A/N: I intended to include one or two more major scenes in this chapter, but it got long before I got there and I wanted to get it posted. But the next chapter is going to move the plot along quite a bit. This chapter has some M rated content - if you want to avoid that sort of thing, there is a Ginny part, then some non-steamy discussion, then a Harry part. Don't miss the discussion in the middle. Thanks, and please review!

Harry knew he had to stay absolutely away from Dumbledore until he figured things out. He was certain that one look at Harry's face, and the Headmaster would know, would see the location of the two Horcruxes etched there as plainly as if it was written in ink. Thankful the man had not called another meeting, Harry took to skipping meals in the Great Hall, eating in the kitchens at odd hours instead, using whatever excuses he could to explain his absences to his friends.

Of course, it didn't work for long.

On his fourth day of hiding out, Harry slipped down to the kitchens before curfew to find Ginny sitting on a stool, being plied with an enormous plate of sweets by the House elves. Harry sighed, unsurprised and rather relieved to have been caught.

"The map?" he asked resignedly. He reached around her and grabbed a piece of cake; if he was eating, he wouldn't have to answer Ginny's questions quite yet.

"Of course," she said. "I've been watching you ever since you went all weird when we destroyed the locket. I figured that four days was enough moping, even for you." Ginny's tone was joking, but her eyes were serious and filled with concern. "What happened?"

Harry sighed. "I want to tell you. I think I have to tell you; I can't keep it to myself anymore." Ginny was right; he had moped enough. But he knew what Ginny did not, that his news was going to break her heart.

He helped her down off the stool and pulled her into the circle of his arms. "Let's go to the Room of Requirement," he said against her hair. "I'll tell you what . . . I need to tell you. In a bit."

Ginny looked at him and seemed to understand his need immediately. She nodded and slipped under his Invisibility Cloak with him for the walk up to the 5th floor. While they always tried to keep quiet, under the Cloak, given that they were usually using it to sneak into places they shouldn't be, there were usually whispered conversations or giggles as they tripped over each other as they walked. This time, Harry was completely silent. He held Ginny so closely as they walk that she barely needed to move her feet at all; Harry nearly carried her along with him. And when they were in the Room, he threw off the Cloak and continued to hold her for a long minute, swaying silently in the dusky light.

Eventually, Harry took Ginny's hand and led her to one of the comfortable sofas the Room had taken to giving them whenever the group had met. He sat Ginny down in front of him and stood facing her for a long quiet moment, holding both of her hands. When he was satisfied with what he saw in her face, Harry dropped to his knees in front of Ginny (on a pillow that flew over from across the room), so that their eyes were at the same height.

"I want to touch you," he said simply. "If you want me to." He added hurriedly, "and before you say yes, I don't want you to agree just because you are worried about me and think it's what I want. I mean, it is what I want, but I want it for you . . . for us. If . . . you want to."

Ginny loved Harry's nervous babbling; it was sweet and open and honest and Ginny never had to worry about what Harry might be hiding behind his words when he talked to her like that.

"I want you to touch me," she said. She blushed. "I've been thinking about it almost since we first kissed . . .what it would be like to have you . . . touching. Down there."

"Really?" Harry's eyes were wide. "I thought only blokes thought about it."

"Girls can be surprising sometimes, Harry," Ginny gently teased. She took a deep breath. "How do you want to do this?"

"Slowly, I think," said Harry. Inwardly, he thought that the chances of his being able to any of this slowly were quickly eroding. He fully intended to focus entirely on Ginny, he wanted to focus entirely on Ginny . . . but the part of him that was all 16 year old boy was insistently making its presence known. His thought had been to have Ginny on the sofa while he knelt in front of her on the ground; that way, he would have easy access to all her . . . parts, without the total physical contact that tended to push him over the edge too quickly. He leaned forward and pulled Ginny in.

"But I want to kiss you, first," he mumbled.

They kissed for a long time; longer than Harry might have thought he could have managed, knowing where the kissing was going to lead to. But kissing Ginny was both familiar and comforting, and arousing too. She made little sounds of satisfaction whenever Harry's lips or tongue connected with a particularly sensitive patch of skin – behind her right ear, for example – and those sounds never failed to drive Harry crazy. He kept kissing her and she kept making those sounds, and for long minutes, his thoughts of doing more fell out of his head. But eventually the reminder to Touch Ginny! jumped back into his brain and he moved his lips away from her neck with a sigh of contentment.

Ginny had fallen against the back of the sofa's cushions and Harry had scooted forward so that his were feet still on the floor but the rest of him was pretty much lying on top of her and his plan to avoid too much contact was pretty much toast. With supreme effort, he pulled back, trying to ignore the disappointed thump from between his legs now that there was nothing to thrust against.

"Okay, umm, I'm going to try . . . now," he said. Ginny's eyes were closed and she had a relaxed smile on her face.

"Ummmhmmm," she mumbled.

Her supreme relaxation made it easier. Harry decided to start with the familiar territory of Ginny's chest. He opened her shirt and without asking, eyes still closed, she slid her hand around her back and undid her bra. Harry pulled it away and lowered his mouth to Ginny's chest to continue his trailing kisses there. He closed his mouth around one soft nipple and was rewarded with another of Ginny's moans of satisfaction. His other hand moved aimlessly around the other side, tickling, stroking, and feeling as her skin puckered and hardened beneath his fingers.

"This . . . this is lovely, Harry," Ginny said in a languid voice. "I think I'll always let you touch me first."

Her words caused Harry to have to stop touching her for a moment; he finally gave into the insistent pressure between his own legs and adjusted himself so that his erection could brush against the side of Ginny's thigh every time Harry bent forward. It was okay, he was still in control.

But maybe not in control for long, he thought to himself. Taking a deep breath, Harry sat up a bit so that he could move his hand down, away from Ginny's breasts. He caressed the soft skin of her side, ran his fingers across her stomach, and then moved lower, carefully cupping his hand between her legs. He was still on top of her track pants, but it was the most intimately he had touched her so far.

Ginny responded by thrusting her hips up, so suddenly that Harry's hand flew off and smacked the side of her leg.

"Oops, sorry," he said. "That was a surprise."

"To me too," Ginny said breathlessly. "It felt really good."

"I think I can make it feel even better," said Harry. Encouraged by her reaction to being touched through several layers of clothing, Harry bravely reached up and grabbed the waistband of Ginny's pants. She didn't try to stop him, so in one fluid movement, Harry pulled them all the way down to her ankles, revealing a smallish triangle of cotton just barely covering Ginny's important bits.

Her knickers had blue flowers on them, Harry noted dumbly.

He looked up at Ginny. She had opened her eyes and was now watching him intently. It made him both nervous and confident – nervous that she was apparently going to be observing his technique, but confident to see there was not even a trace of fear or uncertainty on her face.

Taking a deep breath, Harry reached towards the band of her knickers, intending to pull them down. At the last second, his hand moved and he slipped his fingers underneath instead, feeling soft hair and, a little lower, warm wetness.

The wet almost made him lose it right there.

He swallowed. "You are already . . . I mean, is that . . . you're wet!" he finally exclaimed. He wanted to explore this further.

"That's because I'm aroused," said Ginny, a little shyly. To emphasize that fact she pushed upwards against his hand.

"That's brilliant," Harry breathed. Tentatively at first but then with more determination, he explored Ginny's private area with his fingers, dipping one, and then a second inside and reveling in the warmth and in the sounds she made when he moved them in and out. Remembering a page out of the sex book that always seemed to make the rounds of Hogwarts boys when they reached their Fifth year, Harry wiggled his thumb around right above Ginny's opening. At first he wasn't sure he could find it, but suddenly, his thumb connected with a hard little nub and Ginny hissed "yesssss!" and bucked her hips again.

Encouraged, Harry moved his other thumb to that spot so that he could pump his fingers out in rhythm. He was vaguely aware of his own arousal and that he was pushing his erection into the side of Ginny's leg, but the majority of his attention was on her, coming rather undone beneath his hands.

"Oh Merlin, Harry. That's . . . don't stop. . . yes, right there, ohhhh," Ginny was moaning and moving erratically and Harry's hand was a little sore but this was so brilliant he didn't want to ever stop and then, just a few seconds later, Ginny was there. She clenched her legs around Harry's hand and arched her back against the sofa, freezing there for a few moments before relaxing everything at once.

Harry's fingers were still inside her; he gingerly pulled them out and away from her knickers, now slick. Ginny's eyes were closed she was lying back on the sofa, breathing heavily. His hand was sticky; Harry only had to glance around once and suddenly there was a basin of soapy water and a towel by his side.

Fooling around in the Room of Requirement really is quite brilliant.

"It was all brilliant, Harry." He could hear the smile in her voice.

"I didn't realize I said that out loud," said Harry. "So . . .it was okay?"

Ginny opened her eyes. "I think you passed merely 'okay' about the time we lay down on the couch." She smirked. "It was much better than anything I've ever done on my own. You paid attention to Witches' Wonders: What Works and What Won't, didn't you? Because I didn't know if you knew about . . . or how to find . . . well, you know."

Harry carefully filed away Ginny's comment about what she may have done on her own and grinned. "Very informative book, that was," he said cheekily.

Ginny stretched like a cat. "I'm looking forward to seeing what else you learned from it." She sat up and tugged on the front of Harry's shirt. "Your turn, I think."

And just like that, Harry felt his happiness drain away. It obviously showed on his face because Ginny sat up straighter and looked at him.

"What is it, Harry? Don't tell me you regret what you just did because I thought it was brilliant. Completely and totally brilliant, and if you feel the slightest bit guilty I'm going to have to hex you."

Harry sighed. Suddenly, giving Ginny her first orgasm right before he planned to tell her that he was, quite possibly, only weeks from dying - or days? Please let it be more than days – didn't seem to have been such a good plan.

"It's nothing like that," he reassured her. "Although, I'm pretty sure that after you hear what I have to say, you'll wish that it was."

"What happened in Dumbledore's office." It was not a question.

Harry nodded heavily. "Yes." He didn't want to prolong the discussion so he jumped right in. "When I opened the locket Horcrux, I went into his mind. Or he went into mine. Or something. I don't know. It felt like the last times I had flashbacks to the Department of Mysteries, but this time, I saw other things too. Things I shouldn't have known."

Ginny slid down off the sofa and sat next to him. After a second, she grabbed his hand. Harry saw that she was looking across the room at the fireplace. Looking, but not really seeing, he suspected. "And . . . ?" she asked.

"And I saw where the last two Horcruxes are. The last two that aren't Nagini and, well, me."

Ginny turned to him, eyes wide. "What? Where?"

"One is here, in this room – no, not right now," Harry pulled Ginny back down when it looked like she was about to jump up off the floor. "It's in the Room of Requirement, but not like this; it's full of discarded junk and broken furniture and things from Hogwarts over the years. I'd never seen the Room like that before, but I knew what it was. There was a big wooden cabinet that looked really familiar for some reason, and next to it was a broken desk with a bust of some old wizard and someone had balanced a tiara on its head. The tiara, that's the Horcrux. I'm sure of it. So all we have to do to get it is . . . leave the Room and ask it to transform to that one. And we'll have another Horcrux."

Ginny opened her mouth as if to speak, but now that he had started, Harry couldn't stop talking.

"The other Horcrux is more difficult. You know, it may take a little while to figure out how to get it, so I guess that is kind of a good thing. I mean, for me. We won't be able to destroy it right away. But I'm sure Dumbledore will figure out a way, he's so brilliant, and I'm sure he has contacts, and everything . . . It's at Gringotts. In a vault at Gringotts. Bellatrix Lestrange's vault. And I expect it's guarded really well, but you know, Dumbledore will be able to figure something out and then we'll have that one too – It's a gold cup thing, by the way. So that's that." Harry tried his hardest to speak as matter-of-factly as he could, but he couldn't keep his voice from wavering at the end of his speech. He didn't even want to look at Ginny, didn't want to see how his words had changed everything for her from what she had been only minutes ago, but he had no choice.

Ginny was staring at him in horror. It was almost as bad, maybe even as bad, as the night she knew he had to die. Then, finding the Horcruxes and his eventual death had been something well into the future – something that was going to take a lot of time and work and false alarms to complete. Now, in the space of less than a week, the locket was gone and Harry knew the locations of two more.

It was almost like being on the Hogwarts Express, Harry thought – for the longest time, it chugged slowly through Kings Cross and then London, and then, without warning, picked up speed and rushed, faster and faster to its destination. The train of his life had definitely sped up now, and Harry didn't see any way of ever getting off, until the very end.

"Maybe it's a mistake." Ginny voice was low and fierce in his ear. "How do you know that what you saw is real? Voldemort planted false visions in your head last year, why wouldn't he do it again? Or maybe this isn't even Voldemort at all – maybe it's something your mind constructed because you have been thinking about Horcruxes so much lately. It's probably not real. It can't be real!" Her voice rose at the end into something close to hysteria and Harry pulled her closer to him.

"I'm pretty sure it's real," said Harry heavily. "And I don't think Voldemort showed me on purpose – why would he want me to know where the other Horcruxes are? I think our connection is . . . changing somehow, because of the Horcrux in me becoming so active. It's like, maybe it wants to get back to its master or something."

"Do you think Voldemort knows you are a Horcrux?" Ginny's face was still pale and tear-streaked, but Harry could tell she was trying to control her emotional outburst.

"I don't know," said Harry slowly. It was something he had been thinking about the past week. "Dumbledore doesn't think Voldemort can tell when one of the Horcruxes he has made is destroyed – those soul pieces have been separated from him for too long. But I'm different. When he was in my head at the Department of Mysteries, who knows what he saw?"

Harry could tell Ginny was reluctant to say anything more, so he did it for her. "We have to tell Dumbledore and the others. These Horcruxes have to be destroyed."

"And the snake," said Ginny. "I know. We all know. It just seems . . . a lot more real now than it did when we didn't know what the other ones were." She gave Harry a hopeful look. "But, can we maybe wait a little while, to tell the others? Not long, but, I just want . . ." she trailed off.

Harry knew how Ginny felt. He was still warring with himself about how soon he needed to tell Dumbledore and the others about the Horcruxes. He had finally given up feeling guilty about his desire to wait; anyone who was not a nutter would want to put off the march towards death as long as possible. But Harry had also come to terms with the fact that he was not going to put off that march indefinitely; for better or for worse, he was just too noble to run and hide and save his own skin as the expense of pretty much everyone else in the Wizarding world.

"We can wait. A couple of days at least," he said, kissing Ginny lightly. "But I'll warn you, it's hard to keep it a secret. Look how quickly you knew I was hiding something."

"Maybe I can nudge my brother towards finally snogging Hermione; that should distract them. And you know that Neville would never push you about anything you weren't ready to share on your own."

"But I bet Luna would figure it out immediately," said Harry with a grin. "She would take one look in my eyes and either know I knew where the Horcruxes were or else decide that my head was full of Stinksap and I needed to be rolled in a field of gillyweed for something."

Ginny giggled. It was a teary, weak sounding giggle, but Harry appreciated how hard she was trying. "And I suppose seeing Professor Dumbledore is completely out of the question," she said.

"Absolutely," said Harry. "Until you cornered me in the kitchen, I had finally decided that I would try to find the tiara Horcrux in the next day or two." He heard Ginny's intake of breath and wrapped his arms more tightly around her. "But I think we can wait a little longer."

Ginny nodded. "I want to come with you when you find it," she said. "You could have a bad reaction when it gets close to you and you shouldn't be alone."

"It's a deal," said Harry. He sighed, trying to lighten the mood. "What a fucking nightmare. All I want to do is be able to snog my girlfriend for an hour or two and the universe keeps conspiring against me."

Ginny matched him. "Language, Potter!" she said, swatting his arm. She took a deep breath. "Maybe we can . . . I mean, I still need to . . ." she gestured in the direction of Harry's waist. "I know it's not exactly the time, but . . ."

"I think it's exactly the time," said Harry firmly. He looked sheepish. "Actually, I kind of hoped that telling you everything while we were here and alone might make you want to, as a way to feel better or something."

Ginny actually snorted. "What a fucked up way to try to get me out of my pants."

"Language, Weasely!" said Harry. "And technically, I think it's my turn to get out of my pants. If I remember correctly, you have already been out of your pants."

"And out of my mind," Ginny agreed. She stood up and tugged on his arm. "The sofa is much more comfortable."

Harry eagerly scrambled onto the sofa. He knew it wasn't a permanent solution to the pain, but welcomed any chance at distraction. And this time, he knew that Ginny needed it too.

He flopped down, stretching out long, and she sat next to him, biting her lip. "So, umm, what do you want me to do?"

"Whatever you want," said Harry promptly. "I mean, whatever you feel comfortable doing," he amended.

"Can I . . . look at it?" she asked tentatively. "You kept my knickers on, before."

"That's because I wasn't sure if you were okay with me looking," said Harry honestly. "If I'd thought to ask ahead of time to ask, I would have pulled them off. Probably." It suddenly occurred to him that he was essentially giving Ginny permission to see him completely naked. It was exciting, but also a little nerve-inducing to think about, being on display like that.

He wondered how soon he could see Ginny.

"Yeah, sure. You can look," he said, feeling his face flame. Ginny saw this. "If you don't want me to . . . " she said quickly, her own face reddening as well.

"No, no, it's fine. I mean, more than fine. I do," said Harry. He grabbed Ginny's hand and looked her in the eye. "I want you to," he said sincerely. "I think it's exciting." As if she needed further proof, he moved their joined hands down so she could feel his arousal.

Ginny pushed on Harry's chest until he was lying flat against the pillows again. He closed his eyes in anticipation of whatever it was she decided to do. After a second, he felt her lie down next to him. She was apparently on her side; one of her legs snaked around Harry's hip and her arm was across his chest.

She began with kissing. Harry really wanted to kiss her back, but Ginny stayed agonizingly (and probably deliberately) away from his mouth. She kissed his cheek, along his jaw, nibbled on his ear – which drove him crazy – and then moved to his neck. The hand across his chest had moved down to his stomach and she tugged aside the bottom of his shirt and slipped her hand underneath. She tickled Harry's stomach for a moment and then stopped.

"Take off your shirt, please," she commanded. Harry complied quickly, raising himself up just high enough to pull his shirt over his head and toss it on the floor. Harry heard a rustling; he opened his eyes enough to see that Ginny had pulled off her own shirt as well; her bra was nowhere to be seen. She caught him staring and shrugged. "I wanted to feel my skin against yours."

"Yes, please," Harry said thickly. They hadn't even gotten to anything below his waist and he already, the urge to thrust into something was intense. He closed his eyes again and suddenly, Ginny was on top of him and all her parts were pressing into his and there was nothing between her breasts and his skin and it was glorious.

This time, Ginny kissed him fully on the mouth, opening immediately and tangling her tongue with his. Harry grabbed Ginny's bum with both hands and pushed her down into him; he couldn't stifle his groan of pleasure.

Ginny pulled her lips away from his. "Careful Harry, you don't want to come before I get a chance to help."

"You're already helping quite enough, thank you very much," said Harry. He really, really wanted to see what else Ginny had planned, but at the same time, he did not want her to move off of him. Fortunately, he was not the one who had to decide.

Suddenly, Ginny's lips disappeared but the delicious pressure in Harry's groin increased tenfold; he felt a breeze on his chest and realized she had sat up and was now straddling him completely. His erection was directly pressing into her and it was best thing Harry had ever felt.

"Oh god, Ginny, that's . . . that's. . ."

"I know," she responded. She sounded rather out of breath.

Ginny grabbed Harry's hands and rocked back and forth and Harry could not help bucking his hips up to meet her thrusts. He didn't want to orgasm yet, he really didn't, but it was getting more and more difficult to think he was going to be able to control that particular reaction.

Fortunately for Harry's control, Ginny rolled off of him a few seconds later. She paused, both of her hands splayed on the bare skin of his stomach, and then began fiddling gently with the soft trail of dark hair that disappeared below the waistband.

He couldn't help bucking his hips as her fingers tickled the dip of his hips and she giggled softly.

"Giggling . . . doesn't help . . . a bloke's confidence," gasped Harry. Ginny's hand had dipped into his boxers and for the first time, he felt someone else's hand touch his penis.

"I haven't even seen it yet, Harry." Ginny sounded amused. "You are better off worrying about me giggling once your pants are down." As if to prove her point, she grabbed at his waist and pulled both pants and boxers down in one swift but careful motion.

Harry's erection sprang free and he heard Ginny suck in her breath. "That's a better reaction," he managed, just before she took him in both hands and began stroking gently. She played with his tip, cupped his sac, and then wrapped her hands gently around him and moved them slowly up and down. He resisted the urge to help, really it all felt brilliant, but was driving him crazy at the same time. He bucked his hips again, into her hands. "It's okay . . . to hold me . . . harder," he said.

"It won't hurt? Will you show me?" Ginny's voice was both unsure and aroused and Harry almost lost it right then.

He reached down and put his hand over both of Ginny's. He pushed them down hard against the base of his shaft and grunted with pleasure. He tugged a bit as he moved her hands up and she matched his rhythm until, all to soon, he felt pressure building.

"I'm going to come," he warned. "Soon."

In response, Ginny pushed down hard again and groaned low in her throat. Harry caught a look at her face; she was staring at their combined hands, a look on intense concentration in her eyes. A lock of hair had fallen over her cheek and she blew it impatiently out of the way.

Harry lost it completely, spurting over his stomach and their hands. He kept his hand over Ginny's as his erection faded before grabbing his wand to whisper the spell that would clean them up. Then he pulled Ginny onto his chest and wrapped his arms around her, rocking them both gently back and forth.

"Thank you," he said simply. "I love you."

"I love you too, Harry," Ginny said. She sounded sleepy.

Harry knew they had to sneak back soon, but like the decision about the Horcruxes, he decided that it would be okay to hide from reality just a little bit longer.