The rest of the weekend past quickly and at the D.A. meeting on Monday night an escort system was set up for Justin's safety. It was now Tuesday morning and Harry and Ron were waiting in the common room for Hermione and Ginny to come down so they could head to breakfast. Hermione walked down the stairs by herself with a concerned look on her face. "Where's Ginny?" Harry asked her.

Hermione gave Ron a quick look before answering him. "She isn't feeling well. We'll see her at lunch."

"What do you mean she isn't feeling well? Ginny is never sick!" Harry cried exasperatedly.

Hermione looked at Ron again and Harry saw Ron nod. "Come on mate, let's go down to breakfast." Ron said trying to lead Harry towards the portrait hole.

"What? Why would you want to leave her alone if she isn't feeling well? What if she needs something?" Harry looked between Ron and Hermione. "What aren't you two telling me?"

"Nothing Harry! Now come one, let's go down." Hermione said trying to pacify him.

For some reason this just made Harry even more concerned about Ginny. "No, I'm going to go and see her." And without waiting for a response he ran up the stairs to the girl's dorms. When he spotted the sixth year room he found that the door was slightly ajar so he pushed it open and looked around cautiously. He quickly spotted Ginny on her bed. She was curled up in a ball on her side, hugging her knees to her chest. Harry could see from her face that she was in a lot of pain. He walked quietly over to her bed and kneeled on the floor. He put his hand on her head, stroking her hair. "Ginny?"

Her eyes flew open. "HARRY! How did you get up here?" Ginny looked surprised.

"Uh… I walked." Then he understood. "Uh… I should have slid down the stairs but I didn't… I don't know why. Maybe the stairs think I'm a girl or something." He tried to get her to laugh but she didn't even crack a smile, just grimaced in pain. "What's wrong Ginny? Can I do anything for you?" He kept running his hand along her hair. It was horrible seeing her in this much pain… he just wanted to take it away but he didn't even know what was wrong with her.

"It's nothing Harry. Why don't you just go down to breakfast?" She drew in a sharp breath and started to rock slightly still hugging her knees. Harry saw tears flow out of her eyes.

"IT'S NOT NOTHING! You are obviously hurting! What can I do to help?" Harry asked. He felt helpless and he hated that feeling especially when it came to Ginny.

Ginny looked sharply at him and narrowed her eyes. "Unless you want to actually be the girl in our relationship for me you can't do anything!" She hissed out through clenched teeth.

"What?"

"I have CRAMPS Harry! I forgot to get the potion from Madam Pomfrey yesterday that would prevent them so now I have to wait until I can move and go up their to get it." Ginny closed her eyes and sighed deeply.

Harry's first reaction was to be embarrassed. The first time she had mentioned this to him he had been very uncomfortable but the more he looked at her face the more he realized that his embarrassment meant nothing next to the pain that she was in. He took a deep breath. "Can I go and get the potion from Madam Pomfrey for you?"

Ginny looked at him as if assessing whether he was serious or not. "No. She has to monitor me for about a half an hour after I take it. One of the side affects is possible internal bleeding so she has to watch me to make sure I don't have any problems."

Harry leaned over and kissed her brow. He noticed that it was damp. "You told me that this was really painful… I can see it all over your face that you hurt. Do you want me to carry you up there?"

"You couldn't carry me all the way up to the hospital wing."

"I'm not that weak! I've been doing push-ups and stuff. I could probably make it a good ways. Or I could float you on a stretcher."

"NO! That would be really embarrassing and people would ask what is wrong with me. I don't want everyone to know that I have my period." Ginny took a deep breath and sat up slowly. She ran a hand distractedly through her hair, trying to push it away from her face. "I'm all sweaty and gross."

"No worse than after Quidditch." He took her arm and helped her stand.

She walked carefully over to the mirror, grabbing her brush on the way. She tried to brush her hair out but Harry saw her wince in pain and she doubled over holding her stomach. Harry took the brush from her hand and gentle brushed her hair out. She really did have the most beautiful hair that he had ever seen. Ginny looked into the mirror. "Well that's better, thanks Harry."

The mirror piped in at that point. "You still look terrible! You need to put some weight on you and maybe get rid of the freckles and then you won't look half bad."

Harry looked at the mirror horrified. Did it just insult Ginny? He started to say something but Ginny stopped him. "That mirror is always nasty to me. Don't worry about it." She took his arm and walked out of her dorm. Harry helped her down the stairs and out of the now empty common room. The walk up to the hospital wing was slow and several times they had to stop so that Ginny could catch her breath.

One of those times Harry asked her again if there was something he could do. She was standing against a wall with her hands behind her. Harry thought she might be rubbing her back. She turned around and rested against the wall with her head in her arms. "Massage my lower back." Harry walked up to her and put his hands on her back and started to rub lightly. "No, lower… yes and push harder, with your thumbs right at the base of my spine. Yeah… oh that is good." She let out a sigh of relief. "Damn do I HATE having my period."

"Well, well, well…" A voice drawled from behind them. Harry spun around pulling his wand out to see Draco Malfoy who quickly raised his hands. He had a satisfied smile on his pale face. "Lower your wand Potter, I'm not about to curse you. So… the little Weasel has her period… how very interesting and informative. Good to know. Well, as a prefect I have to tell you that classes have started so get moving." Draco turned and walked off.

"What the hell was that all about?" Harry asked turning to look at Ginny.

"I don't know but I really don't trust him." She flinched again as another wave of pain hit her. "Let's go Harry, it's getting harder to walk."

Harry nodded and walked over to her but instead of giving her his arm he picked her up and started to walk towards the hospital wing. It was a testament to how badly Ginny was hurting that she did not protest. She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in his neck.

When they reached the door to the hospital wing Harry awkwardly opened it and immediately called for the nurse.

"What happened Ms. Weasley?"

Ginny seemed to be holding her breath and unable to speak. Harry looked at Madam Pomfrey and answered for her. "She has cramps."

Understanding washed over the matron's face. "Ah, yes put her on one of the beds Mr. Potter and I shall be back in a moment." She left quickly.

Harry looked around and saw that there was no one else there so he picked the closest bed and set her down. She curled into a ball on her side again and Harry pulled up a chair facing her back so that he could start massaging her back again. She seemed to relax somewhat so he kept it up until the nurse came back. She gazed at Harry speculatively before turning to give the potion to Ginny. Harry helped her sit up to take it and watched her gulp it down. Harry expected her to feel better instantly but all she did was lay down on her side again.

"Now, Ms. Weasley try and remember next month to get it before hand so that we do not have a repeat performance. I'll let you know when you can leave and as before if you start to feel dizzy just yell." She left.

Harry ran a hand along Ginny's arm. "Are you feeling better yet?"

"No. It takes about twenty minutes to work. Can you lay down with me? Like we did that night on the couch…" She lengthened out and moved over so that Harry could cuddle up behind her. He put his arm under her head and went to wrap his other arm around her waist but she grabbed his hand and moved it onto her lower abdomen. She sighed with relief.

"Does that help?" Harry asked. He did not see how it would it but he was glad that he could do something to make her feel better. The embarrassment that he had felt in her dorm was completely gone. Now he was more curious about everything.

"Yes," she replied with a sigh. "Heat helps and your hand is warm… also this just feels good, I mean, you holding me and all."

Harry smiled and buried his face in her hair. He smelled the flowery sent that was her signature scent. "I love you. I'm sorry you have to go through this."

"I love you too but I'm okay with going through with this. I have to if we're ever going to have a baby."

That sparked another question for Harry. "Do all girls have cramps this bad?" He had not ever noticed other girls in pain like Ginny was.

"No, mine are just especially horrible. Most girls are just really uncomfortable. For a few hours or even a day. Some girls never have cramps."

"Oh, so you're just really lucky then."

Ginny giggled. "Yeah… I'm really lucky." She turned her head so that she could look at him. "You did really well today, making me feel better. You also did well at not showing your embarrassment. I'm really lucky to have you." She smiled and kissed him.

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The next two weeks were some of the best that Harry had ever lived for several reasons. Voldemort was quiet and had not killed anyone. One of the Ravenclaw sixth year girls was hit with an Imperius Curse but because she had several D.A. members with her she had been protected. The 'guards' started shooting stunners at the two masked assailants while one of her friends grabbed her and kept her from going anywhere. The two Death Eaters got away but there was a small victory party that night when they all got together. It was heartening to know that their efforts were paying off. Another positive thing was that Justin had not been attacked once. Also Harry was making amazing progress on his work with Professor Dumbledore. He had actually beaten him in one duel and the Headmaster was convinced that soon Harry would be able to beat him regularly. The best part about those two weeks had to do with Ginny though. After they had lain together in the hospital wing their relationship felt deeper than it had before. Ginny opened up to him and told him more about her secrets and dreams. Ginny had always been very guarded about what she wanted to do after Hogwarts but she finally opened up and shared with him what she wanted to do and when she told him, Harry had been completely shocked.

"You want to be a what?" Harry asked her incredulously.

"A Mind Healer." She replied a little defensively. Her cheeks were slightly pink.

"But… what is a Mind Healer?" He asked. He knew what a Healer was, of course, but did she mean a therapist or something?

"Well… it's someone who helps someone else feel better by talking about their problems. Hermione knows and she says it's what muggles call a therapist."

A therapist? His conversation with Remus from Christmas came back to him…

"I think you need some professional help." Remus had stated

"Oh good so now I need a therapist because I can't talk to girls?" Harry retorted.

"No, I think that you need the help of a girl that you trust to acclimate you to the way a woman's mind works." Was Remus' reply.

He was going to marry a therapist… not only that but HIS therapist… the girl who had helped him understand women better. The irony was just too much and suddenly he could not hold it in. He started laughing.

Ginny huffed. "I didn't think you'd laugh at me."

"NO!" Harry said quickly, the humor about the situation left him. He told her what Remus had said and when she got it she smiled too.

"It's just… you have to have amazing NEWT scores or they won't accept you. You have to do all the training that a Healer does and then still go through another two years of training. It's really tough and only the very best get into the program. I'm not sure that I'll make it in and if I don't, I just didn't want anyone to know that I had failed."

"I think you'll get in. You are really smart and you have really good grades. I think you'll do fine. I'll even help you study." Harry told her confidently.

"Well… there's something else. I have to be at St. Mungo's to do my training for a lot of years but you want to be a teacher here at Hogwarts. It's would be strange not being here with you."

Harry thought about. "Well we will have next year together and then we'll have to see how it goes." It would be a tough commute for you to go there but since I can just Apparate here we could live in London."

"Really?" Ginny asked hopefully.

"Yeah, of course I mean it."

Ginny's face lit up with a smile. "I've been meaning to tell Dumbledore that Hogwarts needs a Mind Healer… kids have lots of problems too and I want to work with kids. Do you think he'd hire me?"

"I'm sure he would."

They then talked about what they wanted from life and what they saw in their future. They talked about when they would have kids and how many they wanted. They both agreed that they wanted four children but Ginny did not want to stay home like her mum did. It would take some more discussions but Harry was really starting to look forward to his future. He felt like had a real reason to live… a reason to kill Voldemort that was completely to do with him and was not motivated by someone else. When Harry mentioned that he really wanted to marry her soon, Ginny had the realization that her parents did not even know that they were dating and panicked. Nothing personal went in mail so she had not thought to write to them. Harry had to laugh. He then reassured her that he had asked Dumbledore to pass the word along when he saw them and that the Headmaster told him that the senior Weasley's were delighted about them dating. Ginny had smacked his arm for not telling her sooner and then laughed in relief that her parents were happy for them.

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The day that the bubble of happiness burst was two weeks after Ginny's stint in the hospital wing. It was Wednesday after lunch during Ginny's free period and Ginny had gone with Harry to the Room of Requirements to help him practice some new Shielding Charms that Professor Meeks had taught on Monday. She had asked Harry to be in class to help her demonstrate and he hired rapidly fired spells at the ancient woman and was amazed that her shield held for quite awhile. Harry had tried to practice on his own but found it difficult. Ginny had wanted to learn it as well so they had set that time apart to practice. After an hour and a half of practicing they were both very skilled at the shield and they had spent the next half hour doing other things. They walked out of the Room and Harry's mind was still in a daze. He loved kissing Ginny. It always made his head spin and his heart sore.

Harry had taken Ginny's hand and walked out of the room. She had said something about needing to hurry to get to Charms when it happened. Harry heard a spell coming towards him. He turned to block it but before he was fully around the jet of red light had hit him.

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A/N: I'm sorry for the cliffhanger! I didn't do it on purpose… well I did but I didn't do it to drive you insane. I wanted to get this one up and work on the next chapter so I had to send something off to get corrected or you wouldn't have had it for a while. Anyway, I have the next chapter completed and my editor has it so when she gets it back to me it will go straight up!