"You're stuck all alone."

"Without a date."

"Without Hermione."

"And without decent dress robes," Ron spat. Harry and Ron were lying stomach up on their four posters, staring at the ceiling and trying to think up who might go with Ron. Girls had seemed to go for the kill this year, but he was already a dead body. Harry sighed and turned to look at his friend.

"You know, you could always take Faith. She's pretty enough," Harry shrugged.

"Harry, she's what, a third year! I'm not taking a thirteen year old to the ball. No way, nu-uh," Ron said stubbornly. "I'd rather take Viktor Krum than go with her. If we wnt together, I would be dancing with a midget and my reputation would be flying down hill." With that, he did a rather lame sound imitation of a plane crashing. Harry snorted and received a dirty look.

"I'm sorry mate, but Faith is a nice, young, pretty girl that needs a date. You should ask her."

"She fancies you, Harry. That would be like me taking that chick who poisoned your chocolates." Ron turned a disgusting shade of green at the memory.

"No she doesn't. She's just really nice and we're good friends," but Harry still thought back to the past events. The way she had looked at him right before she had started to tell him her secret…

"I've got to talk to her," Harry said, standing up suddenly.

"What, going to dump my sister and go snog her or something?" Ron asked flatly as he cast Harry another disgusted look. Harry hit Ron hard over the head.

"No. She had to tell me something, and she never did. Stevens interrupted the conversation."

"She's going to confess her undying love for you, mate," Ron snorted. Harry just rolled his eyes and was about to leave the dormitory when he heard footsteps. Opening the door, Harry found Hermione was running up the stairs toward him.

"Harry, I just found out something about Faith," she panted, clutching a stitch in her chest. "It was in the Daily Prophet! She-she's not actually-" but Hermione had suddenly stopped talking and where intelligence and beauty had once filled her eyes, blankness and emptiness had replaced it. In fact, a rather dreamy look had come over her and she seemed to be in total bliss. Harry recognized this as a memory charm due to a running in with Lockhart in his second year.

Harry grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her as if hoping this would knock the thoughts back into her. "She's what, Hermione? What is she!" Harry's voice was rising. "WHAT THE HELL IS SHE! WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU!"

"Who? Who are you talking about?" Hermione asked in a blissful tone.

Ron chose that exact moment to turn around the corner to investigate. "Harry, what the bloody…" but Ron had stopped talking and stared at a spot on the wall. His mouth opened slightly and his blue eyes grew wide. "No!" he whispered. "Not you…" then he fell to the floor in a small heap.

"RON!" Harry ran to his friend's side, hoping for the world that he wasn't dead. So many times they had bent over Sirius's letters, searched for clues to save Hogwarts, stared at Hermione, and had pleasant swims in the lake. If Ron was lifeless…

Crouching over Ron's still body, Harry could still hear his friend's heart beating, but what and why had someone hit him with such a curse? A curse that might have killed Ron? Anger surged through Harry's veins and he stood up quickly, ready to hex anything that moved. But after five minutes, still no sudden motions or odd happenings had occurred. Harry tried to convince himself it was just a flu going around, but something was nagging at the back of his mind. What was, or wasn't, Faith? And why the bloody hell did everyone else know about her except for him?

-------------------

Ginny danced in circles around the ballroom in Harry's arms, and considering the surroundings, she should be happy. She should have been dancing like there was no tomorrow and all that mattered were that their feet kept dancing to the Weird Sisters' fast tunes, but the fact was, she wasn't. Instead, as Harry held her close to his fit chest, all she felt surge through her body were feelings of guilt, frustration, and sorrow. Feelings that shouldn't be there.

"Harry, there's something…something I need to talk to you about," Ginny told him uncomfortably. This was it. She was going to do it. She was going to break his heart.

"Sure," Harry smiled. This only made her feel guiltier. How could she do this to him! But she just smiled and grabbed his hand to lead him outside. "Wait, we're going out into the courtyard?" he asked.

"Yes, the courtyard, Harry," she sighed. He wiggled his eyebrows and smiled teasingly. Ginny slapped his arm. "I find it funny that your mind goes straight to that," she joked.

Harry put his hand to his heart as if deeply wounded. "You should speak."

"And what is that supposed to mean!" Ginny walked on.

"Ah, well there have been quite a few times," Harry followed her.

"Liar! Name one!" she grinned.

"Well, last night when I told you to take of your robes because I was going to try to heal your shoulder…" Ginny cupped her hand over his mouth and blushed.

"Don't talk about that in public, Harry," she murmured. Harry just smiled wider and removed her hand from his mouth, leaning in to kiss her. As their lips met, Ginny knew exactly why that little part of her wanted to stay with him. Their kisses were hot, passionate, and often led to more…

Ginny pulled away and looked at him with so much sadness that Harry was worried. "Ginny, are you alright? You seem to be down in the dumps recently."

"Harry, what I wanted to talk to you about was something that happened last night." Ginny told the bushes. She just couldn't see the look on his face when she told him.

"But, Gin, nothing happened last night. The night before, well…" Harry smirked.

"Harry!"

"What! Just being honest."

They were now hidden deep in the bushes, where no one would find or hear them. Making sure they were quite alone, Ginny started. "Harry, last night, Malfoy came on to me," she told him sadly. She glanced up at his face, but quickly looked away. The anger and repulsion was just too horrible. "But, the thing is, he went farther than that. What I'm trying to say is-" Ginny took a deep breath. "IthinkImightbepregnantwithMalfoy'sbaby"

Ginny could see Harry was trying to be calm, but unfortunately, he wasn't succeeding at all. "Okay, Gin take a deep breath and tell me that in separate words. I don't think I heard you correctly."

Ginny obeyed and cast him a worried glance before telling him the whole story.

The night before…

"Hermione, I don't know. I mean, who really would want to keep anyone from telling Faith's secret to Harry? If he ever finds out the wrong way, he'll go nuts. We have to tell him sometime!" Ginny cried, exasperated.

"Ginny, we can't. You know that. You saw the note!" Hermione told Ginny. The young red head pulled the scrap of parchment out of the drawer and stared at it.

"Hermione, do you know of any spell to trace a person's handwriting? I mean, so we could figure out who wrote this?" Ginny asked innocently. She already had a pretty clear idea, but still, she listened to all of Hermione's theories to whom it might belong.

"There is a way, but the only full proof way is if we get signatures of everyone. That would take forever, though. Perhaps if we…no that wouldn't work either. Maybe this one spell I know. It's 'derectemurta'. It can trace DNA, so it might be able to trace the writing on the note to the writer," Hermione rambled. "If the spell works correctly, a pink jet of light should shoot out of your wand to the person who wrote it. They'll glow green for a week, and then all you have to look for is who's glowing. It's a simple spell, really. I learned it in 'The History and Magic of Charms Through the Ages'. It was quite educational. It also taught me how to cast the…" but Ginny didn't hear the rest of Hermione's words because she was already running out of the Hospital Wing, following a jet of pink light. She was just racing down the hallway of the third floor when she toppled onto something rather hard. Opening her eyes, Ginny found she was lying on top of none other than Draco Malfoy.

"Always knew you loved me, Weasley, but honestly, must we show affection in the middle of a hall? The prefects' bathroom is just right down-"

"Shove off, Malfoy," she told him and stood up, dusting herself off as if ridding herself of cooties. "You were always a git." . Malfoy smirked.

"Weasley, I must say, you have changed." And indeed she had. Ginny's straight red hair had formed into graceful auburn waves, her once chubby stomach now curved in to make her look like a supermodel, and the zits that had speckled her nose had disappeared to create rather cute, attractive freckles. Her pale skin had tanned, her bosom had filled in quite a bit, and her hips curved in just the right places. "If only your personality fit your body..." Draco smirked.

"And what does that mean, Malfoy?" Ginny asked, folding her slender arms across her chest.

"I mean, that you're still a child inside. I mean, you're absolutely beautiful, Weasley," Draco murmured in her ear. He could take it no longer, and he pressed his lips firmly to hers as his arms snaked their way through hers.

"Get off of me!" Ginny struggled to pull him off of her, but his arms were toned and strong. She tried yelling, kicking, kissing back even, but Draco Malfoy just wouldn't quit. There was something definitely wrong if a Malfoy was kissing a Weasley, and she didn't like it. Finally, she gave up, too weak to fight, and he took advantage of her, kissing her, loving her. And there was only one witness…

Faith watched from the shadows and cried. Ginny was her friend! These powers shouldn't be used against her! She watched Ginny struggle with Malfoy, doing anything in her will to get him off, but nothing worked, and she soon grew too weak to fight him and his ego. Faith felt a tingling sensation go up and down her spine as a voice whispered in her ear.

"Do any harm to the plan, and your pretty friend here will know all about you."