A/N This story is dedicated to my close friend Sarida (jackrussel666) who's a really great friend, a great shoulder to lean on, a great laugh, and who's just always there for me. Plus, her fics are really incredible, so do yourself a favour and read them because they're hilarious, exciting and really really really sweet! Thanks for everything, Sarida!

Harry threw down his quill with a sigh and leaned back in his armchair. He was sitting in the deserted Gryffindor common room, finishing the last of his Transfiguration homework and listening to the cheers and groans that rose from the Quidditch pitch as the rest of the school watched the first game of the season. For a moment, he glanced out of the window at the stadium below, massaging his aching hand and debating on whether he should go down to watch the rest of the match or not. A cool breeze ruffled his fringe, soothing the face that had been screwed up with concentration over the past four days since he'd started his sixth year. This had undoubtedly been the toughest, most demanding school week he'd ever been through. All the teachers, even Hagrid, had the sixth years spending their every free moment in the library or in the common room, working. Even Ron, who had never overworked himself because of exam pressure spent all his time with Harry and Hermione, trying to battle their way through the mountains of homework they had been assigned.

But now it was Saturday, and Harry was too drained even to go down to the Quidditch stadium to watch the first game of the year. He could only be privately grateful to Dumbledore for changing the routine and making it a Hufflepuff-Slytherin match as opposed to the Gryffindor-Slytherin game which usually opened the Quidditch season.

Harry heaved himself out of his scarlet armchair and stretched the back muscles that had seized up during his four-day torment. He decided that, on reflection, the fresh air would do him some good and even if he only made it to the stadium to see the Snitch being caught, it would be worth it. However as began making his way towards the portrait hole, a flash of reddish-orange caught his eye. Glancing around, he was surprised to see a hunched figure with long fiery red hair sitting on the couch in front of the empty fireplace, apparently lost in thought. He knew it was best to leave people alone in most cases, but something in the back of his mind, something he couldn't really determine made him walk over.

"Ginny?" he said gently.

The youngest Weasley jumped and looked at him. Her usually warm brown eyes seemed slightly dimmed, as though the torch of happiness that usually sat behind them had flickered out. Harry could tell just by looking at her that she'd been staring quietly at that grate for a while now…and something…something extremely odd hung in those eyes, like tears that were being forced into their ducts, though the dam that stemmed them was weakening.

"Hello Harry!" Ginny replied, fixing a slightly weaker version of her old smile in place. "Didn't you go down to watch game?"

Harry, still puzzling over the mixture of emotions in her eyes, shook himself and shrugged. "Nah, it's only Slytherin versus Hufflepuff, it doesn't affect Gryffindor's chances. Ravenclaw are playing the winners next, so it's not too important…besides, it'll be like all the other Slytherin matches – loads of fouling and cheating…"

"Yep," Ginny nodded a little too quietly and timidly.

"What about you? I thought you used to like Quidditch?" Harry asked.

"Oh, I still like Quidditch," Ginny smiled, though not with the full sincerity. "I'm just, well, like you said, I thought I'd give it a miss this time."

Harry nodded. Ginny held his gaze for a moment, still smiling in a diluted sort of way.

"Are you all right?" Harry inquired, before he could stop himself. "You seem a bit…out of it."

"No, no, I'm fine, really," Ginny smiled quickly. "I'm really…I'm…never better…"

"Are you sure? Because you're awfully…"

"No, honestly I'm okay," she said in what she obviously thought was a cheerful reassuring tone.

Ginny gazed into Harry's eyes and felt a small pang. She didn't love him anymore, she'd given up on the little childhood crush she'd had on him ages ago. But something about his dazzling bright green eyes…the honesty and sincerity of those pools of almost painfully bright green, made her feel it was impossible to be dishonest with him. She couldn't lie, not to Harry. He was too honest a person to lie to.

"Well, actually…I'm not entirely fine," she admitted, lowering her eyes back to grate. "I'm, um, well, I'm kind of well…I'm sort of not okay."

"I know, I could sort of guess that from the way you were staring at that fireplace," Harry said with a small smile.

Ginny looked up. "Am I that obvious?"

Harry shrugged good-naturedly, then said, "Well, is it something you'd like to share, or is it private?"

Ginny bit her lip thoughtfully.

"Whatever's good for you, Ginny," Harry said quickly. "If you want to keep it to yourself I respect that, you know I do. But if you do want talk…I'm here, okay?"

He was so sincere, calm and reassuring Ginny just felt she couldn't possibly keep anything from him, even if it had absolutely nothing to do him.

"Well," Ginny sighed after a short pause, "Dean just broke up with me."

"Dean?" Harry repeated. "Dean who?"

"Dean Thomas," Ginny mumbled, avoiding Harry's eyes.

"Oh!" said Harry. "I'm sorry, Ginny. I didn't know you were dating."

"We weren't really," she said quickly. "it was very sort of…unofficial. I don't know how much he really liked me anyway."

Harry lowered himself onto the sofa next to her, watching her gaze at the fireplace again with apprehension. "Can I ask what happened?"

Ginny looked up and for a moment, just gazed into his eyes in silence, then said, "Why does anyone dump anyone? For a fancier model. Why keep something second-best when you can do better? He just said, 'sorry, Ginny, I don't think it'll work between us' and ran off after that…well, Parvati."

This made perfect sense to Harry. Dean had always had a crush on Parvati, a very obvious crush ever since the first few weeks of their first year. He practically spelled it out for anyone who hadn't noticed by grumbling about how Harry and Ron had got the two best-looking dates for the Yule Ball. And Dean, though a great classmate and a great roommate, always keen to draw some banners or signs to show support for his fellow Gryffindors, always stuck to what he wanted. He wouldn't hear a word against his West Ham football team, he always stuck to his guns, and it seemed just the sort of thing he'd do, drop everything for a chance to go out with Parvati, regardless of other people's feelings. He would never hurt anyone on purpose, but he might let other people's problem slip his mind….

"I'm sorry, Ginny," Harry said quietly.

"It's okay, really," Ginny said with false cheerfulness, then allowed some bitterness to seep into her tone. "I don't know why I'm so bothered about it, people have been doing it to me all my life…never taking me seriously because I'm the baby of the family or using me for their own advantage. Look at Riddle! He was my only friend in the world during my first year, the only one I really felt I could trust and he would have killed me, if it hadn't been for…"

Her eyes locked onto Harry's for a moment, before quickly looking away. The fake brightness was wearing out now and the bitterness and sorrow grew with every word, until she blinked twice and two small tears silently leaked down her cheeks.

"Just because I'm the youngest, it doesn't mean I don't have feelings!" she said through a knot in her throat. "I can't help being the baby! And even if I could, why does everyone always walk all over me? Don't I deserve a little…?" The knot in her throat prevented her from continuing.

Something revolutionary was going on inside Harry's mind. As he looked at her objectively, he was surprised to see a teenager sitting next to him, a fully-fledged fifteen year old suffering from all the burdens of teenage life. Dean actually asked her out…well, of course he did. Dean wasn't blinded by the image of his best friend's little sister. Once a little sister, always a little sister, and Harry had always seen Ginny as the little nine-year-old holding her mother's hand at King's Cross, begging to catch a glimpse at the hero she'd been brought up hearing about. Harry had always seen her that way, even when she fourteen…but now the blindfold had come off, and Harry was seeing Ginny for what she was for the first time ever: a sensitive, sensible fifth-year. And if he was honest with himself, she was quite pretty, too. Her hair was a lot sleeker and longer than it used to be, flowing magnificently down her shoulders and bumping gently over her chest. In fact, she was nothing short of beautif-

Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Harry shook himself mentally. What was he thinking? She's hurt, she's vulnerable – how dare you think such things about her now? You'd have to be heartless Slytherin to take advantage of her now….but Harry's heart was performing some strange gymnastics inside him, his stomach squirmed like a handful of live Gillyweed – sensations he hadn't felt for three years – since his very first Quidditch match against Ravenclaw when he'd first laid eyes on their Seeker, the Seeker he'd grown to dislike so much…nothing like the pure-hearted girl who was sitting in front of him…

"If it's any consolation, Ginny," Harry began quietly, "I don't think you're a baby…I think you're great."

Ginny raised her nut-coloured eyes to Harry's and smiled. It was a small but genuine smile. There was no element of hiding in any of it.

"Thanks, Harry."

Harry, now completely lost in the magnificent eyes that held the gateway to Ginny's world – the emotion and the inner beauty -, heard himself mutter. "Anytime."

They held each other's gaze for a few moments, and suddenly Harry felt like someone had just switched on a tape recorder inside his head. He could almost hear a song, a song he hadn't heard for at least eight years, one he'd only heard at the cinema at Dudley's sixth birthday, but the lyrics and the music were fresh in his mind as though he'd been listening to it every day since…

"There you see her,

Sitting there across the way.

She don't got a lot to say, but there's something about her,

And you don't know why, but you're dying to try

You wanna – kiss the girl…."

The first verse kept repeating itself, and Harry, though privately screaming for himself to gain control and not to stoop to Dean's level, found himself almost hypnotized by the mixture of the music and Ginny's eyes. So slowly, his progress was hardly noticeable, Harry moved his face towards Ginny's, his lips static, though ready to pounce. Was it his imagination, or was Ginny moving towards him too?

BANG!

The portrait hole flew open and the rest of Gryffindor House walked in, chattering excitedly about the match. Harry and Ginny jolted away from each other almost automatically and Ron came over, apparently dying to share the match's excitement with Harry, Hermione close behind him.

"You missed a great game, Harry!" he said chattily. "You should have seen it, Malfoy was closing in on the Snitch, then the new Hufflepuff Seeker, you know the one who replaced Cedric, followed him from above and dived down, just this Bludger came zooming up…"

"You can tell Harry about that later," said Hermione firmly. "First of all, I think you should get started on that Transfiguration homework Professor McGonagall set us…"

Harry was too dazed to remember he'd already finished all his homework for the weekend and stood up and began following Ron and Hermione to the other side of the room, with a small wave to Ginny, who stared after him for a moment.

As Harry settled himself down between his two best friends, he glanced over at Ginny and saw she was staring at the fireplace again…looking more lost than ever.

What kind of creep are you? Harry asked himself furiously.

A/N Right. Chapter two on it's way. Well, as soon as I can I'll write it and upload it. As always, it depends on feedback, so as you see there's a cute little blue clicker-thing at the bottom of the screen, right? Well, pleeeeeeease click on it and, well, you know what to do.

Btw, the whole Little Mermaid song this, well, you may have noticed I absolutely worship Disney! If you'll read S.P.E.Whoops, you'll see what I mean. I've never written a songfic before and I didn't even intend it to be one, but, well, that's just way it turned out. PLEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE review.

Chapter Two….coming soon.