A/n: Obviously by 'next Saturday' I meant 'next month'. Sorry guys, this story fell into a rut for me, but through great difficulty I pulled it out. I hope that you all like this chapter, it has a little bit of Harry/Ginny romance, because some say they miss that. Please review, and enjoy!

Aimee

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Sanity of the Insane

Chapter Sixteen

Consequences

Ginny chewed her lip as she watched Harry straining to remember any time that he'd used the marauders map in the past two years, as they had narrowed it down as to when it was noticed because of their doubt that Draco would have waited this long.

"I didn't use it that much last year, not really, I mean just to sneak into Umbridge's office, and to go to D.A. meetings… and to go visit Hagrid…. Oh this is pointless… what does it matter where they saw me use it, I hardly ever activate outside of the common room, so they probably only know how to erase it, if that." Harry leaned forward, his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. Ginny reached out to put a soothing hand on his back.

"Harry, don't vex yourself over this." She said smoothly, "We'll get it back, we've just got to plan…" Ginny trailed off as she saw the portrait hole swing open, and Ron clamber through it, pale faced and alone. "Hello Ron… Where's Hermione?"

Ron looked at her emptily for a moment, then sat down, assuming the same position that Harry was sporting. "Gone." He said in a whisper barely audible.

"What!" Ginny choked, nearly falling off the couch. "'Gone'? What do you mean 'gone'?"

"I mean she's gone Ginny, how many meanings can one thing have… oh wait, I see what you're getting at. No, its… she's not gone, gosh Ginny, don't think like that. She's gone to St. Mungo's for a few days for rehabilitation, she should be back soon." Ron gave her a look that plainly stated that he thought she was loosing it then stood up and stretched. "Well, I think I'm off to b—"

"Wait just a moment… what happened when Hermione went to McGonagall's office?" Ginny cut him off impatiently.

"Oh, well, she just sort of spilled it all out there, but not like she did with you Ginny. She looked right angry when she was telling McGonagall, and when she found out she was going to be sent to rehab, well, I was really scared that she might spontaneously combust or something!" Ron ran a hand over his still slightly pale face. "Speaking of scary, did you hear her in here when she was mad? She used language that I can hardly believe! It was great, now I've got something to dangle over her a bit when I do something wrong…"

"Ron that's not such a good idea…"

"I know, I know, don't push the lady with the drug problem, McGonagall told me all about being sensitive and stuff." Harry snorted at that, and Ron puffed importantly. "What, don't think I can be sensitive with my own girlfriend?" He demanded, jabbing a finger at himself.

"No, not that, it's just that McGonagall was the one telling you to be sensitive… she is one of the most coarse woman that I know!" Harry smiled as he went back to his notes about the marauder's map.

"Oh," Ron's face returned to a normal shade. "What's that you're working on there Harry? We didn't have any home work that I've forgotten about have we?"

"Has dating Hermione changed you that much?" Harry asked incredulously, smirking. "And, no, we didn't have any work this is just something that I'm working on in my spare time."

"Oh," Ron looked at the paper a bit curiously, only to have Ginny cover it up.

"Honestly, can't you be respectful of people's privacy, its just stuff about the D.A., you'll know soon enough." Ginny said earnestly, "Now weren't you going to bed?"

"I'm going, I'm going, it's just rather sad that your best mate tells your sister more than he tells you…"

"Well, maybe that means that you should reevaluate your own values." Ginny smirked at him.

"Oh can it, I'm too tired for this. It's just sad is all…"

"Good night Ron."

"Right, I can take a hint. Night…" He waved to them as he ascended the staircase to the boys dorm.

"You're a cool lie!" Harry smiled at Ginny.

"Well, when you have to live with him," Ginny jerked her thumb in the direction of the boys dormitory, "and you grow up with role models like Fred and George, well, you pick these things up."

Harry shook his head. "You are a mystery Ginny Weasley."

Ginny smiled, "I know, but if I wasn't, what would the fun be?"

"Well, if the fun ends there, then I hope I never figure you out!" Harry cringed inwardly at the comment, but didn't revoke it.

Ginny just smiled at him and tweaked his cheek. "Now, don't we have some plans to contrive?"

Harry groaned. "Alright, back to work again…"

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Ron absently drummed his fingers on his desktop in Potions the next day, thoughts of Hermione and what was happening racing through his mind. Sometime during the time she had been gone he had formed a mental picture of her being strapped to a bed and subjected to brutal pain, though he couldn't quite figure out why pain would stop an addiction to wakefulness potions.

"Weasley!" Ron jumped and looked up to the front of the room where Snape stood, glaring at him.

"What?" He asked in what he hoped was an innocent voice.

"You have sat there, apparently day dreaming for the past ten minutes. By now your potion should be in its final stages." As he spoke, Snape walked over to Ron's cauldron, peering at the contents. "And as I see it, you've only just added the powdered amethyst crystals, which is the second step."

"Thanks for the update…" Ron mumbled, wishing that Snape would just go away.

"Mr. Weasley! You will hold your tongue when I address you! I only take the most serious students into my N.E.W.T. level coarse, and through some miracle you have managed to slip in. If you do not learn to do your work and not sit staring off into space like an idiot, probably daydreaming about your little girlfriend, then I will kick you out." Snape glared down his overly large nose at Ron, but today was the wrong time to mess with him.

"Bit cross lately, aren't you? Well, more than usual on any account. Could that be because you've been chucked out by your lord, and you've found that no one else wants you either?" Ron spat at him, letting his temper flare.

"You are going to force me to remove you from this class…" Snape said threateningly.

"Really, chuck me out you say?" Ron asked mockingly, and Harry gave him a warning look. "No, you can't."

"What did you say?"

"You-can't-kick-me-out." Ron annunciated firmly, carefully pronouncing each word as he said them.

"Don't bet on it, you can consider yourself remov-" Snape began, but Ron cut him off.

"Save it. You can't chuck me out because I quit your stupid class! Forget it, so I won't be an Auror, big deal, at least I won't have to deal with you!" Ron shouted as he threw his ingredients into his bag. As Ron stormed for the doorway, Snape gave a little chuckle.

"Don't worry, there will always be room for you at that joke of an office your father works in." He smirked as the Slytherins erupted with laughter.

Ron turned about, his face a deeper red than anyone had ever recalled seeing, his hand reaching deep into his robes. "I'll show you. You can just take this course and shove it!" At the very moment that Ron pulled his wand out of his robes, Harry tackled him. "Harry, GET. OFF. ME!" Ron roared as he hit the ground, struggling to point his wand at Snape.

"Ron, no!" Harry shouted. "He is not worth it!"

"Oh yes this is worth it!" Ron growled back as he still struggled against his friend's restraints.

"You could be expelled for this!"

"Yes, you could Weasley." Snape snapped, as he pulled his own wand out. "Expelliarmus!" He spat, cleanly catching Ron's wand as his flew towards his hand. "Potter, stop playing hero, and returned to your cauldron." This caused the Slytherins to erupt again. "Weasley, get up! You're insubordination will cost your dearly. Not only will you be removed from my class, but you have lost Gryffindor one hundred house points, and you will now follow me to the Headmaster's office for further punishments." He glanced around the room. "You will all finish your potions, leave a labeled flask on my desk and then you are dismissed. Lets go Weasley."

Ron glared at him, breathing heavily, but followed him out the door followed by hisses and catcalls from the Slytherin portion of the room.

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Ginny stormed into the Common Room, closely trailed by Harry who was pleading with her.

"Ginny, don't. I was there, and it wasn't really that bad…" He begged as she stormed on, finally stopping before Ron who sat in a chair.

"Ronald Bilius Weasley!" She shouted at him.

"Save it, Ginevra Molly Weasley." Ron groaned, glancing at her, then looking back to the fire.

"You have gone too far this time, and I mean it! How could you try to hex a teacher, and quit a class, lose one hundred points for Gryffindor and get kicked off the Quidditch team all in one day!" She screeched, unable to contain her anger.

"I didn't get kicked off the team." Ron amended. "I just can't play in the next match."

"Oh, it's just as well! That's our Slytherin match!" She spat.

"Ginny, listen, I did what I had to, alright? Lay off, you're not my Mum." Ron groaned, leaning forward and putting his head in his hands.

"Oh, no I'm not Mum, but I can't wait to tell her this!"

"Save your time and breath, Dumbledore's telling her personal. Probably as we speak."

"Good. Now, wait till Hermione gets back…"

At those words Ron looked at her sharply. "You will shut your mouth. You better not say one word of this to Hermione, she's under enough self inflicted stress with out me adding to it."

"Well you should have thought about that before you went and decided to show out!"

"You better not say a bloody word!" Ron warned her scathingly.

"What, do you really think that she won't figure it out. I mean, honestly, all it will take is one potions class, when you tell her 'hey, Hermione, I think I'll sit this one out' I think she's going to be a bit suspicious."

"Well, that's me telling her. Like you seem to believe, this is my mess, so let me tell her about it, you've no right to." Ron told her crossly as he stood and crossed to the boys dorm, "And if I hear that you did, trust me, you'll pay."

Ginny watched him climb the stairs trembling with rage. She turned and kicked the couch he was sitting on, smarting her toe and increasing her plight. She threw herself onto the couch crossly, staring into the fire, apparently unaware of the crowd that had gathered to watch the Weasley fight.

"Show's over." Harry mumbled to them all as he took his spot beside Ginny tentatively. "Ginny, are you alright?" He asked carefully, not wanting her rage to lash to him.

She glanced at him and gave a little smile. "Sorry, I'm fine, he's just so… stupid!" she leaned against his shoulder. "I mean, where are we going to find another keeper before the match?"

"I guess that we'll just have to hold a small try out, and see what happens." Harry suggested, kissing the top of her head.

"Don't you remember the last tryouts? They were dreadful."

"Well, I'm sure we'll think of something." Harry comforted her.

"I hope you're right." She sighed, watching the fire crackle lively in the hearth.

"Me too." Harry agreed, running his hands through her soft red hair.

They sat like that for some time, Ginny leaning into Harry, staring into the fire. Ginny only stirred when she realized that the slow rhythmic movement of Harry's chest meant that he had fallen asleep. She smiled and looked up at him, watching him sleep, looking more peaceful than he ever did in the waking hours. Reluctantly she leaned up and stroked his cheek to wake him. It took a few moments to rouse him, but he finally came to, looking around in confusion for a few seconds, then smiling as his eyes rested on her.

"Well, I could get used to waking up to your face." He smiled, giving her a quick kiss.

Ginny returned his smile, and his kiss, then sat back against the couch. "I'm sure that you could, but that's some time in the future, Mr. Potter." She giggled. "For now you need to go to your dorm, and I need to go to mine…"

"Mmm." Harry groaned, stroking her face. "Can't we just stay here for a while?"

"Harry, you'll fall back asleep… I'll fall asleep."

"So? Then I could wake up to you again."

"I look a fright in the morning," Ginny grinned at him.

"Impossible."

"People will talk…"

"Let them." Harry pulled her face to his and gave her a soft kiss on the lips.

Ginny smiled, her lips still on his and whispered. "Ok, but just for a little while." She snuggled up against him, conjuring up a blanket and quickly fell asleep to the rhythmic breathing of Harry.

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The turn out for the tryouts for the temporary keeper position were meager, though the signs advertising the event were colorful and stated that whoever got the position would surely be praised for the defeat of Slytherin. Looking around the pitch at the handful of hopefuls, Harry realized that the responsibility and humiliation of possible loss was easily connected with the task, and that this connection scared most off. He sighed and looked at Katie, who seemed to be thinking along these very same lines.

"Hello everyone." She bellowed in her magically magnified voice, and the light chatter ended at once. "Now, I will be honest, I was hoping for more people, so this tryout won't be as long as previously posted, we may even finish within the hour. First, is there any one here who doesn't know the fundamentals of Quidditch and/or of the keeper?" No one stepped forward, but one second year seemed to be going over a list in her head. "Good, now it is vital that you understand that this is only one game, not a full time position. This could work out to your advantage in two ways, one being that if we lose, every one will say that it was just your first game, and you won't have to be humiliated in future games. The other is that if we win you get glory, and exposure for next year's tryouts." She ran a hand over her face. "Alright, since there are only…" she quickly counted heads, "Eleven of you, I guess that you will go one at a time. We are going to try our best to simulate an in game environment. We will have the chasers sending the quaffle your way, while the beaters pelt you. The only thing that will be different is that Harry won't be seeking, but rather observing in the stands, got it? Alright then, erm, Dennis Creevey." She read the name from the short list in her hand. "You can go first."

Dennis visibly shrank at these words as he shakily got onto his broom, flying towards the goal posts. Harry watched him from the stands where he had just sat with his notepad in his lap. Dennis over all was dreadful, letting all but one quaffle in, and in the end being rushed to the Hospital wing because he ran into a goal post face first, breaking his nose. Harry started doodling a picture of a golden snitch absently as he watched the next four hopefuls, who save for the broken nose, were just as bad (if not worse) than Dennis. Just as he was adding speed lines to the snitch to give it life, he stopped short. A small, blonde third year was in front of the goal posts. She looked vaguely familiar, but it was her style t hat had caught his eye. She zipped around from goal to goal so quickly that she was just a blur, which was saying something as Harry was the one who looked for fast moving objects. She blocked every goal, even once performing the famous star move where she hung from her broom with one hand, while stretching out immensely to guard all three goals at once. She definitely had the position, and Harry feared for Ron, because this girl had him beat.

Two of the last people waiting to go just up and left at her performance, as did all of those that had already gone, apparently realizing that she had skills they could not or did not parallel. Neville and Seamus stayed, and Harry thought that they did a fairly alright job, but still could not top this girl. When everyone was back on the ground, Harry rushed down to join them.

"So,"Katieturned to him, breathing hard from playing. "what do you think?"

Harry quickly pointed at the blonde girl, who looked indifferent as she examined her fingernails. "Her, she definitely was the best."

"Yes, that's what I thought." Katie agreed, looking relieved that he'd felt the same. "What's your name?"

"Who, me?" The girl finally looked up at them. "I'm Victoria Blaire Lutz." She said importantly.

"You've made the team." Katie told her with a smile.

"I know. I've always had some sort of talent for this game." She murmured, looking back at her nails.

"Well, we're going to have two hour practices every night until the game…" groans from the team met her ears. "Oh, stuff it, we need to get the feel of Victoria."

Victoria looked at her with bored eyes. "Every night?" She asked her in exasperation.

"Yes, every night, I may even make them a bit more." Katie told her sternly, giving her a hard look.

"Alright, don't get all worked up about it." Victoria droned, bending to pick up her broom, which Harry noticed was a nimbus 2001, the next model down from his own.

"Just where are you going?" Katie asked her, mounting her own broom.

"To the common room…?"

"No, the first practice starts now. You can go get some quidditch robes from the dressing rooms while we warm up." Katie kicked off the ground, as did all of the other members, save Harry who wasn't dressed for practice.

"Here," Harry told her, "I'll show you where they are."

"Thanks."

He led her to the small dressing rooms that belonged to Gryffindor and pulled her out some old robes.

"I am not wearing those!" Victoria said at once, holding he nose.

"Yes, you are. These are practice robes, we keep the nice ones up for games." Harry threw them to her, pulling his own robes on over his school robes.

"How come yours are nicer?"

"Experience, and I've been on this team for five years, I've got priority, you're just a temp." He told her matter of factly, as he grabbed his broom and headed out of the rooms.

"Well, I see how that goes." She grumbled as she slipped into the robes.

Harry smiled in amusement as she made sickened noises as she rushed to catch up with him. Some people were just too over the top.

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Author's Note: Well, there you have it, I was going to give you the match in this one, but I figured miss priss would hold you over. I will try to keep this going (as in frequency), but right now I have a lot of stories that I'm starting because the ideas are nagging me, and now I have the obligation of three stories and I have to prioritize, and by my reviews, not as many people are reading this one as the others. Well, I still love you all, and hope that you will review! To my reviewers:

HpLovesMe: Yea, I had Harry spazzing over the map, but then changed my mind, because it was dead ending the story, I'll have a lot more about that in the next chapter, well, at least I hope I will.

LunaLovegood2: Yea, I said that, but then I got a job, and then with college and all, I was super darn busy, so I really have updated LESS overall, which is very terrible, and I sincerely apologize! But I'll try harder now, today is my last day of summerA, and summer b doesn't start for two weeks. (one of those weeks I'll be away at camp snowbird! Woo hoo!) But yea.

Missy May, well, I'm glad that you like it! (and that you started reviewing) Please keep reading and reviewing. How is the weather in Illinois? Here in Florida it is hot, muggy and with a 99 percent chance of rain always. Ick.

Fleury: Yea, she's in rehab, hehe, well, glad you took those two minutes to review, it means a lot, glad that you're still out there!

Well, I'm super darn excited, cuz my birthday is in TWO DAYS (June 29), and I will FINALLY be SIXTEEN woo hoo! Hehe, sorry, just excited. Bysers!

Later Days,

Aimee