"AWWLRIAGHT," said Rebekah, drunk on firewhiskey in the common room the next day with her Slytherin cousin, Alex.

They burst into hysterical giggles.

"AWWWLLRIAGHT!" screamed Alex, and they laughed some more. Harry sat across the room, watching them with a smirk. The more drunk they were, the worse their Texan accents became; normally they pretended to be British with excellent fake accents.

"Hey," said Harry. "Maybe you should give the firewhiskey a rest. Don't you have Ancient Runes in like an hour?"

"Anchtient what?" slurred Rebekah.

"Nevermind," said Harry. "Maybe you two should go sleep it off."

"Whooooot," said Alex, tipping over. "Sleep it offff."

"REMEMBENER THE ALAMO!" Rebekah screamed, throwing up her hand in triumph.

"ALL HAIL SANTA ANNTA!" Alex screamed back.

"No," said Rebekah. "He was the one who killed the Alamo."

"Oh," said Alex, taking a swig.

"Hey, Harry," said Ginny, coming through the door. "I need you to help me with" –

She glanced at Alex and Rebekah, who were dancing to something called 'My Hump' – "I need you to find something for me," she said, dropping a book on the table.

Harry glanced at the book, hoping this had nothing to do with him reading it.

"What do you need me to find?" he asked, looking away from it.

"I need you to see if you can convince Madam Pince to let you check out a book called Evil Locations in Southern Britain," she said. "I would check it out myself, but I've already forged all my teachers names at least twice, and I'm scared I'll get caught if I do it again."

"What have you been checking out from the library?" he asked.

"Nothing," she said, automatically defensive. "None of your business, thank you very much," she spat, and walked away. In her huff, she forgot her book; Harry picked it up and looked at the cover.

"HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD WHAT?"

"Prince!" said Rebekah in a sing-song voice from across the room. "Soooo good."

She and Alex laughed.

"SERIOUSLY SHUT UP!" he yelled. A couple of the first years in the room cowered, and Harry opened to read the jacket.

With a look of utter confusion, he put it back down and shook his head.

"Fight and flirt and fall in love? How does this person know so much about me?"

"She's stalking you," said Alex, laughing.

Harry looked furtively back and forth, frightened. Alex and Rebekah laughed again.

Exasperated, he got up and left the room, heading, he guessed, for the library.

"Madam Pince," he said, arriving. "I need a book out of the restricted section."

Being in the OWL class, he didn't need a note signed by any of his professors. Madam Pince looked at him suspiciously anyway.

"That Ginny Weasley send you?"

Harry jumped.

"N-no," Harry stuttered. The old librarian narrowed her eyes.

"Hmmm. Well, what do you need?"

"Evil Locations in Southern Britain."

She narrowed her eyes even more. "Alright then," said Madam Pince, and Harry heard Alex and Rebekah going "AWWWLRIAAGHT," in his head. He choked back laughter and the librarian glared.

A few Ravenclaws at the table next to them gave him the look of death.

"Here it is," she said, nearly shoving him out of the restricted section.

"Thanks," he said, a little annoyed. Harry loved the restricted section. He wanted to get married in the restricted section.

He tried to track down Ginny, but she was no where to be found. The Great Hall was nearly empty, but the courtyard was packed.

"Hey Lavender," said Harry, coming up behind her. "Have you seen Ginny?"

"Nope," she said, shrugging. "I haven't seen her. You might try the Hospital Wing thought, I saw her mother going in there."

"Oh," said Harry. "Thanks."

Harry sprinted down the hallway toward the Hospital Wing with the book still in his hand, wondering if Mrs. Weasley would care if he was carrying around something about evil locations.

"Harry," said Fred, leaning against the door in a way that was awfully smug. He noticed Pansy suddenly next to him, and jumped. "You're looking well."

"Uh..." said Harry, not really sure what to say. Pansy was smirking at him, somewhat amused. "Um, hi Fred, Pansy."

"You'd better not go in there," said Fred, nodding toward the door. "It's pretty messy."

Harry glanced nervously at the door.

"Oh," said the black-haired boy, backing away from it. "I guess I'll come back—"

"I HATE YOU!" Ginny screeched, bursting through the door. "I HATE YOU I HATE YOU I HATE YOU I HATE YOU I HATE YOU!"

"Ginny, please, listen to reason," said Mrs. Weasley. "There's no other way and I need you to—"

"NO!"

Pansy and Fred backed away from the door and Mrs. Weasley slid through, very pale.

"Ginny—"

"GET AWAY FROM ME!"

She disappeared down the hallway.

"Fred," said Mr. Weasley, coming into view. "What in the name—"

"Hello Mr. Weasley," said Pansy, beaming. Mr. Weasley stared at her blankly.

"Is there something wrong dad?" asked Fred, nodding toward Ginny's disappearing figure.

"No, no," said Mr. Weasley. "We'll take care of it."

Immediately, Mr. Weasley, Mrs. Weasley, Fred, and Pansy all looked at Harry.

"What?" he asked. "Ohhhh no!"

He tried to run.

"Harry please," said Mrs. Weasley. "You know how she is. If there's anyone she'll listen to, it's you."

"Where's Ron and Hermione, eh? Who's doing anything about that? Ginny and I should be out there looking for them and we're not—"

"Well, we can't possibly let you leave, Harry," said Mrs. Weasley. "That's insane—"

"Whatever," said Harry. "What do you want."

"Try to get her to come home," said Mrs. Weasley, pleading. "She refuses to leave—"

"Well...I don't really blame her," said Harry.

They stared at him.

"What?" said Mr. Weasley.

"It's safer here, isn't it?"

"What about what happened to Hermione and Ron?" Mrs. Weasley screeched.

"That was Neville's fault," said Harry. They stared at him, desperate. "Oh, alright. Fine. I'll try, but I'm not promising anything."

Harry turned and walked down the hallway, rolling his eyes.

"Hi Harry," said Lavender, dotting her i's with little hearts on a letter to Seamus in the Gryffindor Common Room.

"Hi," he said. "Have you seen Ginny?"

Lavender pointed darkly at the girls' steps.

Harry walked over toward it and looked up the dark stairway.

"Ginny?" he asked.

"That's never going to work," said Parvati. "She's not coming down."

"Why not?" he asked, turning toward her.

"She's pretty mad," said Parvati with a shrug. "What do you need?"

"I need to talk to her," said Harry, and Parvati gave her a dark look. "Don't look at me that way, I don't think she should leave either. I just need to...tell her to humor her mother a little bit, even if she's not going to leave. That's all, I promise."

"Yeah, well—alright. Look; don't tell any of the other guys this or anything, but what a lot of people don't know is that if a boy, such as yourself, was to follow a girl, like me, up the stairs very closely they won't collapse."

Harry gave her a doubtful look.

"I'm serious," she said. "But it only works if you follow, and you'll have to get off the stairs before I do or they will fall."

"Ok," said Harry, studying the stairs.

"So are you following?" she asked, giving him a quizzical look.

"Sure," he said, hoping that she wasn't making it up.

Parvati immediately started up the stairs. Harry jumped after her, praying for a miracle he wasn't sure was going to come. To his great astonishment, nothing happened and he was paused dumbly on the second step.

"Ok," said Parvati, stopping somewhere a lot higher than where Harry's dormitory was in the tower. "This is the fifth year's dormitory; unfortunately I have to go to the library, so you're going to have to find someone else to lead you back down if you don't like falling—a lot. Good luck!"

Harry jumped through the door in what was probably a very foolish way, had he known anything about girls, but luckily everything was safe.

"What's he doing in here?" asked some girl in Gryffindor that Harry'd never met.

"Damn," said Ginny, rolling her eyes. "I'm going to kill Parvati."

"ACK!" said Romilda Vane, seeing him, and she fell backwards off her bed.

"Hello Harry," said Luna, beaming at him. "Having a good day? Do you need a moment?"

She glanced at Ginny, and Ginny glared at him.

"Uh, yeah," said Harry.

Romilda Vane, very red in the face (having fallen so) looked as if leaving Harry in a room alone with Ginny was the last thing she wanted to do.

"Fine," Ginny barked. "MAKE IT QUICK."

Harry shuddered, wishing his witnesses didn't have to leave the room.

Luna pulled Romilda out of the room and closed the door with a little wink to Harry behind Ginny's back.

"So," said Ginny. "My mother has you as her little errand boy now?"

Harry fumed. "I'm not an errand boy," he said in a childish way. "For your information, I happen to agree with y—"

"I'm not going," said Ginny with audible force.

"I don't want you to d—"

"Neither you nor my mother can make me do anything," she said, nervously tugging on her shirt.

The shirt.

"Hey!" shouted Harry, suddenly recognizing it. "That's mine! You stole that out of my room!"

And indeed she had. Harry had forgotten about that particular incident, believing it to be Ron's.

Ginny turned pink.

"Yeah, well..." she sputtered nervously. "I liked it."

"I liked it too!" he said. "You didn't have to steal it."

Her eyes narrowed. Quite suddenly, she did something that Harry wasn't entirely prepared for.

"Fine," the redhead spat, simultaneously speaking, stumbling angrily out of her bed, and, to Harry's utter bewilderment, taking off her shirt (or his, if you feel like being literal). She slid noisily to her bare feet, swearing, and threw it at him.

They stood face to face for a moment, neither able to understand what had just taken place for a second or two. Harry's jaw was hanging dumbly and his arms were still suspended in mid-air, frozen. Ginny had her hands on her hips and seemed defiant for a moment, but slowly (as her cheeks attested) she started to comprehend what she had just done.

Oh-my-God! She thought. Oh-my-God! WHAT DID I JUST DO! I'm standing in a room in a bra right in front of my brother's best friend! OH-MY-GOD!

Oh God, thought Harry. She's wearing a black bra. NO NO NO NO DON'T THINK THAT!

Walk to the wardrobe, thought Ginny. Slowly—she started towards it—be calm, be calm, go slow, act like you meant to do that! NO SLOWER THAN THAT!

Ginny did her best to breathe normally and walk slowly, but it wasn't really working out. She made it to the wardrobe pretty well, but her hands were shaking so badly as she searched for another shirt that anything she touched seemed to slip through her fingers.

Behind her, Harry was looking at the wall.

What's the deal? thought a mean part of his brain. Her back is turned. If you look, she wouldn't know – NO! STOP IT!

Soon, however, it didn't really whether or not he was looking because he was heading straight for her.

"Wha?" Ginny tried as she felt Harry grab her and spin her toward him, but her words were cut short because Harry's mouth was now firmly attached to her own. Ginny, intelligent girl that she was, was still not entirely prepared for this so they both stumbled backwards as she lost her balance in the excitement of everything. They tumbled into the wardrobe, and it tipped backward and hit the wall with a smack.

Harry and Ginny furiously fought to free themselves from her clothing. Harry pulled back first, gasping for breath. Ginny resurfaced second, saw Harry, and immediately grabbed him. She roughly attacked him via the mouth.

Several messy minutes passed and Ginny directed Harry toward the place where she sleeps. If Harry had been paying attention (which was difficult, considering how both were fighting to be on top of each other), he would have heard two loud, gossiping teenagers walking up the stairs.

"Voldemort can't stop the rock," sang Rebekah.

"Ooh ooh oohhhh! VOLDEMORT AGAINST THE ROCK ON CELEBRITY DEATH MATCH!"

"YES! Wait a minute, what was I talking about?"

"So then the other one—"

"Heath?" asked Alex.

"Yeah, that one," said Rebekah. "He looks around at the other cowboy and suddenly—"

They stopped, catching Harry and Ginny as they walked through the door.

"Whoa," said Rebekah.

"Damn," said Alex. "Why'd you have to wait until Ron left? I could have had fun with this!"

Rebekah shook her head and rocked with silent laughter. Both girls were still kind of drunk.

Harry did the only thing he could think to do at the moment.

"ACCIO CLOTHES!"

Both girls burst out laughing.

Harry and Ginny/Harry's shirt flew toward them.

"Get out!" shouted Ginny, pulling herself the rest of the way out from under Harry and they both wrestled with their clothing.

"Where's my camera?" asked Alex. Harry tried to calm his hair, which Ginny had done a good job messing up.

"Right, right, we're going," said Rebekah. "We'll tell the kids downstairs to steer clear, eh?"

They disappeared with a snap.

The next few seconds that followed were some of the worst Harry'd ever experienced. They both had their shirts back, and Ginny was sitting on the bed with her legs crossed, twirling her thumbs.

"Maybe you should follow them," said Ginny. "You know, keep them quiet a bit."

"Uh," said Harry. "Yeah."

"That way, you know, no more gossip. Just to make sure..."

Harry walked toward the door and almost walked through, but he remembered just as he put his hand on the doorknob.

"You'll have to walk down first," said Harry. "So I don't fall."

He glanced at her, and blushed scarlet. She did the same.

"Oh, alright," she said, and she slid off the bed as well.

They both knew it was going to happen, but they didn't entirely believe it; as soon as Ginny reached the door they were kissing each other again.

"We should talk later," said Ginny, gasping for breath.

"Yeah," said Harry, nodding fervently. "My room?" he asked. "Everyone's gone. Privacy, you know. No eavesdroppers."

"Sure," she said. "I'll...be around by 8."

"Ok," he said, and opened the door for her. They walked down the stairs, wearing completely innocent expressions, secretly smirking behind their stories.