I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters mentioned in the books authored by J. K. Rowling. Any characters that are in this story that are not in the book are not owned by J. K. Rowling. This has been a note from Captain Obvious.

Chapter Two

One time could be a coincidence, as could be two times. But after several meals passed that way, it was clear to Ginny that one certain blond Slytherin could not keep his eyes off of her.

"Kara...I think he's staring at me." Ginny said, inclining her head in the direction of the Slytherin table.

"Staring at you? Well, it certainly doesn't seem to be in a bad way...Turn around...no, you haven't got ketchup on your forehead or anything." was the reply.

"Do you think he could be-no, he'd never-oh, boys are just so frustrating." sighed Ginny.

"Hey! Don't you girls know that you're the confusing ones?" exclaimed an offended Ron at overhearing this last part.

"Why, because all of our emotions don't fit neatly into a teacup?" said Hermione.

"But that's exactly what's confusing! You can never decide how you truly feel! Nothing is ever constant!" countered Harry.

"Yeah, I think you learned that well enough from when you dated Cho. Or, should I say, when you went on one date with her before she dumped you for being an insensitive prat." Hermione replied.

"Hey, it's not my fault that she couldn't stop crying! I was ready to send her to St. Mungo's for potion for her eyes!"

"It's not your fault, mate, she wasn't crying when you asked her out and all, how were you supposed to know that she'd completely turn into a water fountain?" said Ron in an attempt to back Harry up.

"What, you think that being predictable would be better?" said Parvati from across the table. "The world is not your crystal ball, you know."

"Speaking of being predictable, Hermione, can you help me with that Astronomy essay? Let's go back to the Common Room and work on it." Ron said.

"Ron, that was assigned three days ago! Why haven't you even started it yet?" chided Hermione as the group got up and started walking upstairs to the Fat Lady's portrait.

"I never said I hadn't started it...."

"Yeah, but I know that's what you meant."

And they continued until they reached the portrait, with Ginny and Kara following behind them.

At the sight of Hermione's copy of yesterday's Daily Prophet spread out over the table, Ginny was reminded of something.

"Hey, Kara, I think I know something that might be able to help me...you know, about him." Ginny whispered in her friend's ear as Kara sat in rapt attention of her Arithmancy book.

Racing upstairs to their dormitory, Ginny threw up the lid of her trunk and began to rifle through it, eventually surfacing with a thin booklet picturing a smiling, heavily made-up girl on its cover. Kara looked at it strangely-the blonde girl was not moving at all, but merely stayed in its pose standing on a sunny beach.

"This is a Muggle magazine for teen girls like us, or what would be us if we didn't have magic. I got it from Dad; he has loads of Muggle books, and I didn't think that he would miss this one, even though he is pretty obsessed with collecting them. Some of the stuff in here is a laugh, they don't have spells to put on make-up so there's all this advice about how to put it on with all these little paintbrush things. But, I think there is some advice about boys somewhere in here. Let's take a look." Flipping to the table of contents, Ginny shifted her eyes up and down the page until she found it. 'Does He Like You That Way? Go to page 47 to find out!'

Turning to the page, Ginny and Kara scanned the questions. "Most of this is useless Muggle stuff...what's chemistry and why would you take a class in it?" Kara said, reading off the first question on the quiz.

"Aha!" Ginny exclaimed. "Here's one that makes sense! 'At a school assembly, he keeps looking at you from across the gym.' "

"Er...what's a gym?"

"I don't know, but this is school, and he keeps looking at me. Yes, I know it's not much to go on...but I really think that it's a possibility that he could love me back."

"The problem is, you're in different years and don't really see each other all that often, except at meals."

Ginny's face fell. "Yeah, but a girl can hope."

"Don't hope too much...remember, he'll be leaving Hogwarts at the end of the year."

Casting her eyes down back to the magazine, Ginny replied. "I know. I don't want to think about it too much. But if he really does care, I think he'll try to approach me about it by the end of the term. And it's still the first week of school, there's plenty more time."

"Don't worry too much about it, okay? We've got to keep our marks up if we want to take N.E.W.T. level classes."

"Yeah. And Kara, thanks for always being here for me to talk to."

"It's no problem. I even listened to you when you had a crush on Harry Potter!"

They were interrupted by Hermione's exasperated cry of "RON! SATURN HAS RINGS, NOT WINGS! WILL YOU EVER LEARN?"

"I guess we had better finish that homework."