Harry left the Hospital Wing and walked back toward the tower in something like a daze. He barely noticed anyone, even though a good number of people were pointing at him.

"Harry!" someone was calling. "Harry!"

Harry turned. Surprisingly, it was Ginny.

"Where's Ron?" she asked as she approached him, gasping for breath.

"I—I don't know," said Harry, amazed that Ginny was even speaking to him. As it was, her eyes looked a little better and she wasn't being followed by Icicle or Crabbe.

"What happened? Dad's saying all this stuff about him running away."

"He left to find Hermione," Harry said in a softer voice. He continued to walk down the hallway, attempting to keep everyone out of their conversation.

"But dad said he left you a letter," said Ginny. "Why didn't he wait for you?"

"Frange Femur," Harry told the fat lady. She waved them inside. "He did leave me a letter, and he said he was going to wait for me, but decided against it—"

"What?" asked Ginny, looking crestfallen. "He left without you? How on Earth could he think that was a good idea?"

"I don't know, " said Harry, jumping up the stairs. Ginny followed. He walked into the dormitory, and they both turned toward Ron's side of the room—it was deserted.

"I guess he's really gone," said Ginny softly. "How could he just escape from the castle like that? Why didn't anyone catch him?"

"I don't know," said Harry. For now Hermione, Ron, Neville and Ginny (at times) were all somewhere else.

"Hey," said Seamus, walking into the room. "Whoa," he said, spotting Ron's bed. "Where's Ron?"

"Gone," said Ginny.

Seamus frowned. "So that's Neville—who's evil—Dean—who's afraid to come near you, Harry, so he's been sleeping in the fifth years room—and Ron—who has suddenly decided he wants to become an auror, I guess," said Seamus with a sigh. "Looks like it's just you and me until Saturday, then, Harry."

"What?" asked Harry. "Where are you going on Saturday?"

"Oh, right...I didn't tell you. I'm going home," said Seamus, turning a little red. "My mum heard a bit of gossip and she thinks I'd be better back in Ireland with her."

Harry and Ginny stared at him.

"Well, I didn't want to go," said Seamus. "I wanted to stay, but you know how it is..."

"Not really," said Harry.

Ginny shot him a look.

"Well, it looks like you're going to have the room to yourself," said Ginny. "That'll be fun, won't it?" she added with a weak smile.

"Right, it'll be great," said Harry, flopping down on his bed. Seamus and Ginny looked at each other.

"Well," said Seamus nervously. "I need to get to the Library, Lavender's waiting for me."

He departed quickly.

"I'm going downstairs to read, Harry," said Ginny. "If you need anything—?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know where to find you," said Harry, and rolled over onto his side, blocking her from view.

- - -

"Harry," someone was saying as they patted his shoulder.

Harry wrenched himself out of sleep.

"Whozther?" Harry replied groggily. He rolled over a bit, trying to adjust his glasses.

"Harry, you've missed Potions, Charms, and lunch," said Luna, giving him a disapproving look. "Severus told me to come wake you up before you fail everything in one sweep."

"God, Luna," said Harry. "You do realize how weird that is, don't you?"

"Stay out of my love life," she added with a growl. "I don't tell you who to shag, do I?"

Harry shuddered and pulled himself out of bed.

"As of now," he said, pulling his robes. "I don't shag anyone."

"Yes, well, we all have our problems, don't we?" she asked, collecting his books off the floor. "Do you realize that you've been asleep for about thirteen hours?"

"Yeah, well," said Harry. "I was tired."

"Apparently," she said, shoving his books in his hands. "Get to class."

"Stop acting like my mother," said Harry without thinking. Truthfully, if he did have a mother, Luna was kind of acting how he thought one would.

"Get on with it," she said quietly, shoving him out the door.

Harry walked down the hallway and gave any person who shot him a pity smile a glare. He knew it was mean, but he'd forgotten to care.

"Harry," said Professor McGonagall cheerfully as she passed him in the hall. "So good to see you awake."

"Thanks, Professor," Harry replied just as cheerfully. Seeing Ginny back to normal had made his day a lot better, in spite of the fact that Ron had decided to play the hero again.

"I have some make up work for you, when you have the time..." she said, and kept walking.

Harry went to class.

That night in the Great Hall, Luna, Ginny, Seamus, and Lavender Brown all sat with him and talked.

"Well...I don't know," said Ginny, when they asked about her condition. "I was reading, and I sort of just...snapped out of it."

"What were you reading?" asked Harry.

"Well..." she trailed off, turning a little pink. "It was this weird book by this squib named Josephine something. Actually, it mentioned you, Harry..."

"Really?" asked Harry, a little less than surprised.

"When's your mum going to be here?" Lavender asked Seamus.

"Tomorrow at 9," said Seamus. "I told her to come later, but she wanted to show up early."

Lavender frowned and started to cover his face in what Harry would consider to be obnoxious kisses, as Seamus could no longer finish his meal.

"Hopefully I'll convince her to let me come back," said Seamus as well as he could. Ginny rolled her eyes.

"Ginny?" asked Icicle, suddenly appearing behind the redhead.

"WHAT?" snapped Ginny.

"Could I, um...talk to you for a minute?" the blonde asked nervously.

Ginny got up from the table and followed the girl reluctantly. They stood a little while away and Icicle talked to Ginny, who had her arms folded in front of her chest and was glaring in an intimidating way. Suddenly, Harry noticed that Icicle had started to cry, and soon the girl was blubbering like a little girl.

"What was that all about?" asked Luna, following Icicle's form with her eyes. The Hufflepuff sat back down at her own table.

"Well, apparently Draco's been seduced," said Ginny calmly.

Harry choked on his chicken.

"Wha—?" Harry sputtered.

"Yeah," said Ginny, nodding her head. "Icicle just told me that she caught Draco with that Slytherin beater, Alex, in...um—a compromising position."

Harry shook his head. "I knew she was trouble," he said, shaking his head.

Ginny nodded, and ate some of her soup.

"So why was she telling you?" asked Lavender, glaring at the Hufflepuff table.

"Apparently we're friends on my bad days," said Ginny, rolling her eyes. "I pick some interesting people to hang out with. I mean—I do feel bad for her and all, but she kind of deserves it."

"Why?" asked Harry.

"Because Draco was obviously a skirt," said the redhead with a chuckle.

They rest of their little group stared.

"What? What is a skirt?"

"Well..." said Ginny, turning a little red. "She's, um—not really, um—she swings the other direction, if you know what I mean."

They kept staring. Suddenly, Luna's eyes went wide.

"OH!" she said, slapping her hand over her mouth.

"See what I mean?" asked Ginny, grateful that someone understood her cryptic clues.

"What?" asked Seamus and Harry at the same time.

"Well," said Luna, hiding herself behind a copy of the Quibbler. "I guess that would mean that, um...Icicle's a bit of a lesbian."

Harry felt his entire face immediately turn beat red.

"She what?" asked Seamus, looking a little impressed. Lavender's face was green, and she was suddenly avoiding looking at the Hufflepuff table.

"Well, I've known since the beginning of the year," Ginny added nonchalantly. "I mean...it's a little hard not to notice."

"None of us noticed," Harry pointed out.

"Well, that's not what I meant," said Ginny. "I mean, it was a little hard for me not to notice."

"Why?" asked Luna. "What'd she do?"

"Where do I start?" the redhead asked. "I can't even number the times I've caught her staring at me; in class, after class, in the library, during quidditch...right now. No! No! Don't look!"

They turned anyway, and, sure enough, Icicle was staring at her. The blonde blushed and turned away.

"How can you tell during quidditch?" Seamus asked.

"Well, I can't tell if she's staring or not (although she probably is), but every time I fly past, she screams out my name," said Ginny.

Seamus choked back his laughter. "She screams out your name?"

"Shut up," she said with a warning glare.

"Whatever," said Harry. He looked over at the Hufflepuff table where Icicle was sitting, still staring. He glared at her and she looked away quickly.

"So, if Icicle's a lesbian, how come she cares that Draco was cheating on her?" asked Harry.

"Well, I would have thought that'd be obvious, Harry," Ginny said.

Seamus and Harry glanced at each other, but Luna nodded.

"Well...enlighten us," Seamus said, rolling his eyes so Harry could see.

"She's afraid everyone will figure her out," said Luna knowingly. "Obviously. Now that Draco has another girl, she's afraid that he'll tell her that Icicle was as cold as an old dead fish and everyone will put two and two together—that is, the cold dead fish thing and all the Ginny-staring."

"Oh," said both Seamus and Harry. Both boys wondered silently to themselves if they should have been able to figure this out.

"I didn't pick up on it," said Lavender. "But I guess I should have."

"Harry?" asked Ginny. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Yeah..." he said slowly, suddenly fearful.

"Can you, by any chance, tell me anything about that tramp, Pansy Parkinson and a certain brother of mine?" Ginny asked viciously.

Lavender sat up. "Pansy and Ron?" she asked eagerly.

"No," said Ginny. "The other one."

"Fred," said Harry. "Yeah. I don't know if anything actually happened, but he seemed kind of interested in her...and she didn't seem all that upset about it."

"Fred is into Pansy?" Lavender asked. "How did that happen?"

"Yesterday after you and Pansy had your little...argument, Pansy was brought into the Hospital Wing with Snape and McGonagall, and Fred followed her right back out again," said Harry. "She didn't really discourage him."

"Fantastic," said Ginny. "We're going to have some crazy-bitch warlock in the family."

Seamus and Lavender laughed. Luna shook her head.

"Warlocks aren't all that bad, Ginny," said the blonde girl.

"I wonder where Hermione is," Harry wondered out loud.

Harry didn't know this, but miles and miles away, Hermione was sitting in a room on a rickety old bed.

"GET ME A BOOK NOW!" she was screaming. The Death Eater in the corner was nodding a shaky "OK" and was crying softly.

"I don't know," said Luna, still in the Great Hall.

"Yeah," said Lavender. "I don't know. But...they wouldn't hurt her or anything, though. Would they...?"

"I don't know," said Ginny. "I wonder where Ron is."

"Apparating all over the place, probably," said Harry. "I wish he had waited for me."

"I do too," said Ginny. "I love Ron, but I'd feel a lot better if you were out there helping him. He's not a terrible guy or anything, but you have a lot more experience dealing with Death Eaters and Voldemort and everything."

"Yeah," said Luna. "He should have waited for you."

"Well, I don't know how long the both of us will be here anyway," said Ginny, rubbing her stomach absentmindedly.

He caught her eyes, and they stared at each other for a moment. Harry was getting an odd, prickly feeling on the back of his neck and in his stomach.

"Well, I'm going to bed," said Luna.

"Me too," said Lavender. "I'll see you off in the morning, Shames."

Harry giggled a little at this new nickname and Seamus turned, glaring at him.

"Ok," said Seamus. They started to snog again, and Ginny rolled her eyes at them. "Good night," said the Irish boy, and Lavender walked away.

"I'm going to find Dean," said Seamus. "Say goodbye, and everything. See you in the dormitory, Harry."

Seamus left as well, and Harry was left sitting awkwardly across from Ginny, who was still patting her stomach.

"Well," said Ginny. "I don't know how much longer I'm going to be sane...so I'm going to enjoy it while I have the time. "

She shot him a bitter smile.

"Bye," she said, and ruffled his hair as she stood up and walked away. Harry watched her, and tried to flatten it back down.