Thanks for your reviews!! I love you all!! * flying kisses everywhere*

Special thanks to my beta reader, The Backliner. Hey pal, I feel like as if my chap's being marked by a teacher. I'm trying to tease u!!

Hey u ppl should see the thing he sent me, he even give me advise on what word to use and what tense to write. Pretty hilarious!!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Scene: At the living room of burrow

Harry spotted Ginny standing beside the punch bowl, sipping a glass of punch. Her eyes seemed a bit unfocused and she kept on shaking her head as if trying to clear it. He meant to warn her that the punch had been spiked but now, it seemed that it was too late.

"Oh no!! Please don't let her have drunk too much!!" Harry thought frantically as he tried to push through the crowd to reach her. It took Harry about a minute to navigate through the human obstacles scattered around the 'dance floor' (living room). He was walking up to Ginny, about to reach her when he noticed her staring in his direction but her eyes didn't show any signs of acknowledgement.

Suddenly, Harry's seeker trained eyes saw Ginny stumble and slowly, like a film being slowed down, her legs gave way and her petite form fell lower and lower to the ground. Harry did the fastest thing in the world without thinking, he pushed away Percy, who was standing in between Ginny and him, and with his seeker reflexes, caught her before she hit the ground. But he just wasn't fast enough; he merely managed to put his arm around Ginny's neck and stop the collision between the ground and her head, saving her from a head concussion.

In the attempt, Harry's wrist hit the ground with a sickening crack. What followed right after was a high-pitched scream coming from either Mrs Weasley or Hermione, and the scampering of many feet as everyone rushed over to see what had happened. Ignoring the throbbing pain and the quick swelling of his right wrist, Harry slapped Ginny lightly on her cheeks concentrating on trying to revive her and after several fruitless attempts, he swept her off the ground, with his right arm supporting her head since the wrist was broken and couldn't support any weight. Harry carried Ginny up to her room with the Weasleys and others following closely behind him. Mrs Weasley shooed all of them out of the room after Harry laid Ginny onto the marine blue bed sheets and slammed the door shut on their concerned faces.

Mrs Weasley spent ages inside Ginny's room, just as the anxious Ron, Bill, Percy, Charlie, Fred and George was about to knock on the door, Mrs Weasley came out and gave an all-clear signal to them who were lying sprawled all over the floor outside the room. Harry and the rest gave a loud sigh of relief and were shooed either back to bed or home before they could protest.

Fred and George, who were hiding behind Bill and Charlie all the while, both taller than them, tried to retreat back to their bedroom unnoticed when a large hand rested on their shoulders. They turned around feebly to see Mrs Weasley towering over them as they cowered in a corner; her hands reached for their large Weasley ears and twisted them mercilessly.

"I'm not done with you two! Spiking the punch and landing your only sister in such a state! I know just the way to fix you and your itchy fingers!" Mrs Weasley said through clenched teeth and pulled Fred and George away by their ears behind her. They looked back at Harry with pleading eyes but he simply shook his head sympathetically behind their retreating back and followed Ron to his bedroom.

Ron, who didn't have the slightest idea of Harry's injury in the course of saving his only sister from a bad fall, fell asleep almost immediately after he hit the bed, clearly exhausted by the day's activities. Harry was left on his own, nursing his now red, swollen and painfully throbbing wrist. Harry held one end of his hanky with his teeth and tried to wrap it around his wrist with the other free hand, wincing with pain all the while but not uttering a single sound. He did a bad job of bandaging his wrist but at least it was strong enough to hold whatever had broken, in place. Rubbing his wrist to soothe the pain, Harry slowly fell into a restless and strangely uncomfortable (Harry couldn't place what was nagging him, apart from the pain in his broken wrist) sleep.

Harry had just went into dreamland after much tossing and turning in bed when someone shook his shoulders, jerking him out of him blissful comfortable sleep.

"Stop shaking me, Ginny. I'm not that dead asleep. Oh, I'm developing a bad migraine, I guess we could go out only after this irritating headache of mine subsided", Harry mumbled from the tangle of bed sheets. He opened one of eyes beadily; expecting to see a tousle haired Ginny with bleary eyes and crumpled up nightgown when Mrs Weasley's blurred outline came into his vision.

"Wake up, Harry dear. We are going off to the station right after breakfast. It's getting late!" Mrs Weasley said tenderly but she could hardly suppress the look of curiosity from her face.

"Oh, good morning, Mrs Weasley", Harry said in between yawns, "I'm waking up. I'll be down in a minute" His voice croaky, and blushing a bit for mistaking Ginny's mum for her.

"Okay, come down fast. Please be a dear, Harry, and help me wake Ron up. Check through your trunk for anything and carry it down with you when you come down" Mrs Weasley said and exited the room.

After several extreme but unsuccessful measures (throwing pillows at him, piling blankets onto him) to try to wake the log dead Ron, Harry was finally forced to use his most deadly resort (placing Ron's shoes in front of his nose) and succeeded in rousing him from his sleep. Harry quickly changed into his day clothes; pass Ron Mrs Weasley's message and left the room, leaving him to change his clothes in private.

Harry walked into the kitchen to find the twins nodding into their empty plates, swinging dangerously in their seats, Ginny looking well for someone who had passed out from too much of drink the previous night and Mrs Weasley busying herself at the stove.

"Morning, people!" Harry chanted in a voice too bright and cheery for his dizzy state. Fred and George nearly fell off their chairs at the sudden outburst and when they looked up accusing at Harry, he got a shock to see that both of them had dark shadows under their usually lively but now, dull eyes.

Seeing the puzzled look on Harry's face, Ginny explained to him that they their punishment had been to clean up the mess of the party last night without magic and it took them the whole night scrubbing the living room and kitchen, muggle-styled. But Harry wasn't paying attention to her, he had his eyes shut tight and brows together forming a line, giving him a pained look. A wave of extreme dizziness was overtaking him at the moment but Ginny had misunderstood the gesture as uninterested, irritation, and promptly shut up from the embarrassment of lack of attention. To cover for her embarrassment, Ginny stared determinedly at her plate was she tried to hold back the tears in her eyes.

After the kitchen stopped spinning in Harry's mind, he shook his head to clear his vision and continued with breakfast as if nothing had happened, clearly he hadn't noticed that Ginny had spoken earlier. Gradually, the clicking sounds of utensils, the snoring coming from the dozing off twins, and the occasional sucking noises coming from the twins as they suck back the drools that were tickling down the corner of their mouth, filled up the kitchen but no conversations were going on.

Ginny was too busy blinking back tears to be bothered with the awkward silence but Harry felt a strange tension in the air and was about to make a witty comment when Ron's all-too-loud voice rang through the whole house from the top of the stairs.

"Shut up, Ron, for Merlin's sake! There's no need to shout!" Ginny said weakly, as she squeezed her eyes tight, holding her head with her hands. Harry was silently agreeing with her as he pinched his nose as his head throbbed uncomfortably and curses were heard coming from the twins who fallen off their seats from the sudden commotion.

"Sorry!" Ron apologized and he descended the stairs with Hermione following closely behind.

"What's that on your wrist?" Hermione asked as she sat down beside Ginny who was opposite to Harry.

"Oh, nothing it's just......... Hey, you're drooling all over your plate, Fred!", Harry exclaimed, pointing at the drool that was accumulating into a small puddle on Fred's plate. Exclaims of disgust broke out at the table, there was a dare going on who dared to wipe the saliva off Fred's face first, Hermione took up the dare and wiped the slime off Fred's face carefully with a napkin only to find that George who was seated beside her was drooling like a teething toddler onto her shoulders. Shrieks of horror coming from Hermione, rattling the creaky windows in the small kitchen, Harry thanked Merlin that he had succeeded in shifting the attention to the twins, he didn't know why but he didn't feel like letting Ginny know that he had hurt himself.

~*~*~*~*~

Both Harry and Ginny were bullied into taking the Pepper-Up Potion by Mrs Weasley for looking peaky before they were allowed to leave the kitchen with steaming ears. Kingsley, Lupin and to Harry's annoyance, Tonks, were their escorts that day. They got to the Leaky Cauldron by floo powder and walked to the station from there. It took them only fifteen minutes to get there and they were ten minutes early but to Harry and Ginny's embarrassment, steam was still coming out of their ears and they were inviting a lot of curious stares. Harry tried to ignore the fact that he looked like a human kettle (steam pouring out of his ears concealed under his thick black hair) and proceed to help Ron, Hermione and Ginny, heave their heavy trunks up the train, acting as if it was a completely normal thing for him to look like a kettle and Ginny looking like her head was a fiery mess of flames.

"Cool wristband you've got there, Harry!!" Seamus shouted to Harry from the window of the train where Harry was standing. He returned a forced grin and resumed to his trunks loading job. Slightly warm and a bit out of breathe, they went to look for a quiet and empty compartment and found one at the far end of the train, away from noisy chatters.

After putting away their belongings, they all stuck their heads out of the window, waving and blowing kisses to Mrs Weasley, Lupin, Kingsley and Tonks. The whistle sounded and slowly the train moved and pick up speed.

"Bye Mrs Weasley (Mum), thank you for having us at the Burrow (we'll write to you soon). Bye Lupin, bye Tonks, bye Kingsley!! See you next summer!!" Slowly the figures at the platform became smaller and the students, who had their heads out waving to parents, stuck their heads back into the compartments, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Harry included.

They turned away from the window and Hermione cleared her throat in a deliberate way to get their attention,

"Ron and I have to go to the Prefects' compartment at the front. But we'll be back after finishing patrolling the corridor" and she walked purposefully towards the door but Ron wasn't making any movement.

"They have got more than enough prefects to make the rounds, I wouldn't be missed." Ron said and settled himself comfortably opposite Harry and Ginny.

"You are so irresponsible!! No way are you staying here!!" Hermione bellowed and was a bit flushed in the face. She jerked Ron out of the seat by his arms and dragged him out of the compartment, ignoring his protests. Harry stuck his head out of the compartment and found that many heads were out of the compartments too, investigating the source of the commotion. Laughing airily, Harry returned to the compartment and closed the door after him.

Harry settled down on the seat opposite Ginny and they stared at each other for a few minutes, an awkward silence between them. Harry didn't like being in an enclosed area with only Ginny. Yes, they were very comfortable with each other during the summer but now the feeling he had with Ginny was too weird, so funny that he didn't know how to describe it. Harry was suddenly feeling awkward around her.

Harry felt it rude to be staring at Ginny especially when no conversation was going on, so he turned his gaze away from her to the scenery outside. A while later, the food trolley came and Harry bought a whole load of candies and snacks enough to feed the whole of Gryffindor, and handed most of them to Ginny shyly.

They spend most of the afternoon either eating the snacks in silence or staring at their own feet. Harry did try many times to start a conversation but they always end up as a 'Yes' or 'No' answer from Ginny, clearly the embarrassment earlier at the kitchen in the Burrow was still embedded in her mind. If she really does talk and Harry wasn't interested in what she had to say, she would be embarrassed again, so saving herself from the possibilities of embarrassment, it's better if she didn't talk at all.

At the later part of the afternoon, the sky darkened but it didn't rain and Hermione and Ron didn't return as soon as they promised they would. Slowly, the both of them became drowsier and drowsier; the swinging of the compartment caused Ginny and Harry to have a full force headache. Ginny felt nauseous, her breakfast and the snacks she had earlier churning in her weak stomach. Harry on the other hand felt as if the whole compartment was spinning in front of his eyes.

Ginny clenched her hands over her mouth and stomach, Harry rested his head on a side of the wall, a hand rubbing the bridge of his nose, an obvious sign of an oncoming headache, both of them were sweating profusely despite the cool wind blowing into the cabin from the open window but they felt moist and cold in the insides.

Hermione and Ron returned to the compartment after finishing their rounds a while later, they were most alarmed to find Harry and Ginny lying sprawled over the seats in agony. Hermione helped massage Harry's shoulders and head hoping to ease his discomfort, Ron was force feeding Ginny warm beverage to help ease the nauseous feeling. They sponged them trying to make them feel better, took turns to go to the front to urge the train captain to go faster. They almost cried with relief when the train finally reached Hogwarts. With help from Ron and Hermione, Harry and Ginny managed to get onto the coach all right.

The moment the coach reached the doorsteps of the castle, Ron carried Ginny and ran all the way up the castle to the third floor where the hospital wing was located, pushing over fellow students on the way. After setting Ginny down on the bed, Ron went back for Harry and with the help from Neville, Seamus and Dean; they carried Harry to the hospital wing and set him onto the bed beside Ginny.

Madam Promfrey almost had a heart attack to find a crowd of students in the hospital wing, she didn't expect students to get hurt or sick in the first day of school. After she got over the shock, she returned to her normal snappy self and shooed them out of the hospital wing. Ron and Hermione stubbornly refused to go away, not before they knew that Harry and Ginny was going to be all right.

Madam Promfrey separated Harry and Ginny with white curtains and busied herself behind them. She reappeared from behind the curtains a while later, clicking her tongue with distaste, mumbling to herself,

"Students in the hospital wing on the first day of school. One with a broken wrist, one with high level of alcohol in her body, both suffering from a serious case of potion poisoning. Children nowadays", she shook her head and looked up. Hermione and Ron were sitting on one of the beds.

"I thought I asked you two to go to the Great Hall? Planning to disturb the peace in the hospital wing, are you? Planning to have an all night party with your little friends in the hospital wing, are you? Shoo... Shoo... Go before I called for the headmaster" Madam Pomfrey flipped her hands at them and chase then out of the hospital wing.

Retreating back to her office mumbling about student conspiring uproar in the hospital wing, she left Harry and Ginny on their own, weak and sore lying on their bed that smelled strongly of disinfectant as she prepared the potions for them.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Guess what happens next? Actually I had finished the next chapter, but whether if I'll post it soon or not, it depends on your performance. That means review!!

Hey by the way, I like people to give me long reviews!! How about we have a guessing game on what will happen next? Those who got the plot right would get to read the next chap before everyone else does!! I'll personally sent you the next chap before my precious beta reader, The Backliner, even gets to beta it. Fair? Yes, I think so.

ALL SHALL LOVE ME AND DESPAIR!! ( I like this verse! Muah...... haha.........)