Ron effectively avoided Harry for the rest of the day. Harry considerately made sure he didn't go down to the entrance hall to greet Hermione so that Ron could. Instead he went to visit Remus, who had returned from whatever he'd been doing, Harry presumed it was something for the order, last night. They had tea and some sandwiches and talked about inconsequential things, until Remus brought up the topic Harry had been effectively avoiding.

"Why aren't you with Hermione and Ron? She just got back didn't she?" Remus asked. Harry shifted in his chair and looked down at his cup.

"I thought I'd let Ron say hi first." He said. Remus frowned.

"Why?" Harry sighed.

"He might be a little mad at me still." Harry told him.

"What happened?" Remus asked gently.

"I think he was kinda worried because I didn't go back to the dorm last night, and then he saw me with Jas this morning and he put two and two together, got five, and then got angry." Harry said.

"So what would he had to have thought to get four?" Remus asked. Harry glared at him but answered nonetheless.

"I went to try and get her to go and see Snape, and to try and find out why she hadn't already. Let's just say I found out why, she ended up crying herself to sleep and I couldn't leave her on her own." Harry said to Remus who was nodding in understanding. "I convinced her to go this morning, Ron and Ginny caught up with us outside the hospital wing just when Jas was giving me a hug. Then Ron flew off the handle because she's a Slytherin and a Death Eater." He said mockingly.

"Because she hugged you?" Remus asked with a raised eyebrow, Harry glared again.

"We kinda kissed as well." He said.

"Ah."

"I figure I'll just let him cool down a bit then tell him it didn't mean anything."

"Are you sure it didn't?" Remus asked, Harry didn't answer, truth was he didn't really know himself. He thanked Remus for lunch and wandered idly back to the common room.

When he entered, Ron was nowhere to be seen, but Hermione was sitting with Ginny by the fire. From the looks they gave him and the way they abruptly stopped talking when he walked over, he assumed Ginny had been telling them about this morning.

"Hiya Hermione." He smiled, sitting down in the empty armchair. "How was your Christmas?"

"It was great, I haven't spent the entire holiday with my family in ages, it was really nice." She said.

"That's great." He smiled, there was a moment of silence before he asked, "Is Ron upstairs?"

"Yeah." Ginny said. "Are you going to talk to him?" she asked, he shrugged.

"Ginny told me . . ." Hermione trailed off.

"That you'd been out all night and then we caught you pashing with that Poliakov girl this morning." Ginny supplied, Harry glared at her.

"It wasn't like that." He muttered. "She was upset, I stayed with her." He explained.

"And the kiss?" Hermione asked.

"You got me there." He admitted, shrugging.

"He's still angry you know." Ginny said.

"I think he's more disappointed, he thinks you two are together and that you've hid it from us." Hermione explained.

"No," Harry said angrily, "It's more the fact that she's a Slytherin."

"Well you can understand that can't you?" Ginny said.

"No!" Harry exclaimed. "I can't! Being in Slytherin doesn't make you inherently evil! Am I?" he demanded.

"No Harry but you're in Gryffindor." Ginny said placatingly.

"Not if the hat had it's way!" he blurted out. Immediately he clapped a hand over his mouth, the only person he'd ever told about that was Dumbledore.

"You what?" Ginny asked. "Then how did you-?"

"Ron and Hagrid told me everyone in Slytherin were Dark Wizards so I begged the hat not to put me there." He told them.

"That's interesting, I didn't know you could have a say in where you were placed." Hermione said in fascination.

"Trust you." He muttered. With an explosive sigh he pulled himself out the chair and stood up. "I'm going to talk to Ron." He told them and walked determinedly towards the stair case that led to the boys dormitories.

Thank you for reviewing CaptainOz! Lol, you're a regular, it's sounds like my fic is a pub . . . Anyways! Hope you liked this chapter ppl, if so REVIEW and tell me! x