Author's note: Hey, I haven't written much in a while. I've had exams and shows and stuff. Loads of shows. Luckily, my last one, along with my dance exams, is tomorrow. This is quite a depressing story, that came to me (among other things) during a maths class. And believe me, I won't be surprised if I absolutly fail my triganomotry test, because I know at least I've posted a new fic. Oh, and I really am working hard on the 'Dare to love you' and 'All or Nothing' fics, but my computer crashed and half my work wasn't on disk, so I lost loads of work (including coursework. Gulp!)

Dedication: To the gang show lot, and the Stagecoach lot. Especially my cowardly Lion.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, except for the characters Melody, and Gypsy.

Against All Odds

Confrontation

"Hey, Mel?" Gypsy asked her seventh year sister. "Who is that girl over there by the window? Do you know why she looks so sad?" The first year gryffindor pointed to a petite red-head, with freckles and hazel brown eyes, who was gazing out of the tall window with an expression of despair on her delicate porcelain face.

"Which girl?" Melody followed her younger sister's gaze to the window and sighed. "Oh that's Ginny Weasley. She's head girl, don't you remember?"

"Oh yeah. She shares a dorm with you, right? Do you know why she's sad?" Gypsy gazed at Melody hopefully, her big blue eyes pleading the answer to be yes. Unfortunately, Melody wasn't looking at her sister, but rather still staring at Ginny, a sympathetic look on her face.

"Oh, Harry." She sighed softly, "What have you done to her?" She stared at her friend, deep in thought, when she was shaken suddenly.

"Melody! You know something. Tell me what you know." Gypsy had taken hold of her sister's robes and was pulling on them violently. Melody laughed at her sister's antics, and pushed her away, rolling her eyes.

"Alright, alright. Just don't do that again, okay?" Gypsy nodded and sat on the floor in front of her sister, like a toddler being told a story by an elderly relative. A few of Gypsy's other first year friends gathered around as well, each filled with curiosity as to their head girl's behavior.

"Right, do you all know about Harry Potter?" Melody asked softly, looking around the group.

Gypsy rolled her eyes impatiently. "Yes dear sister, we do. Everyone does."

"No need to be like that." Her sister snapped back. "A few of the muggle-borns might not." Again, Gypsy rolled her eyes and urged her sister to continue.

"Anyway, on with the story. Well, Ginny's older brother Ron, was Harry Potter's best friend. They did everything together. It was always those two and Hermione Granger, always getting into trouble. Apparently, the year before I came here, there was an incident involving a giant chessboard or something.

"Well, Ginny had a crush on him, ever since she first saw him get on the train the year before we started. And the summer after his and Ron's first year, he went to stay at Ron's house, where Ginny more than made her feelings clear. Harry, being the boy he is, didn't notice though. Then in our first year (Harry's second) there was the whole thing with the chamber of secrets. Do you remember me telling you about it?" Melody looked at her younger sister who nodded.

"Well, it turned out that Ginny was the one who opened it, because she had been under a spell that You-Know-Who had cast on her. We didn't know that of course, until our fifth year, when Ginny told us, but never mind about that. Anyway, You-Know-Who made her write her goodbye note, and led her to the chamber of secrets. Ron being the over-protective big brother, and Harry being the noble hero followed, and Harry ended up saving her life.

"Of course this just made Ginny's crush develop, but over the years she got better at hiding it. Soon it was only her, Hermione, me and Colin who knew it even existed, let along the extent of her feelings. By then, we were in fourth year, and Ron and Hermione had just become a couple. Harry had been feeling a bit left out, so he started to hang around with Ginny a lot more. Soon, they were almost inseparable. They were the best of friends, and you only ever saw one without the other during class."

Melody sighed, and sat there for a minute, just remembering the times when Ginny was always seen with a smile on her face. She was interrupted by her sister asking, "Then what happened to make her so sad? If her and Harry Potter were best friends, something must have happened to make her act that way. How did things change?"

"It didn't at first." Melody replied. "It stayed that way right through our fourth and fifth year, but then last year, Harry started acting differently around her. He would avoid her whenever possible, and when he did speak to her, he would stutter and blush profusely. Harry had finally noticed that Ginny wasn't the same shy little girl he once knew, but an attractive friendly young woman who he loved very much.

"Ginny of course, remained oblivious to this fact, although the rest of the entire Gryffindor house seemed to know about it. She just thought that he was having problems with You-Know-Who again. She didn't find out in fact, until one evening just after Easter.

"What happened?" asked Gypsy, eagerly.

***************

Harry and Ron stood in front of the fire, arguing. Hermione was in the library studying for the upcoming newts, and Ginny was at detention with Snape for an unfortunate incident involving canary creams. Harry was glad that Ginny wasn't there. He didn't want her to hear the conversation he was having with her brother right now.

"Harry, you have to tell her. It's killing you, keeping it inside." Ron yelled at his best friend.

"No Ron. I will not tell her. She doesn't need to know." Harry replied, just as loudly.

"Not need to know?" Ron asked, sarcastically. "Of course she needs to know. Everyone needs to know when someone loves them. And Ginny's loved you for ages. It's not like she's going to reject you. You don't need to be afraid of that!"

"That's not what I'm afraid of." Harry's face was red with anger, and his emerald green eyes held a fury that Ron had never seen before.

"What is it then? You're afraid of commitment? You're afraid of getting hurt? You're afraid of her six older brothers?" Ron bellowed. "Because if you're not afraid of us now, you will be if you don't make a move soon. Can't you see you're hurting her, by acting like this? She's worried about you, thinks it something to do with Voldemort. She doesn't realize that the reason you are acting like a complete and utter prat is because you're in love with her."

"Don't you think I know that? But I can't do anything. Do you want to know why? Because I'm afraid that if I do do anything, then Voldemort will go after her. She's already suffered because of him; I don't want it to happen again. I couldn't live with myself if I knew that the girl I loved had died, just because she happened to be so bloody perfect that I loved her. I just don't want her to get hurt, any more than she has to. By not telling her I love her, I'm protecting her."

"Protecting me, Harry?" Ginny stood there by the portrait hole, hands on her hips, her eyes blazing. "Protecting me? I am seventeen years old now. I do not need protecting from anyone, Voldemort included. Yes I know what he's like, I've had him in me, remember? And I don't care whether he's after me or not. All I care about is that I love you, and that you feel the same way back. I want to be with you Harry, and I've waited for seven years. I don't want to wait any longer. Either you accept that, and let me be, or…" She let the option hang in the air.

"I can't let you get hurt, Gin." Harry said, as he hung his head, looking at the floor. "I couldn't stand it if you got hurt."

"Well it looks as if you've decided." And with that Ginny ran up to her dormitory, tears filling her eyes. Harry flopped down onto the nearby armchair and stared into the fire.

***************

"That's so sad!" Gypsy declared, tears filling her bright blue eyes.

"Yeah, but there's more." Melody said, glancing once again, at her depressed red-headed friend.

Review if you want…….