Author's Note: Okay, looks like from the events in the previous chapter I got myself hooked on writing this one. Little did I know that I'll get an inspiration while writing Chapter 22!!! :::laughs::: must be a good sign then 'coz now I'm so excited I can't wait to get started on this chapter! thank you all for reviewing my fic & for sticking with it even though it sometimes takes me a while to update! your reviews are all well appreciated by yours truly! :::big hugs to all:::

Disclaimer: I must've written this numerous times as it is and you know what? NOT MINE!!!

Summary: Ginny Weasley received the shocker of a lifetime when she entered her sixth year at Hogwarts. She fell in love with the last person on earth she thought she'd fall for. Now she has to do everything in her power to grab his attention and make him hers--even if she have to face the wrath of her six brothers and her parents, not to mention the wrath of Hermione and Harry when they find out what she was planning to do.

Setting: Ginny is in her 6th year; Draco is in his 7th year

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XXIII. You Kissed Him!

Ginny was fuming mad by the time she got back to the Gryffindor common room. Her face was blotchy from tears and her fists clenched and unclenched numerous times, nearly biting the Fat Lady's head off when she yelled the password instead of saying it nicely.

"You have got to be more nicer than that, young lady." the portrait reprimanded her.

"I have no time to be nice and sweet. Just open up and let me in!" she demanded angrily.

"I certainly will not until you asked me nicely."

"Arrr!" she shrieked and turned her back to the portrait, stalking away angrily but was stopped when the Fat Lady inquired, "And where are you going, hm?"

Ginny threw a murderous glare over her shoulder at the portrait and replied, "Somewhere where I can cry in peace and not be witnessed by all. Since you're being too pigheaded to let me in just because I didn't say the password nicely to you I think I'll just go off--" but the portrait swung open before she could finish her speech followed by an annoyed, "Teenagers. Some silly boy broke your heart and now you're off biting people's heads off."

Ginny snorted and hissed for the Fat Lady to shut up the slid into the hole leading to the almost empty common room. Hermione still wasn't back, And why should she be back so soon? she couldn't help herself from asking, She was too much into kissing Draco to want to come back into this dreary ol' place and hang out with her so-called friends.

"God, what a backstabbing bitch." she hissed out loud as she crossed the common room towards the spiral staircase leading to their dormitories.

"Excuse me?" came Ron's high-pitched voice when he heard those words fly out of his sister's mouth as she passed them by.

Ginny stopped from taking a step on the stairs and looked at her brother, "It's nothing. Forget I said anything."

Harry noticed her eyes were red and instantly knew she had been crying--again.

"Is everything all right, Gin?" he inquired, an eyebrow raised and his eyes holding her gaze for the longest time.

"Everything's peachy." but her voice was dripping with sarcasm it confused both Harry and Ron.

Just then Hermione came rushing into the common room, wild-eyed and searching about until her brown eyes fastened on the petite redhead ascending the stairs. She took a couple of deep intake of breaths until her breathing was back to normal and started to walk towards her, "Ginny, let me--"

"Don't you ever come near me or even talk to me ever again, Hermione Granger." Ginny warned, her green eyes spewing fire across the room at the bushy-haired seventh year.

"But Ginny, let me explain." she insisted.

"There's nothing for you to explain, Hermione. You kissed him. End of story."

"Wrong!" she denied, "He kissed me first and I didn't kiss him back!" she pleaded.

"I saw you two with my own eyes, Hermione Granger. Action speaks louder than words, or so I've been told and it was evident from the way you responded to his kiss!"

"I didn't enjoy his kiss because at the back of my head I knew it was wrong what we were doing! And the kiss was unexpected, unprovoked. He was trying to prove a point to me when you walked in on us." she explained as best as she could, but Ginny would hear none of this.

"Whatever, Hermione. I thought you were my friend. Guess I was wrong." with those parting words Ginny ran upstairs and locked herself in her dorm room.

Meanwhile, Harry and Ron--who had been moving their heads back and forth from Ginny to Hermione--were as confused as ever, but soon after hearing enough of what the two girls were talking about, they understood what the hell just happened.

"You kissed Malfoy?!" Ron and Harry squealed in mocked surprise.

"Oh brother." Hermione rolled her eyes heavenwards and fell on the nearby couch. She have got a lot of explaining to do right now, and it all had to start with her two best friends.

~*~

Breakfast the next day was an ordeal for Hermione. Ginny kept on giving her the cold shoulder while Ron couldn't stop glaring at her. Harry was the most understanding out of the three of them and couldn't help but feel sorry for Hermione and her current disposition. She explained to her two male best friends what exactly happened, word-for-word that led to Malfoy kissing her, with Ron occasionally butting in and nearly choking the life out of Harry when Hermione explained to them what Draco saw Harry and Ginny were doing the night he said Ginny made a big fool of him.

"You kissed my sister?!" Ron demanded, his face as red as his hair, but not from embarrassment. He was pissed right off with Harry for necking with his sister.

"Oh stuff it, Ron. We don't know exactly what Malfoy was talking about." Hermione shushed him, "For all we know he could just be making something up just to piss me off or throw me off or something."

Harry was very thankful for small mercies. He still valued his life and for Ron to find out that he kissed Ginny and confessed his love for her, he was sure his best friend wouldn't be so understanding.

That was last night. Today was an entirely different day. Harry seemed to be the only one talking to everybody else. Hermione and Ginny weren't speaking. Ron and Hermione weren't speaking. Ron and Ginny were biting each other's heads off every time they speak to each other, with Ron constantly questioning his sister about the boys she has shared some lip-locking escapades with. He has had enough of this bull crap from his friends, but he couldn't do much to help straighten things out.

"Ginny, I think you and Hermione should talk and sort this out." Harry suggested to his friend by lunch time. He was getting tired playing messenger to his friends.

"Why should I?" Ginny asked stubbornly, "I am not the one who is at fault here."

"So you're not and Hermione is, don't you at least want to listen to what she has to say?" he gave the stubborn redhead a hopeful look, crossing his fingers behind his back in the hopes of persuading her to change her mind.

"What's the point? She would just probably feed me with lies."

"Ginny..."

"What?" she shot him a challenging glare, taunting him to try and change her mind when it was already made.

Harry raised his hands and gave up. Sooner or later his friends will just have to grow up and sort out their own problems.

~*~

Friday afternoon in Potions the atmosphere between Draco and Ginny was intensified, not by their mutual heartache, but more by their mutual anger for each other. It didn't help much either when Snape grouped the three of them--Draco, Ginny, and Hermione--together for a class experiment.

"Ooh, this ought to be good." Ron rubbed his hands together in anticipation as he watched his sister, his mortal nemesis, and the love of his life--but he was too damn chicken to admit it to her--gather around their cauldron.

Harry made a face at his friend and shook his head. Leave it to Ron Weasley's twisted mind to find pleasure by watching a brewing catfight between his sister and friend.

"Whatever, Ron. Just concentrate on our experiment unless you want Snape to dock off points from Gyrffindor." he reminded his nosy friend.

"Aw, who cares? This is much better."

"Ron!" Harry hissed, his eyes traveling back and forth between Snape and his friend. "Focus on our experiment before Snape catches you and lands you in detention."

"Oh, alright." Ron reluctantly returned back to doing his work, leaving the trio over yonder to deal with their issues without his prying eyes.

Meanwhile Draco was as tensed as the guards standing guard at Buckingham Palace while he carefully put together the ingredients for their experiment. Obviously there was tension between his two Gryffindor groupmates, and if he took notice of Hermione's eye-contact signals to him, he would see her urging him to talk to Ginny. But how will he break the ice? Ever since she caught him kissing Granger, Ginny turned form being cold to outright frigid as the artic waters!

What Draco lacked in courage in testing the waters with Ginny, Hermione sure got a lot of it. She braved the frigidness and broke the ice of opening up a nice, casual conversation. Unfortunately for her Ginny quickly blast her with an icy cold spray of hostility which automatically made Hermione clam up and continue working on their experiment without much further ado. Hermione cast Draco a hopeless look, but the Slytherin boy just shrugged and continued on working on their potions experiment without trying to talk to Ginny.

~*~*~*~*~

to be continued...

A/N: OK, I think I better stop this chapter right here because I feel that if I continue adding stuff to this it will just drag on, so better stop while it's still kinda good. Well, this is not really that much of a cliffie, is it? Anyways, I'm happy that I'm done this real early and I can post it right away. I'm soooo excited (again!) I can't wait to start on with the next chapter. It's a good feeling when loads and loads of ideas comes pouring out and into my brain! As always, read, enjoy & review! Thanks to all of you wonderful reviewers! Reading your feedbacks actually do get me inspired to continue on writing, again I thank you!

SeZzA: well I'm glad ff.net let you log back in, it gave me a hard time Saturday nite when I tried logging in and wouldn't let me. I was so mad I almost didn't try it again, but eventually it let me in & got to upload as much chappies as I can...and look, I've done it again! :::laughs::: another chapter uploaded! hope you enjoyed this one too. Draco's being silly because he's acting on full heartache/break mode, being cruel to Ginny until it backfires on him :::laughs out loud:::

MYSTIQUE: :::laughs::: I'm sorry for bringing out the 15-year-old in you while reading this fic! and don't we all want Draco to ourselves? :::grins::: thanks for liking the new chappie, hope you like this one too

Miss Marauder: yep, Hermione sure set him straight after he made a damn big fool out of himself this time by getting caught! :::laughs::: now he's the one on the receiving end of Ginny's cold shoulder :::devilish grin::: isn't life a little bit too ironic?! and yesh, once I break away from my writer's block the creative juices just keeps on flowing, baby! :::laughs::: hopefully this lasts for a very long while or else there's going to be yet another long lag when I update :::pouts:::