Harry was woken the next morning by Ron's bedroom door slamming open and an angry voice filling the room.

"You are never going to believe what Mum's gone and done!" Ginny almost yelled.

"What?" grumbled Ron, turning over in his bed.

"She's decided it would be 'a lovely idea' – to put it in her own words – if we invited Draco Malfoy to Christmas lunch since he has no family to spend it with!"

Harry sat up sharply in his bed and hurriedly put on his glasses. "Malfoy?"

"Yes! I mean, I know he's on our side and all, but if that slimy little git comes anywhere near –"

"She can't have!" Ron said loudly. "Malfoy. In our house?"

"I know, but Mum thinks" she put on a voice reminiscent of Mrs Weasley's and said, "he's changed."

Harry and Ron both snorted. Krum just sat on his mattress looking slightly bewildered. His English wasn't excellent and he looked slightly taken aback by all the yelling this early in the morning. Also, he had no idea who Malfoy was.

Scratching his head, Harry looked up at Ginny, a crease between his eyebrows. "Well, we can't do much can we?" He threw the covers off and swung his legs out of bed.

Ginny frowned, hoping for help from at least Harry. "Aren't you upset about this?"

Harry shrugged. "Without Malfoy's help, we wouldn't have found Voldemort or Snape."

"Why are you sticking up for him?"

"Why are you yelling?"

Ron looked from his sister to his best friend in disbelief. Even Krum was watching them curiously and he didn't know how close they were.

"Never mind," Ginny muttered and she left the room, her face red and angry.

"Ok, what just happened?" Harry asked completely bewildered as he pulled on a shirt, sweater and pair of jeans. "She just yelled at me. Why?"

---

It took Harry a long time to find Ginny that morning. He eventually found her tucked away in the attic, a blanket draped over her, reading a book.

He sat down beside her but she didn't look up. "You often come up here on your own?"

Turning a page she shrugged then noticed Harry shiver and spread half of the blanket over him. He scratched his head.

"Are you angry at me?"

Ginny smiled and closed her book. "No, Harry. I'm not angry with you."

"Then why –"

"I've missed you and… I don't know. It's hard. Four months apart. I guess I've just thought about us so much I've turned this relationship into something unrealistic."

Harry didn't say anything for a while, just leaned back against a dusty old trunk and chewed on his thumbnail. "I thought about you a lot. But you're even more amazing then I remembered."

"Oh, Harry, I'm sorry," Ginny said suddenly realizing how insensitive what she had just said was. "I didn't mean it's not incredible, it is…it's just…I'm sorry."

"It's fine," he said and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. They sat in silence for awhile, leaning against each other and thinking hard. Finally Harry asked, just to break the silence, "How's school?"

"Not the same without you and Ron and Hermione. Oh you'll never guess what, Luna's going out with Colin Creevey!"

"What?" Harry asked, laughing. "Luna and Colin? Bet that's a bizarre relationship."

"So how about you?" Ginny asked softly, taking his hand in hers and squeezing it tightly. "What happened?"

Harry sighed and rubbed his face with his free hand. "Well we found them all right. Just where Malfoy said they'd be. Tania and Ron started fighting the Deatheaters; there were only three of them, so I slipped past and went to find Snape.

"He was making some potion and his back was to me. I didn't want to attack him with his back turned so said his name and he jumped about a foot in the air. He really wasn't expecting to see me. I didn't mean to kill him, Ginny. See we were duelling and I guess he was just hit by one too many spells and he…I killed him."

"That happened with Lestrange," Ginny said quietly. "When I killed her over the summer. At the final battle."

Neither spoke for a long time, but when the snow began to fall again outside Harry picked himself up and held a hand out to Ginny. "I'm freezing. Come on, let's go downstairs."

---

"Harry, you're cheating!"

"I am not," Harry said in mock disbelief. "How could you say something like that?"

Ginny glared at him. "You are so cheating!"

"Am not."

"Fine. Use the word 'obagalrf' in a sentence then."

Harry paused to think then said, "It was a very obagalrf sort of day."

"You're so full of it," Ginny said, stretching her legs out. "And you don't get points."

"What? I used it in a sentence."

"This is why I don't play Scrabble with you. You're completely hopeless!"

Harry grinned and leaned over the game board, kissing her on the lips. The letters scattered and their game was officially ruined, but neither cared.

"Oh do you two mind?" Ron asked, walking into the living room holding five mugs of hot chocolate. "You're as bad as Hermione and that git, Krum."

"Hark whose talking Ron! You and Tania are much worse than Harry and me."

"Oh really?" Ron asked sarcastically. "Hermione told me about you two, last night." He glared at them both. "You do a lot more than kissing!"

"Oh grow up, Ron! Yes, Harry and I have had sex, big deal!"

Unfortunately for both Ginny and Harry, Mr Weasley walked into the room at that point. His face turned stony and two pink patches burned in his cheeks before he turned and promptly left the room.

Ron snorted. "You could fry an egg on your face Harry. Lucky for you it's a no-magic day, otherwise I think dad might have hexed you." He frowned. "Actually I might have too."

"Yeah, right," Harry said, his insides melting with embarrassment. "As if you'd be able to hex me."

Ron sat down in an armchair and arranged his mugs of hot chocolate on the small coffee table.

"Are they all for you?" asked Ginny, indicating the numerous mugs.

"Yup, and I'm not planning on moving till dinnertime either so if you could go and grab me a few mince pies I'd much appreciate it."

Ginny just raised a thin eyebrow and got to her feet, pulling Harry with her. No point being embarrassed about something they hadn't done in four months, she thought as they made their way up to her bedroom.

---

Christmas morning dawned grey and cold. Snow was falling gently outside the window when Harry woke. As usual, a stack of presents sat at the foot of his bed. Punching Ron in the arm first, Harry picked up a large red package and undid the bow. Grunting, Ron sat up and rubbed his eyes.

"Merry Christmas," Harry said, pulling out the dark green sweater Mrs Weasley had knitted for him. It had a large snitch stitched onto the front with sparkly golden thread that twinkled up at him despite the dimly lit room.

"'Mornin'," Ron yawned. He too grabbed a present and ripped the paper off. Once Harry had unwrapped the Weasleys', Hermione's, Lupin's, Hagrid's, Tania's and Ron's present he realized there was one missing: he hadn't received anything from Ginny. But then again, he hadn't given anything to her yet, either. He wanted to wait until later when they were alone together.

Breakfast that morning was a noisy affair. Tania had gone home for Christmas, but all the Weasleys, Hermione, Krum, Harry, Lupin, Tonks, the screaming baby, Christine and Fleur were all seated around the table. As usual, the food was absolutely delicious: crispy white bread, jams of all flavours, steaming porridge with honey and cream, and a large leg of ham.

Harry ate until he could eat more, then sat back and listened to the animated conversation around him. Ginny was spending all her efforts on making as much fun as Fleur as she possible could, who was getting steadily more flustered. Fred and George were joining in of course.

After breakfast was eaten and cleaned up, everyone retreated to the living room. All the seats taken, Harry sat on the floor, leaning against the wall, Ginny in between his legs, her head resting against his chest. He was quite content and relaxed when a knock on the door woke him from his stupor.

The room became quiet almost at once as everyone looked at Mrs Weasley who, quite pink in the face, stood and left the room. Dark muttering filled the room in her wake. Without noticing, Harry wrapped his arms protectively around Ginny and pulled her closer.

"Come on in, come on in," came Mrs Weasley's voice from the hall as she walked back into the room, followed by a tall young man with blonde hair, light blue eyes and a pointed face.

AN: Please review! Next chap should be quite exciting...:o) oh and who wants Ron and Hermione to get back together? please tell me so i can see wat everyone would prefer...