Annoyingly for Ginny, the present incident affected the rest of her holidays. Even though no-one mentioned what had happened again, she could feel her family's judgement and their disappointment in her. Harry also seemed to be off with her, and she couldn't manage to get any time alone with him, let alone give him the present she'd always planned on giving him.

Initially, Ginny had tried to forget about the reason for her less than brilliant holidays, but as the new year crept closer, she couldn't help but dwell on the presents she'd seen in Hermione's room, and wonder what she had done with them. By the time she boarded the Hogwarts Express, all she could think about was confronting Hermione and finding out what she'd done with the expensive presents that she hadn't given to her friends.

"Honestly, Ginny, you need to just drop it," Ron warned his sister when she tentatively raised the topic on the way back to Hogwarts.

"I can't believe none of you are even the slightest bit curious about what she did with those presents," Ginny pouted.

"I still say you were in the wrong room," Harry said with an unconcerned shrug.

"I was not in the wrong room," Ginny hissed. "I am not stupid. I was in Hermione's room, and I saw the presents she'd bought for someone. Clearly it just wasn't the tat she bought for us."

"Don't you dare insult the gifts we received from Hermione," Ron seethed at his sister. "They were not tat. As usual they were thoughtful and perfect for everyone. You're just a greedy, ungrateful cow. Who cares what happened to the presents you saw. I certainly don't. I love what Hermione got me and wouldn't have changed it for the world."

"Nor would I," Harry said, agreeing with his best friend as Luna also expressed her pleasure at the present she'd received from Hermione. "You have to let this drop, Ginny. Or else you're going to end up making a fool of yourself in public. At the end of the day it's none of our business who those presents were for. Hermione can buy for whoever she wants, and give them whatever she wants. It is nothing to do with us."

"I can't just drop it, I need to know what happened to them," Ginny argued stubbornly. "I need to know who she values more than us."

"Suit yourself, but don't expect us to back you up when Hermione finds out what is going on and you upset her," Ron warned. "If you're going to keep digging, you're on your own."

"Fine, I can do this by myself," Ginny huffed as she got to her feet and stormed out of the compartment.

Not knowing where she was going since she'd left the people she usually sat with behind, Ginny headed to the bathroom and sulked in the toilets for a while. By the time she emerged, she was wondering if Harry and Ron were right. Maybe she would be better off if she just let the whole thing drop. After all, Hermione hadn't given the presents to them, so did it really matter who had received them. It wasn't as if she was going to take them back off the people she had given them to and hand them out to her other friends.

Deciding she would try her best and forget the entire incident, Ginny turned and headed back towards the compartment her boyfriend and brother were sitting in. Part way down the corridor she hit a blockage as the sweet trolley was parked in the corridor. As she waited to pass, Ginny suddenly decided that treating Harry and Ron to some sweets would be the perfect way to apologise. She could head back to the compartment, bearing gifts and promising to behave, and maybe if she was lucky they would never tell Hermione what she'd done.

Delving into her pockets, Ginny located the small money bag, which was filled with the few coins she'd received for Christmas from distant relatives. It wasn't a fortune, but it was enough to buy several treats from the trolley. Stepping up to the trolley, she began to pick out Harry and Ron's favourite treats.

Ginny was so distracted that she failed to hear someone approaching from the other side of the trolley. It was only when a hand reached for a chocolate frog that she was about to pick up that Ginny realised she wasn't alone and glanced up to see who else was buying from the trolley. When she spotted the hand belonged to Blaise Zabini, a Slytherin in the year above her, she scowled slightly.

"Don't get so wound up, Red, it's only a chocolate frog," Blaise chuckled. "There's plenty more on the trolley."

"But that one might have a card I don't have," Ginny retorted. To be honest she wasn't bothered about the card, or the fact he'd taken the frog she'd been intending on buying, she was just taking some of her annoyance out on him.

"If it's that important to you, take it," Blaise said with a shake of his head as he threw the frog across the trolley at her.

Ginny caught the frog in one hand, and was just about to turn back to the trolley and finish sorting what she wanted when it occurred to her that Blaise was wearing a shirt in the exact same colour as the one she'd seen in Hermione's room. As she was trying to work out if it was the same shirt, or just one like it, more people approached from Blaise's direction and Ginny rolled her eyes at the sight of Pansy Parkinson and Daphne Greengrass. However, she was quickly distracted by the lush purple jumper Daphne was wearing. It looked exactly like the one Ginny had been expecting to receive for Christmas.

Shaking her head at the idea that Hermione would buy gifts for the Slytherins, and dismissing the entire thing as an odd coincidence, Ginny refocused her attention on the sweet trolley and completed her purchase. As she was waiting for her change, she watched the Slytherins pick out their treats and she couldn't help but gasp as Pansy leaned over the trolley and a distinctive unicorn necklace around her neck swung into view.

"Problem?" Pansy questioned with an arched eyebrow.

"I was just admiring your necklace," Ginny muttered. "It's very unique."

"Her early warning system," Blaise laughed. "Now we know when to avoid her when she's in a mood."

"You'll be avoiding me for the rest of the trip if you keep this up," Pansy warned.

"You know we love you really, Pans," Blaise laughed.

Too stunned to speak, Ginny could only watch as the Slytherins picked and paid for their sweets, before heading back off to their compartment, laughing together.

"Do you want anything else dear?" the witch who looked after the trolley asked.

"No, thank you," Ginny muttered, moving aside to let the witch and her trolley pass along the corridor.

As the sweet trolley continued its journey down the train, Ginny could do nothing but stand in the corridor, her mind whirling with what she'd just seen. She could brush off Blaise wearing a shirt like the one she'd seen in Hermione's room. At a push, she could do the same with Daphne. But it seemed like too much of a coincidence that Pansy would also be wearing a necklace exactly like the one she'd seen. What were the chances of three Slytherins all wearing things identical to the presents she'd seen in Hermione's room?

Still rather stunned at what she had discovered, Ginny made her way back to the compartment where her brother and boyfriend were sitting with Luna. Entering the compartment, she dropped the sweets onto one of the seats and slumped down next to Harry.

"What is this?" Ron asked, eyeing the sweets warily. "Trying to butter us up so we'll side with you?"

"No, it was an apology," Ginny replied. "I was going to say you were right and I should drop the whole thing."

"You were going to say that? So what are you now going to say?" Harry questioned.

"I know who Hermione gave those presents to," Ginny blurted. "When I stopped at the trolley to get the sweets, some of the Slytherins appeared. Zabini is wearing the shirt I thought was for Harry, Greengrass is wearing my jumper and Parkinson is wearing the mood changing unicorn necklace."

"That says to me that we were right all along," Ron said smugly. "You weren't looking at Hermione's presents, you were looking at Malfoy's."

"I was not," Ginny insisted. "I was in Hermione's room. It was her presents I saw."

"So you're saying, Hermione bought expensive presents for the Slytherins?" Harry questioned, clearly not believing it for a moment.

"And what about the other things you saw?" Ron asked his sister. "Who got the Cannons shirt you thought was for me? And the sweets and the perfume and fire-whisky."

"I don't know," Ginny mused thoughtfully. "But there were two boxes of sweets, and we all know Crabbe and Goyle love sweets. I guess the shirt could be for either Nott or Malfoy. Maybe one of them support the Cannons. The fire-whisky could be for the other one."

"And the perfume?" Ron snorted. "Face it Ginny, you screwed up. Doesn't it make more sense that those expensive presents belonged to Malfoy? Firstly, he can certainly afford to splash the cash, and secondly they've ended up with his friends."

"But they were in Hermione's room," Ginny argued. "She bought them, I know she did. And I intend to find out why she's giving the Slytherins presents."

Despite Harry and Ron trying to talk her around, Ginny wouldn't budge and she spent the rest of the journey deciding how best to confront Hermione and get the truth out of her. Harry and Ron may have thought she'd made a mistake, but Ginny knew what she'd seen. She was convinced Hermione had bought the presents she'd seen in her room, and she was going to prove it.


As The Hogwarts Express made its way back up to Scotland, those left at Hogwarts awaited it's arrival. By now all the staff were back, and news of the head students romance was spreading like wildfire. As such, Draco and Hermione knew they would have to tell their friends about their relationship sooner rather than later.

"How about we get it out of the way tonight," Draco suggested as he and Hermione sat in the head dorms, trying to decide the best way to deal with their friends. "We can be waiting for them to arrive back, and break the news together."

"I suppose that's one way of doing it," Hermione agreed. "But what if they kick off and cause a fuss before the feast. Dumbledore won't be happy if the first feast of the term is disrupted by our friends."

"Then our other option is to wait until dinner is over and invite them back to the head dorms," Draco suggested. "We can still tell them together, and if they react badly, we can simply kick them out and dock house points."

"You would dock house points off your own friends?" Hermione questioned with a laugh.

"Hell, yeah," Draco replied seriously. "And hand out detentions if they behaved really badly."

"Let's hope they don't behave badly then," Hermione chuckled. "But seriously, how do you think they'll react?"

"I have no idea," Draco answered honestly. "I would like to think that they care about us enough to accept our relationship. And if they don't, then they were never real friends in the first place."

Hermione smiled, hoping that Draco was right, and fully agreeing with him that true friends would accept their relationship. She was just hoping that her friends were the true friends she believed them to be, and even if they were shocked, they would ultimately accept her relationship. What she didn't realise was that it wasn't her romance with Draco that would be the big talking point when her friends got back to school, it would be the conclusions Ginny had jumped to and the confrontation she was planning with Hermione.