It's amazing what summer vacation can do to one's writing. I have a feeling that this story will be done and over with by the end of the month - are we excited? As my first Harry Potter fic, I think I'm doing pretty well. Thanks to everyone who's left a review. It means a lot to receive such positive feedback. I hope you guys enjoy this one. It's all coming closer and closer to the final climax - in a non-naughty sort of way.

Unexpected
Chapter Ten: Intervention

Two minutes late, Ginny Weasley thought to herself, glancing down at the magically made watch around her wrist. She shifted her weight from her left leg to her right, leaning her back more heavily against the wall of the corridor she was in; just to her left was a door to a broom closet, never used, as far as she knew. Her twin brothers had made the mistake of telling her about it one night as they bragged about their snogging brigades her second year, and she'd never forgotten. She simply tried not to think about whether or not Fred had already brought Hermione there.

But there, there was that head of cinnamon-and-brown-sugar curls, that self-assured but not arrogant click of footsteps. Hermione smiled shyly when she saw Ginny, and Ginny couldn't help but grin. Though things were less than perfect, she had to cling to as much happiness as she could - because she knew that it was all going to fall out from the bottom soon. She could feel it.

The situation was far from her mind, however, as she pulled open the door to the closet and, with a glance to the corridor, which thankfully still remained empty, pulled Hermione inside with her. It was cramped and hot; she could feel Hermione's breath on her cheek and neck, her body heat radiating towards her from only an inch or two away. Exactly how she wanted the older girl.

She didn't bother with saying anything; simply grabbed Hermione around the waist and starting kissing her. It occurred to her vaguely that she didn't just want this girl, as she had originally thought - it had become a question of need, almost without her knowing. Explains why I haven't let go yet, she thought, and pulled the brunette closer to her.

Hermione melted into her; their kisses became more heated, more urgent, as they knew their time was short. Belatedly, Hermione thought to put a silencing charm around the closet's perimeters - not that the sounds of making out and between-class quickies weren't normal, but she didn't want to take any chances. Ginny mumbled something incoherent about her being such a clever witch, before stealthily sneaking her hand into Hermione's too-concealing robes.

The response, of course, was immediate. Sharp gasps and stifled moans reached Ginny's ears, the chanting of, "oh god, Ginny, oh god," slurred into her neck. It filled the silence in the room, in Ginny's heart; she didn't feel so lost, so untied.

A trembling hand got past the defenses of Ginny's robes and slipped inside her dampened panties. Her moans and labored breathing met Hermione's in the air and came together with the crashing of their lips, two ships sailing into each other and creating an explosion of passion.

Their bodies shook against each other's and Ginny collapsed against the wall, supporting both herself and the heavily breathing Hermione. She could just make out Hermione's face in the darkness, with her fuzzy-edged vision. Her fingers traced it, and she felt the tired and satisfied smile stretched across Hermione's face.

"I missed you," Hermione mumbled into Ginny's chest, making the redhead smile.

"I missed you, too," she replied, kissing her forehead. A few moments passed, and they were allowed just to hold each other, just to revel in the afterglow and let it sink into their skin and souls. Another memory of their togetherness to catalogue and pull out for a lonely day or a soft-smiled recollection.

But it had to end, of course. Obligations, places to be, the responsibilities of holding up unwanted masks… Ginny felt the sickness return to her stomach at the thought of pretending but managed to hide it well. She understood what Hermione must be going through, the turmoil and the pain, she honestly did. But that didn't mean she didn't feel sick to her stomach at the thought of it; that didn't mean that the dirty feeling could be washed away with kisses, though she liked to pretend that things weren't horrible, that things weren't complicated or that the whole predicament wasn't breaking her heart. She didn't want Hermione to worry. She didn't want them to fight again, just to sob into each other's arms and tell themselves a million apologies and a million promises just to make the next few days okay again. They'd gone without a fight about it for two weeks now; she didn't want the record to be broken this soon.

"Come on, darling," Ginny mumbled to Hermione reluctantly, pushing her gently to rest on her own weight. "We need to get down to the Great Hall for lunch. They'll all be wondering where we are."

Hermione half-smiled ruefully and nodded, reached up with one hand to caress Ginny's cheek gently before planting another brief but passionate kiss on the redhead's lips. Ginny smiled against those lips that she could kiss forever before muttering an "I-love-you" into them, to have her heart soar when it was returned in the same fashion, and finally, she opened the door to step back into reality.

…

Ginny walked a little behind Harry and Ron as they talked, licking her lips nervously and wondering how to approach. God, Ron's always hanging around Harry, she thought, letting out a large puff of air. Honestly, just because they're best friends doesn't mean that they always need to be together.

They were talking the hallway back to the Gryffindor common room. She took a deep breath - it was now or never. "Harry!" she called, causing both of the boys to stop. She walked swiftly to catch up with them, a shy smile plastered on her face. "Harry, can I talk to you," she gave Ron a meaningful look, "alone?"

Harry gave Ron a look and the redheaded boy shrugged, eying his sister curiously. "I'll meet you back in the common room, then," Ron told Harry, whistling as he walked away - but she knew that he was throwing back glances at the two of them, wondering what she wanted with the raven-haired boy.

"Can we go for a walk around?" she asked anxiously. "I need to talk to you."

Harry nodded. "Yeah, you said that before." They started walking down the opposite way. "What's this all about?"

She didn't answer for a few minutes, finding it hard to swallow or take in breath. She was about to speak, when to her surprise, the boy spoke for her. "Is this about Hermione?"

Ginny whirled on him, eyes wide with surprise. "What are you talking about?" she asked, more sharply than she meant to. How would he know how would he know have we not been sneaky enough is this already falling apart what's going on what's going on what's going on, her brain screamed at her in unintelligible babble.

But Harry just smiled, patted her head gently - pulling the condescending card, but Ginny was used to it by now. And he meant well. But she was still in a panic, and waiting eagerly and anxiously for an explanation. "I heard Lavender and Parvati talking about it," he told her, then quickly added, "together - quietly. I just have good ears, and they didn't say your names outright. But it's hard to not be obvious when they were using code names like 'Mind' and 'Fire,' and the tell-all pronoun 'she.'"

Ginny sent both a curse and a blessing to the two lovers; this would make talking to Harry a lot easier. "She refuses to tell Fred," she told him bluntly. "She's been saying she will for months - ever since this all started, which was just before we went back to school - but she never does, and I don't know what to do about it."

Harry looked at her thoughtfully. "You've talked about it, right?"

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Of course we have," she snapped, running her hands through her hair. "But… that hasn't changed anything. I know that it's probably really hard to for her to tell him. I mean, I understand that she doesn't want him to get hurt, and that she probably doesn't want him to hate her or me. But at the same time, doesn't putting it off only mean more pain in the long run?" Tears were stinging at her eyes again. Why was this always so hard to think about? "I'm really tired of the sneaking around, especially. I just want to be hers. I hate seeing them together, which only makes me hate myself more. It's not Fred's fault, yet I can't help but be furious with him for not seeing the truth." Snot and tears were dripping from her face; she wiped them away angrily with her sleeve, and sniffed loudly.

They didn't talk for a few minutes. The only sounds were other conversations floating around and bouncing off the stone walls, the steady, rhythmic treading of their feet. Ginny's tears finally stopped, but her eyes hurt again. She'd been crying too much recently; it probably wasn't healthy.

Finally, Harry spoke again. "Ginny," he said slowly, telling her he'd been choosing his words carefully during the silence, "I can imagine that Hermione's terrified of the consequences of her actions, and she's trying to find the most painless way of fixing everything. But knowing her, I don't think she realizes that there isn't going to be a painless way to do that. It's not that she doesn't love you, and she's not hurting you on purpose… But she's trying to protect everyone involved from a lot of pain."

"But that's only causing more!" she interjected angrily.

Harry nodded. "I know, but she doesn't. And she's going to continue thinking the way that she does because she's stubborn like that." Ginny took a moment to smile at that; she knew how stubborn Hermione could be. But Harry's next comment wiped the smile from her face and dropped a cold stone into her stomach. "You're going to have to tell Fred yourself."

Ginny closed her eyes and took a deep breath, thinking about all that would entail. All that responsibility resting on her shoulders. The weight of it made it hard to think past the pain her heart. But she knew that Harry was right - and she knew what she had to do. She realized she hadn't spoken for a few minutes, so she nodded to show that she had heard, and excused herself from Harry's company.

"Good luck, Gin," he shouted after her, frowning to himself. He certainly hoped that everything would work out for the two girls - even if it meant for some painful moments between them.

…

Ginny returned to the girls' dormitory after wandering the school for an hour, trying to clear her head and find the best option for all of this. Should she talk to Hermione first, tell her she was going to tell her brother? Or would the brunette simply talk her down from it, or be offended? She hadn't found any answers within herself, and she was afraid of the answers that Hermione might try to give her. She was afraid of what Harry had said to her. But most of all, she was afraid of what was going to happen.

The dorm was empty - no, there was Hermione, packing calmly, silently. Ginny could sense there was something wrong with the older girl. Her body was too tense, too perfectly poised. There wasn't any happiness to her movements; just anxiety, like a sharp knife tracing up and down her back.

Had Hermione already told Fred? Ginny dared to hope, and approached her with caution, one hand reached out as if she were about to pet a deer. Hermione turned her head slightly in Ginny's direction, but didn't smile, and didn't react. Out of everything that she was worried about, Ginny found herself the most terrified about that - that cold resolve, slithering across her skin and making goose bumps rise.

"Hermione, are you okay?" she asked tentatively, coming up next to her gingerly. Hermione didn't stop folding up clothing, and she didn't answer. She simply gestured with one hand, indifferently, toward a torn bit of parchment on the bed.

Ginny stood there helplessly for a few moments before she sighed and grabbed the parchment from the bed. Reading it over once, she could tell why Hermione was upset - and why she wasn't talking to her.

Hermione -

This has gone too far. You're destroying yourself and Ginny. You're a fool if you can't see her pain.

Do something, or we will.

- L.B. and P.P.

Ginny breathed in deeply and tried again, letting the parchment fall to the floor. "Hermione," she began, but the older girl cut her off.

"Don't try to make everything better," she snapped. "It's not your place to. You're not doing anything wrong. I am. I'm hurting you. I'm destroying us." Ginny cringed at the bitterness she heard in Hermione's voice. "There's no way I can make this better. If I tell Fred, it'll just destroy him, too, destroy the relationship you have with him. I should have never gotten involved with him. God, I should have never kissed you afterwards. I shouldn't have been such a bloody coward that day in the field when you kissed me first." Hermione was losing it, but Ginny was too frozen with emotion to help her. Tears were falling; Hermione's body was shaking; wet spots were appearing on the clean clothes she had already packed. The next part Ginny could barely catch. "Maybe I should just end it all now, between both of you, and try to make you forget it every happened."

The words hit Ginny like a bucket of ice water. Emotionally, Ginny was sinking, falling into a black abyss. But her brave, fiery Weasley heart took over her tongue; tears could and would be shed later from the younger redheaded girl.

"Don't you ever say that rubbish again," Ginny growled. "I can't believe you would stoop so low as to regret everything that ever happened when you know that what we have together is something beautiful, something worth fighting for. You think you're doing me a favor by not telling Fred? Do you think that I'm not strong enough to deal with his anger just to be with you? Familial ties heal, and Fred's a big boy - he'll get over it. He's old enough to know that relationships don't last forever, and he's brave enough to admit it. He's not going to hate me; he's not going to hate you, no matter what he might say. If you could just get it around your brain that maybe things won't turn out for the worst, maybe you could actually get the fucking courage to say something to him. Maybe you would've had the courage to say something to him a month ago, two months ago, or when it all started in the first place!" Hermione's eyes were wide and bloodshot with shock, but Ginny continued. "You should know by now that love is about pain, that love is about making sacrifices. We've both made so many fucking sacrifices for each other that we could write a novel about it. They may be small, but they're there - and you're just going to say 'oh well, I guess it's time to call it quits' just because you have to sacrifice something else, something that you don't even want? How does that even make any sense?"

She was too angry to wait for an answer. Instead, she stomped over to her own bed and started throwing things into her own trunk, scalding tears running down her face. More crying, she thought, angry with herself more than anything. What if she had been the one to ruin everything with that little speech? What if she had frightened the girl off?

Her cynicism lasted until she could feel Hermione's cool fingers on her hot neck. Ginny turned around slowly, to see the older girl's eyes brimming with tears, and guilt swept through her body like a cold wind. She sighed, pulling Hermione into her arms. "I'm sorry I yelled at you," she told the girl. "I'm just as frustrated as you are."

"I deserved it," Hermione replied, face buried in her neck. "Don't apologize - I should be the one to apologize. I'm sorry. I don't regret anything that's happened between you and me. It's been wonderful. I just… I do need the courage. I don't know where to get it from." Her lips twitched in a sardonic smile. "I don't think I deserve to be in Gryffindor. The hat was wrong."

Ginny shook her head and pulled away, taking Hermione's face between her hands. "No, you deserve to be here," she told her seriously. "It takes a brave person to admit what they have to do." She kissed her, once, and smiled lightly. "By the time we get back to school again, things will be okay. I promise."

Hermione nodded. "I promise, too."

The next day they rode the train with their friends - as friends - to the next station. Arthur and Molly took in all the Weasley's and shouted that they'd expect Hermione the day before New Year's Eve. Hermione waved to the red-haired clan, keeping a special eye on Ginny, before getting into her parent's car.

Ginny spent the car ride, the evening, in a daze. She would have to tell him, and she didn't want to. She didn't want to admit that she was intentionally doing something to hurt him. She understood with burning clarity how Hermione must feel.

But she would have the courage, she told herself over and over again. She would be able to do this, and everything would be okay. It had to be.

Up the stairs, one floor below the attic. Down the hall. Fred was in his shared room with George, but the other twin was absent. Perfect timing.

Ginny approached the room, feeling her stomach tighten and squeeze into knots. Fred looked up when she was in the doorway, a questioning expression on his face.

"Fred," she said, in a voice that didn't sound like her own at all, "I need to tell you something."

Gotta, gotta be down because I want it all.