==*Racing Time*==

(A/N) Okay I know I haven't been very up to date with everything, but I'm trying to do my best while still being punished, keeping up my grades, my B/F, Chris (so cute), and my family and friends. I'm feeling very stressed right now and I hope you can all forgive me. I'm really proud of this chapter and I hope you all like it. I went over it over and over again trying to add as much detail as possible and this is what I got. At first it was only like 4 or 5 pages of plot then I was like "no I can put more than this" and instead I got 8 pages. I'm happy with it and this is a pretty big chapter in the plot of the story. It's really exciting but there isn't very much to it. Anyway I enjoyed writing it so I think you'll like it too. I'll stop babbling now and let you read. Bye-bye for now!

~Love from Lizzie

(Disclaimer) Yada Yada Yada! You get it now right?

~*~

Chapter 7: Telling Hermione

Ginny and Seamus were dancing to another fast song a little closer than Hermione felt acceptable for two people who weren't even dating. She began to tap her foot impatiently under her, Harry, and Ron's table as Ron began to snore beside her. He had been aggravating her all evening and when she had told him to hush up, he fell onto the table into a deep sleep. Great, she thought to herself, now that I need him he falls asleep on me. She gave him a quick sharp shove and he snorted awake. He gazed around looking confused as Hermione sneaked a cautious glance at Harry to be sure he wasn't paying attention. He really didn't seem to need to hear this at the moment. He was looking depressed enough as it was. She was absolute sure she had seen him passing a few glances at Ginny during the night and was probably thinking the same thing that had crossed her mind more than once.

"Ron, look at those two over there and tell me what you think." Hermione whispered pointing at Ginny and Seamus grinding with the music.

Ron looked about foolishly in every which direction before asking, "What those two fat guys over at the food table?"

"No!" Hermione seethed, irritably rolling her eyes. How could he be so thick? "I mean your sister and Seamus."

Ron squinted his eyes and looked into the crowd before shaking his head and shrugging his shoulders. "Yeah, they're dancing. So what?"

Hermione looked taken aback by his lack of concern and huffed in resentment. She had certainly expected him to blow up but not say that. It must have been the whiskey going to his head. She had told Fred and George time and time again...

"Just forget it, Ron." she snapped crossing her arms testily. It was no use anymore.

"Oh come on, babe. We dance like that too, so what's the difference?" Ron shrugged taking another sip of Firewhiskey from his glass. Hermione jerked it from his grip and threw it into a nearby trashcan. Ron gazed at her opened mouthed.

"Would you please stop drinking that rubbish! You're messed up enough as it is." Hermione begged her eyes red near tears of worry, anger, and agitation. Did he have to be so irresponsible? He was going to end up out of a job if he didn't cut it out. She was pretty sure they didn't allow alcoholics into a Quidditch tem.

"Hey, I didn't finish that!" Ron yelled thickly.

Hermione threw her hands into the air and stood up from the table. "Fine, Ron! Fine! If you're not going to take care of you're own sister then I guess I'll have to!" Why is it that she always ended up having to fend for herself? She looked down at his red glassy eyes and empty expression. She reached into her purse and dug out a pill caplet.

"Here." she said angrily. "Take this now! It should take away the effects of the alcohol. And I swear, Ron, I'm not speaking to you again until you've straightened yourself out." She threw it down in his face and with that, she turned on her foot and took off in a ranting march over to Ginny and Seamus.

~*~

Ginny could feel the heat coming off her and Seamus. She kept moving against him bringing herself closer and closer to him by the second ever the while continuously glancing at Harry sitting next to Ron. She wanted him to hurt like he hurt her. All anger and avengement was seeping through her veins, pumping blood rapidly to her heart making her move and dance even faster.

She took Seamus's hands and placed them on her hips as she brushed herself against him. She ran her hands through his hair and looked to see if Harry had been watching. Sure enough, out of the corner of her eyes. She could very clearly see him gazing at her longingly and evil seemed to flicker in her brown eyes. She wanted him to hurt more than anything else. All the pain he had given her came back to the surface and she was seething with fury. Everything he had done to her was flashing before her mind like a movie picture bringing anger seeping to her skin and fury burning on her face.

She ran her hands down Seamus's neck and she could feel him tense up just like she had expected. Just the thought of his feelings for her burning like nothing else and the fact that she wanted nothing to do with him at all made her smile. Something about the fact that she was hurting him in a way Harry did her brought her satisfaction of revenge. Ginny lifted her lips till they were right next to Seamus' ear and whispered into it softly, "I want you."

She pulled him towards her and locked him in a deep kiss. She roughly pushed herself onto him letting him feel his way up her back. She pushed him against the wall and their kiss intensified. Seamus was beginning to thoroughly enjoy it and pulled her into the corner opposite the band still kissing her all the while. He hadn't expected this from her. He had just wanted to be friends but this was way better. This is what he had always wanted.

Ginny opened her eyes and saw Harry storming through one of the side doors as a familiar cold and evil laugh rang in her ears. Yet this time it didn't frighten her; it pleasured her and urged her to keep going. She pulled Seamus closer to her making their kiss deeper and harder and more intense than she had ever kissed anyone except for Harry. And yet she didn't feel the same way; it had no meaning, no value the way it had with Harry. It meant nothing to her. All of this, Harry's pain-filled face, Seamus's misleading, it all made the laughter in her head grow louder and louder and then...

It stopped.

A strong grip was on her upper-arm and it dragged her away from the wall, out into the crowd and through the side door, opposite the one Harry had just went through. She tried with all her might to break free of the strong grip that held her tight from escaping, but she couldn't get the hand off it held tight and purposed where it was before. It flung her outside and it almost caused her to fall all the way to the ground. He purse flew out of her hands and she came face to face with Hermione's stern, hard expression.

"Bloody hell, Ginny! What do you think you are doing?!" Hermione asked in total and complete shock at Ginny's horrid behavior.

"What's it to you?" Ginny muttered under her breath, crossing her arms across her chest. Why did she care so much? What was it to her, really? Why should she care? It's not like she hadn't seen she and Ron snogging on the couch practically on top of each other. What was the difference?

Hermione stared at her opened mouthed with disbelief. What was getting in to her? Never before had she ever even attempted to behave this way and now she was acting like it didn't even bother her at all.

"Gin, I'm supposed to be your friend. I saw you in there, and I swear, I never would have expected that from you! You've never acted like this before. Then, all of a sudden, you turn around and you are grinding against a guy you haven't even spoken to for nearly 3 years, are having a huge make-out fest in the middle of your brother's wedding reception, and let him feel you up in a corner! What's up with you lately? You've been acting strange around everyone. First you practically yell at me for trying to look at a book, you've been sleep walking every night, you've been spending a lot of time alone in you're room and hardly ever even talk to anyone during the day, and now you're doing this! What's the matter, Ginny? Whatever it is, I'll do all that I can to help you." Hermione's eyes brimmed with tears. Her night couldn't have gotten any worse. First Harry, then Ron, and now Ginny. She felt so pressured sometimes yet she knew she shouldn't. It was as if everyone's stress had somehow transported itself onto her stress and she felt like she was suffocating under the weight of it all.

Ginny's heart melted and all at once, everything clicked back into her brain in one huge wave. Dancing with Seamus, kissing him, Harry's horrified face, Seamus's hands running down her back. Her mind spun around faster than she could control it, and she began to feel nauseous at the very thought of herself and Seamus together. She let herself fall back against a nearby tree and slid down it until she was sitting on the ground. She covered her mouth to help her stomach settle and tears started to fall down her cheeks. She felt the guilt swell in her stomach like a hot air balloon. Inside her head, her conscience was cursing her out and she was screaming at the top of her lungs. She felt as if she had done something horribly wrong and technically, she couldn't deny that she didn't.

Hermione walked over and hugged Ginny tight against herself as Ginny's frail body shook violently in her arms. She couldn't bare the pity it was too much for her to bare. She just wanted to run away and cry. She couldn't take the pressure of other people's sympathy right now. She just didn't feel like she deserved it. It was Harry who needed the comforting and attention, not her. Ginny pulled away from Hermione's arms. She scooted away from her and dried her eyes with the back of her hand as she sniffled back tears. She had to tell her now; she had to tell anybody, anyone who would listen, before it was too late.

"Hermione, I need to tell you something, but you have to swear not to tell anyone, not even Ron."

Hermione nodded and tilted her head to show rapt attention as Ginny bit her lip like she had done not so much earlier.

"You remember the other day when I had found that cabinet behind my bookshelf?"

Hermione nodded.

"Well that wasn't all that I found."

Ginny gulped loudly and ran her hands nervously through her hair before starting again.

"You see I found this emblem of a silver serpent, sort of like the one's on the doorknobs at Grimald Place, and a journal, Regulus Black's journal." Hermione's eyes widened in shock and she gazed at Ginny more intently than ever before.

Ginny went on to explain about her horrible urge to read the journal, her manic run away from her mum so that she could be with the journal, the same day she had yelled at her, and what the journal had said about the Heroine of Darkness. All the while Hermione hadn't blinked once.

All the stress Ginny had felt that last week had finally burst free from her heart and her tears spilt to the ground once more as she rose shakily to her feet. She picked her purse off the ground where she had dropped it when Hermione had threw her and pulled out Black's journal for Hermione to see.

"From then on, I couldn't keep it out of my sight. What if she wants it, Hermione! What if the Heroine is looking for it right now!" Ginny stammered through her tears. Hermione bit her bottom lip in concentration then got up slowly and carefully made her towards Ginny.

"Ginny, I don't want to say this, but I think this journal is possessing you." Hermione said brushing off the back of her dress.

Ginny looked at her curiously. What was this girl talking about? She would know if someone or something was possessing her. After all hadn't she been possessed before. She would know how it felt. Something about Hermione's strange eagerness for the journal made her very aware of the fact that the Heroine could be anyone.

"N-no it not!" Ginny stuttered bewildered. "I-I-I mean, I would know if it was!"

"Gin, I really think it is. I read a book about them after Riddle had possessed you and this is what had happened last time someone possessed you. Just give me the book and I'll keep it safe for you." Hermione said walking towards her with her hand outstretched. Ginny looked at Hermione's hands like it was holding a gun. How could someone be able to write down what being possessed felt like. Even she couldn't describe it much less write a book about it. How could what Hermione was saying be true? Was she, perhaps, lying?

"Get away from me!" Ginny shrieked holding the journal tightly to her chest. She wasn't going to let her have it no matter what. She just couldn't trust her or anyone as a matter of fact.

"Ginny, please. Just give me the journal." Hermione pleaded taking another step closer.

She was getting a little too close by Ginny's standard.

"STAY AWAY!" Ginny yelled and pulled her wand from her dress. If she wouldn't back away Ginny would force her away if she had too.

"Ginny, I-"

"Avada Keedavra!!!"

A flash of green light hit Hermione square in the chest. Ginny watched in disbelief as Hermione's eyes rolled back in her head and she fell slowly to the ground as if she were fainting in slow motion. She looked at her lying there with her eyes shut tight and felt the reality hit her with a sudden blow to her heart. What had she just done? Without even thinking, Ginny ran with all the power she possessed in her small body to the opposite side of the building as fast as her legs would carry her, never once looking back at the horror in which she had left behind.

~*~

(A/N) Okay first of all before anyone deserts the fic because of Hermione, she is NOT dead! She just really really hurt. After all Ginny hasn't practiced the Dark Arts, so she couldn't have possibly killed her. Just wanted to let you know before you stopped reading this fic all together. R&R guys!!

(Discussion topic of the day) Draco and Ginny fics. Discuss.

(Quote of the day)

~Someday your Prince Charming will come. Mine took a wrong turn, got lost, and is too stubborn to ask for directions.

(Summary of ch.8) This is the chapter that determines the fate of Hermione. Dun. Dun. Dun. See what happens.

(Thanx)

~cristen- Okay so I guess you understand what's happening now right? Cuz that's all I could make out from your review. Thanks for reading.

~RussellGrl15- Well I guess you're right about the review thing. I guess I'm just a very picky typed person. You know what I mean right? I just like the fact of getting tons of reviews, but I guess it is better if they are actually "from the heart". Now you are not alone in sounding like a teacher. LOL. Oh by the way that review was definitely long enough. Well anyway, I'm glad you liked the chappie and I hope you liked this one. By the way, I tried to put as much detail in this one as possible too. Tell me what you think.

~Katrina- I totally agree. I hate having Harry and Ginny apart and Ginny being so mean, but yeah they will make up in the end and it's going to be so sweet and even kinda sad in a way. I can't tell you if Ginny is the Heroine because that would give away the surprise, but maybe by the end of this chappie you might have changed your mind on who you think it might be? Or maybe you should... Hmm... Think about it.

~marg- Thanx for reviewing. I know I feel the same way, but I can't assure you that nothing will happen to Ginny. After all this is a mystery story. I have to be all mysterious and crap even though I want to shout out the fricken answer at the top of my lungs! Damn stupid rules! Oh and yes, Voldemort is very evil! I hate him too.

~VoicezWithin- Hehe. The first time I read your review I started laughing. You were like flipping out because it was freaky, but didn't you realize this was a mystery/adventure/romance fic. Duh ofcourse it will be freaky. LOL! Oh yes and I definitely think that Seamus is hot! He is very sexy in my opinion. My second candidate for Ginny if she isn't w/ Harry. Oh and I guess you found out weither or not Hermione's worry for Ginny did pan out to be good or bad. But do you still hold true to your opinion on who the Heroine is? *wink wink*

~xzaire- I guess I've answered your question on weither or not Ginny is being possessed. But did you ever wonder if she was actually being possessed for the reason you believed it to be? Could it be perhaps something you might not be expecting? Hmm... Think about it... Anywho, I hope you enjoyed Ron's drunkenness in this chapter. I thought it was actually really funny. Tell me what ya think.

~jac- Seamus is HOT! He is awesomely awesome! But yeah it is sad that Harry is hurt. I guess you can say that it's a very 'interesting' moment.