to her lips in a contemplative gesture, "He's so bad, I think it would be almost worth losing the game to take him down. Don't you--"

"Ginny! Hold on!" Harry called from behind.

Ginny and Dean stopped and turned around. Harry was poking his head out of the door of the locker room, "Come back for a second. I want to ask you something. You can go ahead, Dean."

Ginny felt Dean's grip on her stiffen.

"No," Dean yelled back, "I'm not going anywhere."

"Er...okay," Harry replied.

"What do you need to talk to her about, anyway?" Dean asked.

"Dean!" Ginny yelled, jerking her arm from his grip.

"Just asking," he said with a surprised grimace.

Ginny wrinkled her nose in confusion, "Never mind. I'll be right back," she told him, and with that she trotted back to the locker room.

"What's up?" she asked Harry as she reentered the room.

Once Ginny entered the room, Harry sighed and slunk down on the bench, rustling his hair an aggressive way, "Tell me I didn't make a big mistake agreeing to let McLaggen play."

Ginny took a deep breath to let out a laugh. She took a seat beside him and patted his back, "I don't think you made a big mistake," she said, before hesitating and letting out a sigh, "I think you made a massive mistake."

Harry chuckled and looked over to her, rolling his eyes, "I can always depend on you to tell it like it is."

"It's my specialty," Ginny said with a cocky smile, "But, on the bright side," she added, "I do think that if we can get through tomorrow without any of us killing him mid match, we'll be okay. Plus, Ron will be good enough to play in the next match. So all we have to do is get through tomorrow."

Harry smiled, "That's all I needed to hear. Thanks, Gin."

"No problem," Ginny said.

"Will you, uh, take a look at these play charts I made up for tomorrow? I feel like the one on the Rothsland Roll needs a chaser's touch."

"Sure," she replied,scooting up close to have a look at the parchments in his lap, "I think it would be more effective if you have the second chaser feinting upwards. It'll give the chasers on the other team an extra distraction and we all know Hufflepuff isn't too good with multiple distraction," she pointed out, circling a spot on the parchment with her finger as she continued, "and then this spot would open up, allowing the first chaser through with the quaffle."

She looked up from his lap of parchments to see Harry staring at her in awe, "You are a bloody genius, Ginny Weasley."

She laughed and felt a blush creep onto her cheeks, "Just calling it like I see it."

Harry ran his wand over the parchment and the corrections Ginny suggested were made. He shuffled the papers, "How about this one?" He asked, and they both bent down, heads close, to examine the next play.

"Are you seriously considering running this play?" she asked.

Harry shrugged, "I was thinking about it."

"You should save this play for the next game. Ron would be able to handle it a lot better than McLaggen."

"What would I do without you?" he asked with a smile on his face. She bit her lip as she looked up from the paper and met his gaze.

"Are you coming Ginny?" said an icy voice from the doorway, making Ginny quickly jump and pull away from Harry.

"Oh yeah, sorry," she replied, looking toward the door to see Dean standing tall in the doorway. She walked toward him to the exit, "You coming Harry?"

"Nah," Harry responded, "I'm going to work a bit on the play charts. See you guys tomorrow, get some sleep. We'll really need to be rested."

"Goodnight," Ginny said as she followed Dean out. He was already about ten strides ahead of her. "Dean, wait up!"

Dean turned around and stopped, "What did he want to talk to you about?"

"He just needed to be reassured that everything would be fine tomorrow, I think."

Dean snorted, "And he couldn't do that with me around?"

"No? I don't know," she said, trying to find a good way to craft her words, "Harry's my friend. He probably didn't want to look unsure around other team members. It doesn't really do well for morale."

"Right," was all Dean said, and with that the couple returned to the cold night.

It turned out Ginny was right about one thing. The game would've gone well if everyone could have refrained from trying to kill McLaggen. Unfortunately, that was exactly why everything went so terribly wrong. Chaos would have been a kind word for what was happening to the Gryffindor Quidditch team in the air. Ginny had already been a bit on edge when she took to the sky in the first place since she had been so annoyed with Harry for almost missing the beginning of the game because of some lame excuse about following Malfoy. The only enjoyable thing about the match thus far had been the surprise of Luna's voice echoing through the stands as the commentator. She was brilliant, besides the fact that she knew nothing about Quidditch.

But nothing whatsoever could make her feel better about how badly she wanted to hex McLaggen. He had been in the teams faces the entire game, and Harry had been in his face multiple times. Thing were falling apart and they were losing terribly.

"DO NOT TELL ME HOW TO PLAY!" she screamed furiously as McLaggen chastized her for an incerception, making it the third time in ten minutes he had yelled at her. Ginny watched in anger as a Hufflepuff keeper threw the quaffle past his head and into a goal without him even realizing. "You bloody prat! Do you see what just happened?! Ugh!!"

"Just keep playing," Demelza said, pulling up to her quickly, "We'll get him later. You have my promise."

That brought a smile to Ginny's face as she pulled her focus back onto the pitch and the game at hand. She quickly intercepted the quaffle and flew in a winding pattern, averting Hufflepuff's left and right. She feinted a throw to the left to avert the keeper and threw to the right.

"Score Ginny Weasley!" McGonagall's voice echoed.

But there was no time to take the voice in. Shouts of another nature once again echoed from the opposite side of the pitch. She whipped around in the air.

"Harry! NO!"

She gasped in terror as she watched McLaggen swing a rogue beaters bat with his absurdly brawny arm and hit a bludger sideways as Harry pulled up close to get in his face. The next thing she knew, a sickening crunch echoed through the stands and Harry was falling rapidly from the sky. The bludger had hit Harry in the skull at point blank range.

Screams and gasps filled the stands, but Ginny didn't hear a thing as she flew as fast as her broom would take her to the ground where thankfully Peakes had been able to catch Harry before he hit the ground.

Harry was unconscious and the blood from his head was copious. Panic overtook her as she ran to him, but Professor McGonagall cut her off and bumped her out of the way. Quickly McGonagall stemmed the bleeding and conjured a stretcher, running much quicker than expected from a woman her age as Harry on the stretcher floated quickly behind her to the castle.

Fury and a surprising amount of fear rocked her body as she suddenly heard, "The snitch has been caught! I think that means Hufflepuff calls a win---"

McLaggen was still in the air, and now Ginny was too. Except this time her quaffle hand was equipped with her wand instead.

She pulled up directly beside him and before he could even register she was there, she shoved her wand directly into his nostril and screamed the bat bogey hex with every ounce of magical power she had.

"Furnuculus!" yelled a voice from behind her as Demelza got Ginny's back. McLaggen's high pitched screams could do nothing to slow the bat bogeys or the boils that had started to erupt all over his body from Demelza's curse. Somehow he made it to the ground and started to run from the pitch immediately, his screams echoing through the grounds.

"You watch your back McLaggen!" Ginny bellowed, waving her wand erratically, "I will NEVER be done with you, you bloody wanker!!"

"Whoa! Ginny! Cool off! You're going to hurt yourself!" Dean attempted to pull down her arm. She jerked it back and continued to rage. Demelza grabbed her shoulders and Ginny allowed her to steer her lightly to the locker room.

When Ginny looked back later, she was amazed at how easily Demelza had been able to calm her down. Generally, once Ginny got riled up, there was no stopping it. Demelza's level headed and non dramatic nature was somehow able to calm her. The pitch was empty by the time the girls left the locker room, and they made their way up to Gryffindor tower in the castle.

"I hope he's smart enough to stay away from me," Ginny said with a laugh as Demelza gave the password and they walked through the portrait hole into the buzzing common room.

"Oh, I don't know how he would be stupid enough to cross either of us again."

"Good. Because I'd probably break his skull," Ginny said.

"I wouldn't put it past--"

But Ginny cut her off, putting her hand in the air, and both girls faces shot to the fireplace.

"And then 'CRACK'!" Dean cried, and as Seamus mimed swinging a beater's bat through the air, Dean connected with the hand and they both fell to the floor in a fit of laughter.

"That was bloody brilliant!" Dean barked through rolls of laughter to Seamus, "I wanna shake McLaggen's hand!"

The rage that had momentarily subsided refueled within her like a inferno as she stalked over to Dean.

"You HATE McLaggen. You think that was funny? What is your problem?" Dean's eyes shot open wide and connected with Ginny's as she stood tall, towering over him on the floor. A flash of anger met his own eyes and he quickly jumped to his feet.

"You know exactly what my problem is!" Dean yelled back in retort, raising his voice to her for the first time in their relationship. She took a step back in surprise, "Harry's my problem! He deserved to be hit, you know with...with...bossing us around and trying to tell us what to do---"

"He's the captain, Dean. That's his job!"

"You would say that wouldn't you?" he said, the icy tone she had so come to hate reentering his voice.

She stopped dead, "...What?"

Dean threw his hands up in the air, and with a tone of complete defeat, he said, "Come on, just admit it."

She felt like she was missing the punch line of a joke, "...admit what?"

Dean laughed maniacally, confusing her further, "I'm not blind, you know. I see exactly what's going on, I've been seeing it for months and I'm not going to ignore it anymore."

Ginny stuttered, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Dean was silent and he stared at her hard, before finally saying, "I would give anything to have you look at me the way you look at him." And without a second of warning, he stalked off to the dormitory stairs and swept out of view.

"Wha--?"

She looked around to see the common room silent, all eyes on her. She looked to Seamus for help, he merely shrugged hesitantly and took a few steps back. Brain in overdrive and feeling as though she herself had just been hit by a bludger, Ginny slowly turned in a daze and exited the portrait hole without a word.

Dean could not have just accused her of what she thought he accused her of.

But from deep within her, a rogue and often ignored voice broke out, "How could you think he didn't know?" She cursed to herself. She tried to drown it out.

But drowning out that exiled voice echoing deep within her was next to impossible. Not once she allowed it to speak. She turned the corner into another corridor.

Dean knew. Dean knew something that Ginny didn't. Dean knew the reason why Ginny was not in love with him.

And at that moment she found herself at the door of the hospital wing.

She hadn't even realized her feet were leading her there. But the second the door came into view, she couldn't say that she was surprised. The voice deep in her brain was getting louder as she opened the door. At the end of the long thin room were the only two occupied beds. She cursed the cavernous echo that surely must have given her away as she reached the beds. However, no one recognized her approach. She stopped short when their sleeping forms came into view.

Deeply asleep, Harry laid in the bed in front of her. He was ghostly pale, and his head was heavily wrapped in white gauze. Her heart jerked. She took him in fully and collapsed into the chair next to his bed. Little wisps of his uncontrollable hair peeked out from the gauze and splayed over his forehead, shooting diagonally across his lightning scar. She had never realized how long his eyelashes were. There were indents on his nose from where his glasses always sat, and his lips were chapped from all of the winter flying, just like hers. She licked her lips.

There was no denying it. Dean was right. She completely and utterly wanted Harry.

This wasn't the adolescent crush she used to have on the Boy who Lived. She had fully succeeded in killing that.

This was so much worse.

This was, without a doubt, a pure and undeniable attraction to Harry. To his quirky smile and his adorable stutter when he was flummoxed. To the way he would wink at her when they shared an inside joke or how it felt to hug him. To something as simple as his scent. It's not like she hadn't always known it was there. But as long as it had been kept silent, she was able to pretend it didn't exist.

She couldn't pull her eyes from his face. She couldn't pull her mind from sudden deluge of memories of him from the previous summer. Scenes flashed through her mind of flying through the night sky with him at the burrow while everyone slept...of swapping stories about their childhoods on the porch swing...of waking up in the July dawn, finding herself in his arms...how had she ever been able to bury these feelings for so long? And how could she deal with them knowing that once again they would go unrequited. Because though her feelings for Harry had changed and morphed, she couldn't shake the long seeded knowledge that he would never feel the same way for her.

Biting her lip, she cursed Dean and his big mouth as she took her eyes off of his still form and scanned the room for distraction, coming to rest on his glasses on the bedside table. They seemed to have snapped in half during the fall. Picking up the two pieces, she brought her wand to the bridge, "Reparo," she said quietly. She held the newly mended glasses in her hands and twirled them through her fingers. They were so much a part of him. She examined them fully, and then slipped them on her own face.

"Ginny? What are you doing?" The voice made her gasp and she almost dropped his glasses on the floor. Looking up she saw Ron, sitting in his bed and giving her an odd look.

"Ermm..." she said, feeling her cheeks flush traitorously, "I...umm...Harry has horrific eyesight."

"Oh I know. I tried them on in second year. I couldn't even see my hand."

"Yeah, well," she said, replacing the glasses to the table, "I...how are you?"

And with that she started a seemingly normal conversation with Ron, all the while her eyes shifting back to Harry's sleeping form. What was she going to do?

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

O.W.L.S. were fastly approaching as the air grew warmer outside, and Ginny found herself studying more than she ever had in her life. Hermione was proud. Distraction happened to be found within her school books, and she could not have been more relieved for it. The more she crammed into her brain, the less room she had in her brain to think about anything pertaining to boys.

Dean and Ginny did not speak about the row they had had after the Hufflepuff match, and the pink elephant in the room followed them wherever they went. And though they continued to eat together, walks down the halls together, study at the same table and sit in the same group of people, silence was their new best friend. She had truly hoped that something was going to change, but every word they said to each other was becoming increasingly critical and hurtful. It was as though they were two bombs ticking, waiting for the other's timer to go off and blow them both up.

She felt like she was trapped. Things were just not working on so many levels, so much was left unsaid. She dreamed about the days when she enjoyed having a boyfriend, but now thinking of Dean just felt like a weight on her chest. And it didn't help that her mind kept fruitlessly drifting to someone else.

"Are you ready to go back to the common room?" Dean asked from across the table as he started packing his bag with his books, "I'm going to go."

"Umm..." she murmured to stall, honestly, she didn't want to go back with him at all, "I..yeah, lets go."

Ginny packed her bag and started to throw it over her shoulder before Dean caught it and tried to take it from her.

"I can carry it myself, Dean, thanks," she said as she took it back.

"Geez, it just looks so heavy for you. You must have every book you own in there. Let me carry it."

She hoisted it up onto her shoulder and fought the grimace in her face from the weight, "Yes I do have every book in here, but I can handle it. Let's go."

The couple exited the library in silence and made their way to the tower, "What do you want to do tonight?" Dean asked, holding open a tapestry for her, which she reluctantly went through.

"I don't know," she grimaced, "I'm probably going to keep studying."

"That's all you ever do anymore," he whined.

She sighed, "I have my O.W.L.S. at the end of term. I have to."

"Lord knows I didn't study that much," he said.

"Well, I'm trying to get more than six O.W.L.S." she barked back, regretting it immediately.

He looked at her, stunned, "Excuse me?"

She bit her lip, "I'm...oh Merlin, I didn't mean that. I'm sorry." Guilt seeped up into her chest.

"Whatever," he said as they reached the portrait hole, "Incantantem."

And the door swung open. Ginny made to take a step forward when suddenly she felt a hard nudge on her shoulder. Whipping around, she glared at Dean, "Don't push me, please, Dean."

"What is your bloody problem!" He suddenly barked, making her jump, "I didn't even touch you!" It seemed as though Dean's bomb had finally gone off.

"You just pushed me!" she yelled back, flaring up instantly as if she had been waiting for this, "I'm sick of you always feeling the need to lead me around like I'm some kind of pet! I'm sick of you trying to carry my bag! I'm sick of all of that! I know how to walk! I don't like it, so just quit!"

She made to walk away, but Dean threw his bag on the ground in the entrance with force and grabbed her arm, "That's what a bloke is supposed to do for a girl Ginny! It's called chivalry!"

"Yeah? Well there's a fine line between being chivalrous and being chauvinistic. I'm every bit as capable of anything that you are!" She shouted, throwing her own bag down, "You think I'm some weak little girl who needs a bloke to take care of her, you always have! Well, you're blind. You've had more than enough opportunity to realize that I'm every bit as capable as you. Remember when I bat bogeyed Zacharius Smith right before your eyes? When I took care of McLaggen? Remember how you just stood there, stunned? Well, I wasn't stunned! I take action! And if I can do that, if I can catch a quaffle faster than you can, I sure as hell can walk through a DOORWAY without your help!"

She stunned herself and looked into his own stunned face. He was rigid, "So that's how you feel?"

"Yeah," she responded, "That's how I feel."

"You are the coldest witch I have ever met," he said with disgust, "and to think I told you I loved you."

"I--" Ginny stuttered, shocked that he finally brought up that night for the first time.

"Just get it over with Ginny, I know you want to," He said with a glare.

And much to her deep regret, she knew he was right. Slowly she nodded. There was nothing else she could do, she couldn't pretend anymore. She forced out the words that were stuck in her throat, "Okay. It's over."

"I hope you're happy." And with that he stalked off, leaving her to stand alone in the crowded common room once more.

Leaving her bag where it was, she ran out from the common room and back out into the corridors. She couldn't help how she felt about him, she had tried so hard to make it work. But still, 'the coldest witch I have ever met' echoed deeply through her. But she had done everything she could. She had tried to love him, she had tried to enjoy being put on a pedestal, but it just wasn't her. He just wasn't her.

And though she felt guilty, she realized with a shock that she felt like she could breathe again. The boulder that had been sitting on her chest was relieved. She felt lighter than she had in weeks.

"I need to fly,"she said to herself, and suddenly she found herself expertly navigating her way out of the castle. She hurried down to the locker room on the pitch and grabbed her broom from her locker. Sitting on the locker room bench, she weighed it in her hands as she let the reality of the moment set in. She had let Dean go. She had let go a person who loved her. Dean was gone. And in all honesty, she didn't regret it.

The wind in her hair added to the feeling of freedom that flooded her body as she climbed into the sky as the sun set gold on the horizon. It suddenly dawned on her that it had been years since she had been on her own. She had gone straight from Michael to Dean without a single moment of break in between. This had to be a nice change? Right? The sun set fast and quickly she found herself underneath a stunningly clear black sky of stars. The moon was crescent. Stopping her broom in a hover position, she leaned back and laid flat against it, taking in the night.

This was going to be a nice change. It was going to be good to be alone.

There was no saying how long she was out on the pitch under the starlight, but no light emitted from the windows of the castle when she decided to go back in for the night. Ginny had been out this late in the past, and she did happen to be the little sister of the best late night sneakers in the history of Hogwarts, but that didn't stop her from feeling nervous when she creaked open the doors to the entrance hall.

The deep black of the castle was nerve racking as she tried to make her way through the hallways, her eyesight adjusting too slowly. Her patience quickly gave out. "Lumos," she muttered, and quickly light filled a corridor she recognized as being about halfway to Gryffindor tower. Like clockwork, at that moment she heard the scampering paws and the lamplit eyes of Mrs. Norris rounded the corner.

"MEOW!" she cried through the echoing hallways.

"Did you find one?" the voice of Filch cooed out, "Oh, let's get it!"

Ginny cursed to herself and spun around in search of a doorway to a classroom or a broom closet. There was nothing. Trapped like a deer in the headlights of the cats eyes, she panicked and started to run back the way she came.

Suddenly she came in contact with something hard in the dark. That something grabbed her, a hand was heavy over her mouth, and she was pulled tightly against the wall against a strong body under a cloak before she could scream. Struggling and panicky, she elbowed the person holding her as she began to sweat in fear.

The person quickly removed his arm from around her waist and grabbed her wand, "Nox." Said a male voice and her wand went out, but she continued to struggle with the body that she was tightly pulling her against itself under the cloak. Filch entered her view and ran right past without seeing anything at all...almost as if they were invisible...she instantly stopped struggling.

"Lesson one on late night corridor etiquette: Never light your wand," the voice behind her whispered into her ear, his breath tickling from its closeness as he removed his hand from her mouth, "Amateur."

Her heart leapt into her throat. Every part of her could suddenly feel hot shocks from where his body was pressed up behind her. Being single wasn't going to be as easy as she thought.

"Thanks Harry," she breathed as she leaned back into him, Filch still searching the hallway.

This was torture.

But if this is what hell felt like, she would let herself burn.

This is, without question, the hardest chapter I have had to write for this story. So much going on! You were heard loud and clear, reviewers, I have given you your break up. Now the real fun can begin! I hate to admit it, but the more you talk, the faster I write. Thanks all!