The room was silent as Harry sat nervously down on the bed.  He could hear Ron urgently calling the password to Hermione: "Shartseeger!  No, Shartizoogen!  Oh come on!  Hermione, stop laughing and just let me in!" 

Charlie left the room and soon they could hear Hermione's giggles as she opened the door for Ron. 

Ginny turned to look at Harry.  He was looking a cockroach. 

"I saw Jeremy Titan again today, did you hear?"  Ginny asked coolly.

"Um, yeah I know."  Harry said, still looking at the floor.

"He has really brilliant blue eyes.  That shirt you are wearing complimented them very nicely."

"I suppose it would." 

"How did you get Jeremy's clothes?"

Harry opened his mouth to spit out a feeble lie, "I told you, I bought them in a store."
"Uh huh.  And then you somehow you gave them to Jeremy Titan and bewitched him to say lovely things to me."

"That was not how it went."

"So how did it go, Harry?  And why would you trick me?"

Harry couldn't think of another lie he wanted to tell.  He could drag it out so far, he knew Ginny would never trust him if she found out he had lied again.  Ginny's glare was killing him. 

"I didn't want to trick you it just seemed like the only way" Harry said directly to her face.  He felt more scared now than he had ever felt in the presence of Voldemort.  Voldemort had never looked so disappointed, so hurt.  Dumbledore had always said that love was Harry's greatest strength.  But right now love seemed to Harry's weakness, his undoing, the thing that made him feel so sick. 

"So you admit to planning some sort of charade.  What were you thinking?  How did you do it?" 

"I used Polyjuice Potion.  I bought it on La Mort Street in the Wizarich District.  I added Jeremy's hair from the lock he gave you at lunch.  I wanted to be Jeremy so you would kiss me.  That was all I thought about."

However Ginny had been expecting Harry to respond, it was not like this.  Harry was sitting silently on the bed, watching for her reaction. 

"So you planned this."

"Yes."

"And you wanted to kiss me."

"Yes."

"But you didn't want me to kiss you.  You wanted me to kiss Jeremy."

"It just seemed easier that way.  I didn't know how to tell you.  You have a boyfriend, and you don't fancy me anymore.  I just felt so desperate."  Harry felt a little better telling the truth.  But as he said his plan out loud, it sounded more and more stupid, and he felt increasingly embarrassed.

"I just can't even look at you, Harry."  Ginny was so angry and embarrassed.  Her thoughts clear, but her emotions were incomprehensible.  His green eyes bore into her like soul searchers.  Ginny didn't want to let his stare penetrate into the area of her heart that she had shut off to him.  She wanted to be rational.  Harry had hurt her.  She wanted to hurt Harry. 

Ginny had turned to stare out the window.  Red and purple roadside flowers looked black in the moonlight.  A car with a missing headlight just made an illegal u-turn.  She could feel Harry staring at her red hair. 

She had kissed Harry Potter today.  A secret dream from her childhood had been fulfilled and she wasn't even fully conscious of it. It wasn't fair.  Now he wants to bring up old feelings when she had moved on.  It wasn't fair.  He finally notices her when she already has a boyfriend.  It wasn't fair.  He thinks he can just have a change of heart and she will immediately jump into his strong arms and bury her head into his toned shoulders, and then kiss his pink lips.  It's not fair! 

"And the worst part is if I had known it was Harry Potter under there, I would have kissed him anyway.   Such obfuscation! Ginny, you do not understand yourself so clearly!" Ginny thought.  (I took that last part from Hamlet...Hamlet rocks!)

"Ginny, I really did feel some power with you.  That was me talking through Jeremy the whole time." Harry didn't know how else to fill the deafening silence. 

"Yes.  And you thought that was love."  Ginny still didn't turn to look at him.   A pedestrian had just strayed from the sidewalk to walk in the gutter.  An oncoming car gave him a loud honk.  Ginny and the pedestrian were jerked out of a trance by the noise. 

"I felt love, but I think the power was more than that.  It was like my destiny.  My greatest strength is my ability to love.  It is why Voldemort can not touch me, why he can not possess me.  When I found out that I loved you, I just felt stronger.  When we are together, it's like my limits are pushed back.  I really think I need you to beat Voldemort, I need you to live."

"You have to beat Voldemort?"

"Yeah.  It ends with him or me."

"That sucks."

Harry chuckled at her understatement. "And you thought all I had to grieve about this summer was losing Sirius."

"Don't joke like that, Harry."
"I won't if you don't like it."

Ginny turned to take a quick look at Harry.  He was still sitting up as staring at her.  She felt less angry at him now.  She was still ticked, but she was starting to unravel the mystery that had always been Harry Potter.  He was quite complicated, but she knew now that he thought he loved her.  Thoughts are powerful.  

"Harry I am still mad at you." Ginny said.  But if you have to say it, sometimes you really don't mean it.

"I know." Harry was feeling sick.  He had been honest. Ginny had the power now.  He looked at the ground.  That darn cockroach was still crawling everywhere.  

"Harry, kill that cockroach."

Harry stomped on it quick and efficiently, very minimal spilled guts.

Ginny had a fleeting image of Dean as she saw Harry's sneaker hit the floor.  But she shook him out of her head.  Dean didn't belong here right now.

To realize that she could toy with Harry Potter, the Harry Potter was amazing.  She could lead him on; she could keep him on the side.  She could make his life miserable.  "Why do I think such evil, mean things?"  Ginny thought.  Even her young female intuition told her that she could control Harry if she wanted.  He said he loved her.  He would do anything for her.  She couldn't look into his lovely green eyes anymore.  She turned back to window and they stared in silence.

"Harry.  I think I felt fate, too."  Ginny whispered.  She felt a little bad for poor powerless Harry.  He was so far gone.  She had nothing to lose by being honest.  She wanted to see where it went.

"Really?"

"Yeah.  After we kissed, I told Hermione that it felt like destiny.  She said I was a wuss."

"She thought you had kissed Jeremy Titan.  You thought you had kissed him too."

"Yeah. But something was funny.  I thought about you.  I was actually running to comfort you when I ran into Jere… when I ran into you.  I guess we both felt like we had to be with each other tonight." 

"I know you don't love me, but, will you go out with me?" Harry blurted.

"I already have a boyfriend, you know that." Ginny really didn't want to have to bring up Dean.  She liked him, but he was interfering with Harry Potter.  Not that she had admitted to liking Harry.  She just loved the switch: now he was obsessing over her.

 "Oh, and I guess 'absence make the heart grow fonder.'" Harry said with noticeable disappointment.

"No, I don't think I am any fonder of him than when I first arrived in California.  But he has given me no reason to like him any less."  Ginny thought out loud.

"But have I given you any reason to like him less?" Harry nervously asked.

"I don't know yet.  But, hey, thank you for being honest; I think I am going to go wait outside for Charlie to come back with my bottles water.  All this talk has made me really thirsty."  Ginny made a very quick excuse and fled to the door. 

Harry jumped up with his remarkable reflexes, and reached Ginny's left wrist before it could leave the room.

"Ginny, just so you know, I don't think I will be talking to you much more.  I still love you, but just when you don't respond to my feelings, it kills me, and I can't put myself through that, too.  So, um, just know that you still can go out with me, but I just can't be your friend anymore." Harry said clearly.

"What! I talked to you when I liked you!  That is so jerky!  Harry, how am I supposed to ever change my heart if I never see you?" Ginny

"I don't think you need to change your heart, I just think you need to see what is going on."

"How dare you turn this around on me?!  I was supposed to be angry at you!  Now you go and give me a lecture!  That is so arrogant, Harry Potter!  When did you get so smart?  You have never had a girlfriend!  I am the second girl you ever noticed!  You think you are so clever because you can beat Voldemort!  You just shut up!  I will talk to you when I want to, and you will not be such a wimp!  You are so much better than this Harry.  Don't put yourself down to make things easier to deal with.  Stand up and act like a Gryffindor!"  Ginny finished her speech removed her wrist from Harry's weak grasp and slammed the door.