-Disclaimer: I own nothing.

-A/N: Sorry this story took the back-burner. As always, thank you to my lovely reviewers! Without you, where would I be?

As soon as Ginny's eyes fluttered open, she was struck with a wave of panic. She was sitting in Harry Potter's bed, in his flat, half-dressed and remembering all too well the fiery make-out session they had condoned last night. She hadn't meant to kiss him back, but once they had started she couldn't stop. It was fortunate that Harry had stopped before they could get carried away, because Ginny had the sinking feeling she would have done a lot more of it weren't for his righteous chivalry.

She rolled over and noticed that she was by herself. This brought another wave of panic. Where had Harry gone? What if he had gone off to find Dean? Ginny had to chuckle at that. Why would Harry go running off to tell Dean? Sure, on occasion he let his emotions overrule his sensibility but Harry wasn't a dimwit.

She sighed and sat up, while rubbing her eyes. The clock on the wall read 9:30 AM. Ginny stumbled out of bed, thinking that maybe Harry was eating breakfast. She headed into the kitchen to discover a piece of lined paper taped to the door of the fridge.

Gin,

I went out for a walk, to clear my head. I should be back in an hour or so if you need to talk or…something. There's cereal in the pantry and waffles in the freezer if you're hungry.

-Harry

P.S. I don't regret anything that happened last night, even if you do.

"Bugger. An hour?" Ginny muttered, in distress.

She really needed to talk to Harry. But seeing that Harry wasn't present at the moment, there was only one person she could think of that would be a good substitute. She shuffled into the living room and stuck her head in the small fireplace. Pretty soon, she was staring into the living room of the Granger/Weasley apartment. The apartment was still and Ginny wondered if anyone was home.

"Hermione? You there?" Ginny questioned, her voice a little below shouting.

The flat responded with silence.

"HERMIONE? HELLO?" Ginny called, growing impatient.

She heard the scrambling of feet and pretty soon, Hermione was crouched down, her face eye-level to Ginny's. It appeared as though Hermione had been up for sometime, considering the fact she was fully dressed and bright-eyed.

"Ginny? Is that you?" Hermione wondered in slight disbelief.

Ginny rolled her eyes.

"Of course it's me, Mione," she confirmed with exasperation.

Hermione snickered.

"Then what are you doing in Harry's flat without a shirt on?"

Ginny glanced down at her bright pink bra, which was clearly visible due to the fact nothing was covering it and therefore immediately blushed. She did her best to obtain her dignity and threw Hermione a sarcastic grin.

"Brilliant observation, Professor Granger. Ron's not home, is he?" Ginny demanded.

If Ron overheard their conversation, she was as good as dead.

Hermione shook her head, her smirk replaced by a troubled frown.

"No, fortunately. He got called to the office a few minutes ago."

Ginny let out a deep exhale of relief.

"Splendid. Because as you can tell, what I'm about to discuss with you isn't quite fit for dear Ronald's ears."

Hermione's frown deepened.

"Go on."

Ginny sighed.

"Last night, Fred and George told me that they saw Harry getting awfully drunk at The Leaky Cauldron. No one knows, with the exception of you, what's been going on between Harry and me so I had a hunch that his drinking had to do with me. I thought it was because I told him I couldn't marry him. I got your OWL the day before and went round Harry's early the next morning. We got into an argument and well…we kissed and then I left."

Hermione's hand flew to her mouth.

"Oh brother, don't tell me it gets worse!" she exclaimed.

Ginny nodded.

"Far worse. Later that day, I was in Hogsmeade with Dean, picking up my veil. I guess Harry saw us because he got upset and started drinking. As you know, Fred and George mentioned they spotted Harry at a pub, so as soon as I could get away, I apparated to Harry's. He was beyond smashed. His eyes had this glazed over look and he kept slurring his words."

She paused.

"As you can guess, we got into an argument again. I asked him if he got drunk because of what I said and it just went downhill from there. Before I knew it, Harry kissed me and I kissed him back. He started asking me if things had been different, would I be with him. And I mean…I couldn't lie, you know?"

Hermione's eyes widened.

"And what did you say?"

Ginny gulped.

"I told him if I weren't marrying Dean, I would be with him."

Hermione shook her head, her hands covering her eyes.

"Oh Ginny, you shouldn't have! You can't get his hopes up like that!"

"I know, I know! I felt awful. But then he asked me to stay overnight with him. I was so tempted to say no but he was so drunk, that I was worried. I wanted to make sure he would be all right. And it was getting really late, so I figured it wasn't a big deal. But then one thing lead to the next and-"

Hermione gasped.

"Ginerva Weasley! Don't you dare tell me you had sex with HARRY!" the older witch screeched.

Ginny's blush returned and she quickly shook her head.

"No! No! But it probably would have happened, if Harry hadn't insisted we stop. We were only kissing and then things started to heat up. My mind was screaming at me to stop but my heart…my heart wouldn't let me. Luckily, Harry was like, "Ginny, we shouldn't be doing this. I don't want to do anything you'll regret in the morning." I knew he was right, so I agreed. And then pretty soon after that, I fell asleep. I suppose he fell asleep sometime after I did," Ginny solemnly finished.

Hermione appeared as though she'd just received a slew of failing grades on her NEWTS. Her eyes were as wide as saucers and filled with surprise, her hand at her mouth. Ginny felt anxious. She had come to Hermione for advice and it looked like even she didn't know what to do or say.

"Hermione…please say something. Anything," Ginny pleaded.

Hermione was absolutely stunned.

"I-…Gin, I really don't have any good advice at the moment. I mean, you do realize your wedding to Dean is in two days!" Hermione reminded, her voice rising an octave.

"Don't you think I know that? This is an awful situation to be in," Ginny moaned.

"Where's Harry now?" Hermione curiously wondered, peering around in attempts to see a glimpse of him.

"He went out for a walk, to clear his head. He left me a note," Ginny flatly replied.

"All right, good. That gives you some time to think. Can I ask you a question? It's very important, so you'll have to give it some deep thought," Hermione began.

Ginny shrugged.

"Go ahead."

"I was watching 'The Mexican' the other day and it brought up something that I think really fits with your situation."

Ginny frowned.

"The Mexican? What the hell is that?" Ginny wondered in confusion.

What did this have to do with her problem?

"It's a muggle movie. Anyway, back to my question. My question is, when two people truly love each other, but can never seem to get it together, when is enough, enough?" Hermione questioned.

Ginny thought about this for a moment and discovered she really had no answer. When was enough, enough? Harry and herself didn't seem to be "getting it together" so did that mean she should have just given up once and for all? But what if she didn't want to give up…

"I don't know," Ginny confessed.

Hermione threw out one of her infamous "know-it-all" smiles.

"The answer is never. You see, Ginny, when you fall in love with someone, you can't just get them out of your mind or heart as quickly as you would like. I know I'm probably supposed to say something along the lines of, 'You should forget about Harry, come clean to Dean and marry him' while indicating how foolish your actions were, but I'm not going to preach. True, you shouldn't have kissed Harry that first time. And point being, you shouldn't even have considered staying overnight. But that's not the point, not in the grand scheme of everything," Hermione wisely continued.

Ginny was silent, marveling at the philosophy of her friend and sister-in-law.

"I'm smart, Ginny, but book smart only gets you so far. You know how much Ron and I used to argue; still do in fact. But despite the fact he sometimes could say some really hurtful things, it never really crossed my mind to forget about what I felt for him."

"You can fall in love a lot, but true love; truly, madly, deeply, can't live without each other love only happens once in a lifetime. And once it hits you, it hits you hard and so quick you don't even know what it is until it's too late. And it never goes away. First loves never really die because you've given apart of yourself away, that you can't get back. A person can fall in love a million times with a million different people, but there's something so pure and innocent about falling in love for the first time, that it never leaves your system."

Ginny was bewildered with silence. She had never known Hermione to be so…. Well, insightful. She had known she was extremely smart but there was a difference between book smart and "life" smart.

"Are you saying I should be with Harry instead of Dean?" Ginny quietly speculated.

Hermione shrugged, a soft smile present on her face.

"I'm not saying anything like that. All I'm trying to say is to follow your heart. True, it isn't always the most practical advice but let's say you end up marrying Dean and you still have feelings for Harry. It's a lose-lose situation. You end up marrying Dean just for the sake of avoiding confrontation. In the mean time, Dean's been deceived because you haven't given him your entire heart and Harry is hurting because he still loves you," Hermione rationally pointed out.

"But…what if I truly and only love Dean?" Ginny debated, though she knew she was lying to herself.

Hermione blinked in surprise, as though it weren't a possible answer. She shrugged, her smile sliding off her face.

"Then what's the problem, huh? Marry the guy, right? Of course, Harry will be upset but if you truly love Dean, then you can't change how you feel. Besides, if Harry loves you as much as he claims, then he would let you go," Hermione answered, a hint of sadness in her voice.

Ginny sighed. Everything would have been all right, if this were the case. But after the events of last night and before, she knew easy wouldn't be the way out. Every time she was with Harry, she forgot about Dean. Of course, guilt would cross her mind every now and then but in all honesty, the way Harry made her feel stirred something so deep inside of her that she had thought it was lost the day he had disappeared.

Ginny knew people weren't born perfect and she was an example of this. If she was perfect, she would be unaffected by Harry's return. Of course, she would have been beyond glad of his return but she wouldn't have felt anything for him romantically. It would have been dead and buried, just the way she had claimed.

But besides being a witch, she was human and all humans had flaws.

Ginny looked down at bedroom floor, then back at Hermione.

"I guess Dean will be pretty upset," she whispered.

"Why?" Hermione questioned in astonishment.

"Because he's not going to like it when I tell him that the wedding is canceled."