A/N: All right, this is actually a pretty short chapter, in comparison to the others at least. Anyway, one more chapter after this, and I am still deciding on an epilogue.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed Ch. 9...
Killer Angel, LadyBrannon, I_luv_draco!!, Herbie, OliverPhelpsLover, StarWest45, goobersprinkle, StarJade (*LoL* Your review made me laugh. Yes, poor hot Draco hehe..), Angel of Fate (Thanks for reviewing again!), Lemon, Still cant spell Anonymous, TheSkyIsOrange666, LJHPotter, anime-freak, StephanieCook, starwandmagical, Lawwwren, Galadriel, Jitterbelle (Thank you for putting me on your favorites list! I'm going to check out all your stories, because I read the passing notes one and ADORED it!! hehe), PotterzGirl, blingbling, Kirunai, dan fan, ShadowLord (I love Harry too!), Darcel, hpdancer92, MoonFaith (*lol* Er...who are Tor and Lion?), Ladee Sakura Evenstar Night, NiteStar777, h/g shipper (As for the irony thing, well duh. Because he's Malfoy, why would he realize any of that? Why would he care? Anyways, thank you for the 2 reviews!), mutsumi (THANK YOU for liking my portrayal of Cho!!! *hugs you* Not many people do! Now you really are my favorite!! *lol*), Blue*Faerie, Traveller, LivEviL (DRACO IS THIS HOT IN THE MOVIE!! *calms down* Tom Felton is too hot for his own good. *lol* Thanks! Happy 4th to you as well), Darla Potter (I like that song! You got me in an Avril Lavigne mood hehe, anyway this chapter may tell you if the story will turn out like the song or not so...read on!), Kristen Michelle (Best? Well, 2nd best, because YOU are the best! Anyways, here it is...ch. 10! Long awaited! *lol* I was almost going to wait another day to post this just to kill you, but I couldn't do it, Kristi! Hehe, well, enjoy!!), pottermaniac (Sorry, I haven't told anyone what is going to happen and I won't make any exceptions), Laura W (*lol* Wow, thanks!! I didn't know my story could have such an effect on you!), FallenPhoenix, spunkygabi, Lord Sauron, and spACEcampLOL (Hey, you reviewed Ch. 8, so I wasn't sure if you read ch. 9 but I wanted to thank you anyway! Hehe, so thanks! *eats wheat thins, and hugs back*)
...You guys rock my socks!!
I was pretty fast with this one, wasn't I!? *feels proud* Unfortunately, Ch. 11 won't come out as quick, I don't think. I have a feeling it will be harder to write.
Disclaimer: Check Ch. 1.
***
"Faith, love, and pixie dust," I said stepping up to the portrait of the Fat Lady.
"Indeed," she muttered idly, swinging forward admitting my entrance.
I walked in quietly, as I spotted Harry sitting in an armchair in front of the fire, a look of contempt on his face.
I took an unsteady breath, why was there such a nervous feeling welling up in the pit of my stomach?
I studied him for a while taking in the way his head was propped up on his left hand, and he was slouched down. The way his glasses were slightly askew, and I could just barely see, from looking at him from the side, the crackling fire reflecting off the emerald pools in his eyes.
I walked closer, tentatively. "Harry?" I said lightly.
He looked up, startled. "Hey...Gin."
I smiled slightly. "You're never going to stop calling me that are you?"
He shrugged. "Can't help it. Sorry."
I didn't care though anymore, it didn't matter. "That makes two of us," I muttered, looking at the ground.
"What are you sorry for?" His voice had a hint of sarcasm in it. I didn't blame him... I mean for over a month I had been telling him that I was right and he was wrong, refusing to listen to him, and being unbelievably selfish and stubborn.
I shifted slightly from one foot to the other. "For everything?" I said tilting my head to look at him.
"Everyth—?"
"Harry I was eavesdrop... I mean I...I heard you and Cho talking in that classroom," I blurted.
Harry's looked at me with stony eyes. He got up and I thought for a moment that he was leaving the common room but he simply walked up to me to talk face to face. "Well what'd you hear?" His voice had the dry and bland anger hidden within it.
I couldn't meet his eyes. "All of it," I whispered.
"Oh."
I wanted him so badly to just yell at me. It would have been so much better than this. "Why didn't you just tell me?"
Harry's eyes were so dark. "Why didn't you just let me?"
"I...I didn't think..."
"You didn't do a lot of things, Ginny."
I nodded slowly, my eyes downcast. "I know," I whispered. "I shouldn't have believed her, Harry."
"You're right."
"And I'm sorry."
He didn't say anything.
I swallowed. "I..." I racked my brain for something to say, anything that could make this situation better but I couldn't come up with anything. The one letter hung in the air between us for so long that I could feel myself going crazy with the ringing silence in my ears.
"So, where's Malfoy?" Harry snarled the name, breaking the stillness.
I didn't say anything for a second. I was surprised at how much his name had affected me. I felt like I was going to start crying all over again. "Don't say it like that."
Only more silence followed those words. Harry glanced at me through a lock of hair that fell over his eyes. "Do you love him then?"
I snapped to life. "What?" I asked, taken aback.
"Ginny," he said. "Do you love Malfoy?" He sounded pained to have to ask a second time.
"N – No!" I laughed, at the crazy thought. "We – We're not even going together anymore. The relationship wasn't...real." I left it at that, not caring whether or not Harry knew what I meant by real or not.
Harry exhaled slowly.
"Why don't you hate me?" I inquired, finally. I mean, God, I had done everything wrong and all we ever accomplished when talking to each other was perfecting the way to leave. And now, after all my accusations, I find out the truth and he still stands here in front of me.
"Why would I hate you?"
I bit my lip. "Because I'm so horrible," I said lamely. "And you told Cho all those nice things about me and... I just, I don't get it."
Harry averted his gaze concentrating on the fire for a while. "I hated you so much," he said finally, turning to look at me, his eyes haunting and strange. "The night when you told me that you believed Cho rather than me. It killed me Ginny, and that's why I went back to her... To hurt you as much as you did to me. But when I saw you with him...With Malfoy, I mean, it was this weird feeling taking over me that..."
"You were jealous?"
He nodded. "Crazy jealous."
I swallowed, aware that every mention of Draco was just deepening the empty hole in me. "Harry I..."
He shook his head. "Gin, I fell in love with you on Christmas Eve, and I never forgot that. Even when I thought I hated you, but I knew I didn't and that was the damn worst part of it."
I opened my mouth but closed it again, becoming dreadfully aware of something I had pushed out of my head for the longest time.
"I can't hate you, because I love you," he said fiercely.
Harry loved me.
He still loved me.
He loved me.
And I felt absolutely nothing.
I swallowed hard feeling my eyes rim with moisture, and I turned away for a second.
"Why are you..." he laughed nervously, running his hands through his unruly jet black hair. "Ginny, why are you crying?"
I turned back at him, my vision blurred. "Because," I drew in a shuddering breath. "I just realized, I... Oh Harry," I swallowed hard. "It was just, I was scared, and I think I didn't want to face it... I think..."
"Gin," Harry said uncertainly. "What are you talking about?"
"When I was so busy trying to get you back, it was only because I wasn't ready to comprehend that I had..." I struggled for a minute before swallowing and starting over. "I fell in love with someone else," I said softly. I didn't want to meet Harry's eyes but I would have been such a prat not to.
He was just standing there, every feeling that I used to have for him shining in his startlingly emerald eyes. He swallowed hard, the impact making slight movement in his adam's apple. "Who?"
But he knew who. How could he not? "You know already," I said lightly.
He looked at me with mounting hatred that made my blood run cold. "I want to hear you say it," he said steadily the sharpness of his words reverberating off the stone walls.
I felt sick to my stomach. "Malfoy," I said flatly, looking down. And I felt horrible, because I had just told him that I didn't love Malfoy only minutes ago. It was the idea that I had so easily tossed aside in my head, but I should have realized that it wasn't because I didn't love Draco... I didn't want to. It was so frightening, after everything I had gone through with Harry, and then to have these feelings for someone else.
I heard a loud bang and jumped an inch off the ground. Harry had slammed his fist against the wall, and I had never seen him look so angry since the night that I accused him of the plan that Cho had made up.
"I'm sorry," I said weakly.
"For not loving me?" Harry said unexpectedly.
I looked up quickly. "I – what?"
"You're apologizing for not loving me?"
He was being so straightforward that it took me by surprise. "I – I guess."
He blinked at me. "No one asked you to love me."
"I know," I said in a small voice. "But I did. I'm sorry that I don't anymore."
"It's just how it happened."
And that was the harsh truth of it all. Because we had no control over it though we both desperately wished we did. I suddenly realized something. "You know what?" I said after a minute of silence. "This is kind of funny."
Harry looked at me with dark eyes as though he couldn't find the situation we were in any less funny.
"I mean, not funny but more ironic," I said hurriedly wishing badly that the awful feeling in the pit of my stomach would go away. "Because really, this whole thing, I mean us, both started and ended because of Cho Chang." Harry looked away for a second taking it in, the tight muscles in his face loosening just slightly. "And she still didn't even get what she wanted."
"No," Harry said slowly. "I guess not."
I couldn't stand the horrible tenseness between us any longer, and made way to leave the common room.
"You were wrong about one thing, though," Harry said suddenly before I made it three steps away.
I turned around slowly. "What?"
"It doesn't begin and end with Cho, because this isn't the end." I widened my eyes unsure of what he was saying. "For the first time in my life I got to know this cool, sweet, amazingly beautiful girl named Ginny Weasley, and I'm not about to let her go. Even if I have to let what I had with her go." The eyes that used to make me weak in the knees were burning a hole in me. "Because I'm not ready to lose, the best person I've ever met. Even if it's just to be friends."
I swallowed a lump in my throat and wiped at my tearstained cheeks. "Why do you always have to go and make me cry?" I said with a small smile.
"I'm sor—" But he didn't get to finish because I had practically knocked him over as launched myself at him, and threw my arms around his neck.
"I love you Harry Potter," I breathed into his shirt.
He steadied himself, and rested his chin atop of my head. "I--" I heard him swallow. "--I love you too, Ginny." And we both knew that it wasn't the same love that it had been before... It was just me loving him for being who he was.
My friend...possibly my best friend. I didn't know if he returned it with the same platonic feelings, but I knew that someday he would be able to.
I smiled against his shoulder because for once everything was finally coming together.
Harry had been right; it didn't end with Cho Chang.
But something was definitely about to begin, with Draco Malfoy.
"I've been tryin' to get down
to the heart of the matter
but my will gets weak
and my thoughts seem to scatter
but I think it's about forgiveness
forgiveness
even if, even if you don't love me anymore"
-- Heart of the Matter (Don Henley)