That evening was buzzing in the Weasley home. Not with excitement, you understand, but with confusion. Oh, so much confusion.

"Where's Ally?" Hermione asked, jumping up and down while placing the plates on the table.

"Oh, I've sent Charlie and Bill to pick her up from the hostpital. She'll be here shortly - and, please, don't jump while you're holding that china!" Molly replied, eyeing her carefully.

"Oh, um, Molly?" Hermione said quietly, looking around the empty kitchen.

"Yes dear?"

"I...I haven't told Harry or Ron yet."

"Why not?"

"I...I would like it to be a surprise for them, if you dont mind."

Molly looked at her suspiciously. "All right," she finally said. "But the rest of my family knows, of course?"

"Of course," Hermione replied. There was a knock on the door. "Oh, that must be Ron and Harry," she said, scuffling for the door. "Harry! Ron! Hello!"

Molly chuckled softly as she heard Hermione's voice. She had stretched their names and the hello and sounded like she was hosting a bloody tea party.

"'Mione? What's all this about?" Ron inquired, sniffing the air and basking in the fact that he was soon going to be very well fed.

"Yeah. We had to leave in the middle of a very important meeting - " Harry was saying before Hermione interrupted him.

"I think you're going to like it."

"Like what?" Ron said, only for a moment did his nose forget the smell of freshly made food.

"You'll see," Hermione said with a sly smile. "Now, why don't we all have a seat at the table..."

(outside of the Burrow)

"So...how do you know Harry again?" Bill asked, giving Ally his hand as he helped her out of the magic car.

"We went to Hogwarts together," she replied quietly, pulling her hair into a ponytail and smoothing out her black dress.

"Really? Queer, he hasn't spoken of you," Charlie said. "To think he would've."

Ally looked at him. He didn't say anything about me?

"Oh well, perhaps - "

"Charlie," Bill interrupted, nearly glaring at his brother to stop. Then he turned to Ally. "Don't worry about him. He tends to just speak his mind..." Charlie raised an eyebrow to Bill and then to Ally before opening the door. Bill walked inside first. "All right, Charlie. Go on and make sure everyone's in their seats."

"But why?"

"Because that's what Hermione told us to do remember?" Bill said, giving Ally his hand again to help her up the small step. Bill and Ally watched him go inside the dining room, and heard a faint 'the person who shall remain anonymous until they enter the dining room is now here'.

Ally looked at Bill. "Was all this planned and organized in a very particular way?"

"Basically, yeah."

"And they don't even know who's their dinner guest?"

"Only the priveledged few. It's kind of a surprise for certain people." Bill smiled at her. She looked down at her dress. The dark purple roses were scattered here and there - oh, Ally couldn't believe that Molly sent her this dress. It felt so itchy... "You ready?" he asked.

"...Er...yes?" she answered with very little confidence. "All right. This way." Ally trailed reluctantly behind Bill as he opened the door. "Here we are! Ally!" he announced, his arms in the air. He moved to her side to show everyone.

Ally didn't look at the people sitting at the table. She found something on Bill's shoes much more interesting. I think they're called laces, the confident side of Ally said sarcastically. But what if they don't remember me? the scaredy-cat side replied. You'll get over it, the brave side said.

"...Er, hi there, Ally," Hermione said, standing up and breaking the silence. "It's been a long time." She walked over to Ally and gave her a hug. "Here, come sit by me," Hermione said after her long-gone friend simply patted her on the back. She pulled Ally's chair out, pushing it back in after Ally had seated herself.

Ally swallowed hard. She looked around her; she didn't even know (Or maybe I just don't remember, she said, trying to comfort herself.) half of the people sitting at the table. A not-too-plump woman was at one of the table, and a balding man at the other. (Husband and wife? Ally guessed.) At the woman's right was Ginny Weasely - of course she knew her. She was the one who had told her to just ignore Ron (because Ron didn't really like her), and he was a just a stupid git that didn't know anything that didn't involve food or rats. Next to Ginny was Draco Malfoy - she knew him, too. It was hard to forget the person who had taunted her incessantly for being friends with Harry, Hermione and Ron.

And that's when her heart skipped a beat. For beside Draco was Harry Potter. ...But, he wasn't looking at her. In fact, it seemed as though he was trying to avoid her. Doesn't he remember me? she thought painfully. Next to Harry was Ron, who looked devastatingly hungry. Beside Ron were the two young men who had escorted her inside (Bill and Charlie). And then it was the balding man. On the man's right was a pair of twins. She had no idea who they were and vice versa, but they smiled at each other anyway. Beside the twins was Hermione - good, old Hermione. Always there to break the silence, and Ally was grateful that she had broken the silence when she did. Otherwise, Ally would've run out of there. After Hermione was herself, and then a young lady with brown hair (Penelope Clearwater; Percy's girlfriend). Beside her was another red-haired fellow that she also didn't recognize (Percy). And then it was back to the plump-ish and rather aging woman.

The rest of the dinner was filled with silence - except for the occasional laughs from the twins, and also when they made the whole chicken become alive again and had run straight for Percy and started pecking at him viciously. Although, he wasn't hurt because who cooks a whole chicken with its beak still attached? Ally thought with a small smile. As aforementioned, the dinner was filled with silence and the clearing of throats that one usually does when feeling awkward - and believe me, this dinner was extremely awkward.

After the dinner, Harry was the first to leave the table, which caused a painful jolt in Ally's heart.

"...er, maybe you should talk to him," Hermione offered. "I'm sharing a bedroom with you, so I'll be in there preparing for my classes tomorrow."

"Thanks," Ally said, forcing a smile. As Hermione patted her on the shoulder, Ally turned to see Ron glaring at her while licking his fingers of the chicken grease. Quickly, she got up and began looking for Harry.

After about half an hour, she found him out on the balcony, sitting on the railing and watching the sky. Just like that night, when he told me about Sirius... Ally recalled. She stepped cautiously onto the balcony, closing the glass door behind her. "Harry?" she said quietly.

"What?" he replied, not taking his gaze off the sky.

Walking toward him, she asked, "How've you been?"

"Fine; thanks."

"...Er, that's good." When he didn't reply, she continued nervously. "So...you're an Auror now, huh? That's wonderful."

"Yeah."

"...I heard you killed You-Know-Who."

"Yeah."

"That's good..." Regaining as much of that Gryffindor courage as she could, she sat beside on the balcony - which was quite a task, considering she was in a dress (which she ended up slightly ripping near the hem when she stretched her legs over the concrete balusters). She took a breath. "...Harry, are you mad at me?"

"...No."

"Then why are you giving me only one-word answers? And why aren't you looking at me?"

He didn't say anything.

"Harry?" she persisted.

"Just leave me alone!" he shouted, throwing his arms in the air.

Ally was taken aback. Slowly she said, "What...what's wrong?"

"I don't love you anymore!" he screamed, looking at her with the angriest eyes she'd ever seen. They were red and looked as though he had been crying... "Don't you understand that?"

"...What?" Ally asked disbelievingly.

"I don't love you anymore, Ally!" he shouted again. Ally didn't say anything, so he continued angrily. "What we had was childish and stupid! It didn't mean anything to me! So leave me alone! I've moved on already!"

"That's because you've had the time to!" she screamed back, her small hands in a fist. She felt the tears begin to form in her eyes, but she didn't care. She thought it was time to show this...this gentleman that she had feelings, too. Then she added sarcastically and quietly, "I didn't realize that waiting for your girlfriend to wake up from a come was such a burden - "

"Well, get used to it, Ally. And FYI, you're not my girlfriend anymore," he spat in a normal tone of voice. His eyes pierced through her innocent and crying face. After a few moments, she looked away from him, and then got off the baluster (which caused another rip on her skirt). And as she walked, Harry started to feel guilty...and curiosity seized him. She had just touched the doorknob when he called after her calmly; "Ally?"

Ally stopped, biting her lower lip.

"Do...do you still love me?" he asked, nearly choking from silent tears.

She turned around to reveal her red eyes, her tear-streaked face which was now turning red. Through strong sniffles, she answered coldly, "What do you think?"

Harry didn't say anything; Ally walked back into the house and headed for her room where Hermione ended up comforting her.