A/N: Thank you so much for the lovely reviews. I'm so sorry that this has taken so long to write, but I've been going through something really tough, and it's hard to write when you're worried about something else. So thanks for sticking with me, I'll try to get stuff out as fast as I can.

Disclaimer: All this belongs to the wonderful J.K. Rowling, whose 5th book is (finally) coming out!

Dedication: For Kylie

~**~

            I don't expect my love affairs to last for long

            Never fool myself,

            That my dreams will come true.

            Being used to trouble,

            I anticipate it,

            But all the same I hate it,

            Wouldn't you?

            So what happens now?

            (Another suitcase in another hall)

So what happens now?

            (Take your picture off another wall)

Where am I going to?

            (You'll get by, you always have before)

Where am I going to?

            ~"Another Suitcase in Another Hall." Evita

~**~

            Lily was shocked to find Hermione in tears on the bed. Well, not shocked exactly. More like fearful that Voldemort had stricken again. That something else had happened. She rushed over.

            "What?" she asked urgently. "Who's dead? Did Voldemort…"

            Hermione sat up and gave her a watery grin. "Well after all that hype, what I'm crying about seems rather stupid, now."

            Lily breathed a sigh of relief. "He didn't kill anybody then, did he? Good. Now, what's wrong?"

            "This sounds so stupid," said Hermione apologetically. "After all, Voldemort's taking over the world and Harry's locked in a closet with Draco Malfoy and everybody's out to kill Harry and…"

            "Nothing is stupid if you are crying about it, lovey," said Lily gently. "Tell me what's wrong."

            "Ron just broke up with me for no reason," said Hermione. "I told you it was stupid," she said, misinterpreting the look on Lily's face.

            "No, it's not," said Lily, "I'm just shocked, is all. Why?"

            "I don't know, he just babbled on a bit about how we always argued and…well…that was it, really."

            "James and I always argue, and look at us," remarked Lily.

            "Yes, look at you," said Hermione with a small grin that bordered on cheeky. "But I couldn't exactly hold you up as an example, now could I?"

            "I suppose not," Lily sighed. "That poor boy."

            "Why is Ron a 'poor boy?'" asked Hermione indignantly. "He broke up with me."

            "Mumph," said Lily enigmatically.

            "I do feel stupid," said Hermione. "It's just not a sensible thing to cry about. Not when Voldemort's taking over the world…"

            "You just need to think of it this way," said Lily. "Ron made you happy. There were happy times with him. But you can't marry everybody, Hermione. You just can't."

            "Yes," said Hermione. "I always thought I would find someone and he would sweep me off my feet. That I would know it was him right away. But I guess you can't find your soul mate when you're eleven years old."

            "You never know," said Lily. "Sometimes there's somebody right under your nose. Look at James and I. It might be the person you least expect."

~**~

            "Alright, Malfoy," said Harry. "Your move."

            "I'll move when I'm good and ready," said Malfoy in his most irritating manner.

            "You're terrible at chess," said Harry. "I'm actually winning."

            "It would be much easier if they would actually listen to me," said Malfoy, listlessly prodding a bishop forward with his index finger.

            Harry rolled his eyes.

            "It's muggle chess, Malfoy," he said. "You have to move them by yourself."

            "Who would keep a set of muggle chess in the bath?" asked Malfoy. "Your move."

            "Someone in Hogwarts, apparently," said Harry, moving his queen diagonally and scooping up the bishop that Malfoy had just moved.

            "Well, I couldn't sleep at all last night." Said Malfoy sulkily, moving an errant knight out of the way of Harry's queen.

            "Between a (heaven forbid) cotton blanket and a set of chessmen beneath you, I'm not surprised." Said Harry.  "Check."

            "Bugger," said Malfoy, completely deadpan. "You win."

            "I do not, you can still move your king."

            "Potter, I hate chess."

            "Well, so do I, but it's the only thing we have around here to do," said Harry.

            "We could sing all two hundred verses of 'Pass the Firewhiskey and Open the Loo,'" suggested Malfoy.

            "You have to be extremely drunk to pull that off," said Harry. "And I only know the first two verses."

            "So do I, come to think of it," said Malfoy. "I think you're supposed to make it up as you go."

            "Make it up?" said Harry incredulously. "But everything has to rhyme in it!"

            "It's not every day you meet such an astoundingly slow mind such as yours, Potter," said Draco, "This must be a very special occasion."

            "What?" asked Harry. "Sorry, I missed that. I didn't follow it at all."

~**~

            "Harry? Harry?" Hermione's voice came floating through the wall. "I've got lunch for you and Malfoy."

            "Good, I'm starved," said Malfoy, pushing the chessboard out of the way. "I was beginning to look to other alternatives if you didn't show up soon." He smirked in Harry's direction.

            "Who's the one that can do wandless magic?" Harry asked innocently. Malfoy stopped smirking.

            "Well, I don't know about you, Potter, but I do want to get out of here at some point in time," said Malfoy. "So I wouldn't do wandless magic if I were you."

            "I wouldn't eat me if I were you," Harry shot back. "I would imagine Professor Dumbledore would be quite upset with you."

            "Ah yes, Dumbledore's golden boy," said Malfoy with a small sigh. "How could I have forgotten?"

            " Who has the astoundingly slow mind? I wouldn't go messing about with the most powerful wizard in the world," Harry smirked slightly. "You'd be a pile of rubble within two seconds."

            "A pile of rubble, eh?" said Malfoy, "highly doubtful."

            "Would you like me to prove it can be done?" asked Harry, cracking his knuckles.

            "Bring it on, Potter," said Malfoy, rubbing his hands together in a particularly evil-looking fashion.

            "Oh stop it, both of you," said Hermione through the door.

            "Oh come on, Hermione, we were only messing about," said Harry. "We do want to get out of here eventually, you know."

            "And anything is better than another game of chess," added Malfoy, "even if it is only verbally sparring with an incompetent such as Potter."

            The tray was shoved through the door

            "Well," said Hermione, "I've got something else for you to do." A slim volume was pushed under the door.

            "Read?" asked Malfoy, as if the very thought was insulting. "You want us to read?"

            "No, not read," said Hermione. "Act. Harry, they're only giving us a week to rehearse, but we're only doing one scene anyway. You have to know all your lines by the time you get out of the bathroom."

            Harry had hastily picked up the book.

            "Which scene?" he asked.

            "The balcony one," said Hermione.

            "Balcony what?" asked Draco.

            "Have a good lunch, Harry," said Hermione. They could hear her footsteps echoing as she walked away.

            "What's in your hand, Potter?" asked Malfoy.

            "A muggle studies project," said Harry. "Go eat lunch."

            "What project?" asked Malfoy.

            "None of your concern," said Harry.

            "Well, you know I'm going to find out eventually, we have thirteen hours before we can get out of here."

            Draco reached over and snatched the volume out of Harry's hand.

            "Romeo and Juliet?" he asked. "I've never heard of it."

            "It's a muggle play," said Harry irritably. He reached to grab the book back, but Draco held it out of his reach, perusing the cover.

            "Tights Potter?" he asked suddenly. "You have to wear tights?"

            "Let me see that," said Harry, finally gaining hold of the book. There was no doubt; the figure on the front cover was indeed wearing tights. "Oh bugger…"

            "You know," said Draco, grinning evilly, and leaning over to look at the book cover again. "This could be a lot more fun than I originally thought. We may not even have to play chess."

~**~

            "Ron?" Ginny looked around. "Ron, are you alright? Where are you?"

            Oh bugger. This was not his day. All he wanted was to be left alone. "Leave me alone, Ginny."

            "No." Ginny stubbornly set her chin and walked over to the chair Ron was sitting in. "You shouldn't be left alone. Not when you're going bonkers or mad or something."

            "I'm not mad." Why wouldn't she leave him alone?

            "Then why did you break up with Hermione for no reason? Ron listen…"

            "Why don't you leave me alone?" Ron stood up and stared down at her. "Listen Ginny I don't…" He trailed off. "You're not Ginny."

            "Yes I am Ron, what are you…"

            "No, you're not," he contradicted quietly. "You may be someone who looks like Ginny, but you're not."

            "Divining skills," she said. "Stupid of me, really, especially when that's what I came here to talk about. Bugger, I forgot."

            "What?" asked Ron incredulously. "What are you babbling about?"

            "Nothing," she said. Whoever she was. "Ron, will you listen to what I say, even though you don't know who I am?"

            "Who are you?" he asked.

            "I can't tell you," she said. "I honestly can't. If I did I'd be putting people in danger."

            "Harry," Ron said. "Yeah, I know. Don't tell me."

            "Will you listen, though? Will you take this as if it were Harry or Hermione talking?"

            "Why should I have any reason to trust you?" Ron looked at her, hard. "You came in here, impersonating my sister, and now you expect me to trust you. Why should I?"

            "Because I know that you didn't want to break up with Hermione. You wouldn't have in a million years unless something told you to."

            "No! It's because we argue…and…um…argue?" He suggested weakly.

            "Stop fighting it, Ron," she said exasperatedly. "You know what you are. I know what you are. So stop get over the denial stage. I just need to know why you did this. You saw something, and I need to know what it is."

            "I can't tell you," said Ron. "Because if I did, it wouldn't happen."

            "Give me the gist of it, then."

            "If I didn't break up with Hermione, Harry would die," said Ron simply. "That's all. I can't tell you why or how, but I know, alright?"

            "I believe you," she said. "And it's the scariest thing in the world to see, isn't it? Because now you know that every little thing that you do will have some sort of consequence with the fate of the world. It's not easy being the best friend of the person who the entire thing depends on, is it?"

            "No," said Ron.

            "Try being his mother," She said with a wry smile. "If she were alive, that is," she added hastily. Ron wasn't listening.

            "The fate of the world shouldn't be on anybody's shoulders," burst out Ron, suddenly. "Because it's going to…"

            "Don't tell me," she said. "I don't want to know. But Ron, if it makes any difference to you, anything at all, what you did was one of the hardest things anybody could do."

            "To love somebody enough to let them go?" He asked with a twisted smile. "What a touching cliché."

            "No," she said. "Not that. To love the human race enough to give up something you love to save it." She hugged him. "That's the very most that anyone can do."

            "Not always," said Ron. "Not with me, not with Harry, and not with Hermione. This is only the beginning."

~**~

A/N: Sorry for that very cheesy, very sappy, very annoying, very awkward, very badly written chapter. If I thought I could make it any better, I would delete the entire thing and rewrite. But I don't have time, and I'm quite bored with the whole process, and I don't want to because the fun chapter is coming up. So just suffer through this one, the other one will get better. I promise. Unless you are an H/R shipper. Then things go all downhill :)