A few days after the 'incident' there was still bad blood between Ginny and the Gryffindors plus Draco. The girl had given up trying to explain herself, as she was considered a traitor.

During meals she would sadly look at the people that had once thought very highly of her. They were laughing with each other, living perfectly fine without her. She wondered if maybe it would have been better to be expelled. At least, she wouldn't have to see them every day.

The only person in the whole school who didn't seem to hate her was Luna. Too bad that she was a Ravenclaw.

That next weekend, at Hogsmeade, Luna and Ginny had gone to Madam Puddifoot, as the Three Broomsticks wasn't the most favorable place for her.

"I am being bullied by my own house." Ginny said to her friend. She had her head down in order to avoid her gaze, as she had a lump in her throat.

"Same."Luna said. "People are cruel. And your little game in the Great Hall probably didn't help. I suspect the Wrackspurts had infested your brain that day." She continued, firmly convinced of her theory.

"No, Luna... It was my fault, I was angry and hurt... but I shouldn't have done that. Or involve Parkinson into it." The redhead said.

"You will see, Harry will forgive you. I mean, he's forgiven Malfoy." Luna observed.

That gave Ginny a slight sense of hope.

"You know what, Luna... I feel bad for Malfoy. I never thought I'd say this but he didn't really deserve to be thrown out of his home."she said, still looking down.

"He's changed, I reckon. I could get him to buy the Quibbler, maybe." said Luna. "Don't pretend that you're not about to cry, Gin Gin. You can cry freely with me. Unless you get your tears in my drink, I don't care."

Ginny tilted her head up and gave Luna a smile. She felt blessed to have her, without her it would have all been much harder. "Thank you, Luna. You're the only one who doesn't hate me around here." She said, taking Luna's hand in hers.

Luna looked at their hands and blushed slightly. "No problem. I just think you're influenced by vile creatures, but I know that the real you is much better." she said.

The other girl giggled in response.

"You're so cute when you do that." The blonde observed.

Ginny suddenly felt a weird feeling of warmth invade her chest, then her face, which became red. Must have been the effect of the Butterbeer, she thought, although she wasn't sure of it herself. Did she enjoy compliments from Luna a little too much?

Meanwhile, at the Three Broomsticks, the golden trio plus Draco were enjoying themselves.

"I hardly believe this, the four of us, together, at the same table, with no wands out." Ron said with a grin.

This was their first time hanging out all together since Draco's change of heart.

"I told you that my friendliness might surprise you." said the Slytherin.

He and Harry were sitting next to each other, holding hands underneath the table, while Ron and Hermione were sitting opposite them, also holding hands.

"It's so weird to think that this all started with Draco pushing Harry to the ground." Hermione pointed out.

"He did it on purpose, as he knew I liked him." said Harry, looking at his boyfriend.

"I was suspecting it, yes." Draco confirmed with a smirk. "I'm sure I was able to visit you in your dreams that night." He teased.

Harry blushed furiously. It had actually happened. He recalled that dream about them kissing, which became true a day after.

"Oh, so you did dream of me that night!" Draco said, surprised. "What did you dream I was doing?"

"Just what happened the day after under the tree, us kissing." Harry admitted.

"Ah, yeah, I recall. Right after we did it, you said it was a 'mistake', I quote." Draco said, taking in air quotes.

"Ah, well, we still hated each other up to two seconds before." Harry defended himself.

Hermione gave a giggle as she witnessed the two lovers bickering. She seemed to find them cute.

"You remind me of Ron and I," she said, fondly. "We used to bicker like this all the time."

"I can confirm that!" Harry said, raising his free hand. "I was always in the middle of them."

"Oh, and you'd always act like the hero of the situation, I bet."Draco mocked.

"Oh, he would!" Ron confirmed.

"Aren't you a bit full of yourself?" Draco sneered.

Harry wanted to wipe that smile off that stupid face so badly. But he had to admit that this teasing was not so bad. "Look who's talking!"He simply said.

His boyfriend kissed him in response. That took him by surprise, but he still dived into it.

Some people turned their heads to stare at them, but they didn't say a word.

Hermione and Ron gave a 'woo' at the sight of that PDA, Draco was not afraid to show his love for Harry anymore. Hermione put her hands on her chest, feeling proud.

"Aren't they so cute?" she said to Ron. "You never kiss me like that at random!"

Ron took it as a challenge and proceeded to kiss his girlfriend.

"You had never taken the initiative to kiss me in front of everyone, It was always me who did."

Harry said, as his lips parted from Draco's. He was incredibly proud of him for doing so.

"I decided that I shouldn't let others get to me. It's time to put an end to my fears."

Draco said, smiling.

Ron, having broken his kiss with his girlfriend, suddenly seemed to remember something.

"I don't mean to interrupt a moment but... Harry, what are your intentions regarding the Quidditch team?" After all, they were missing a chaser, now.

"Oh, right." Harry said, shifting his attention from Draco to his best friend. The thought had never really crossed his mind in the days before.

"I think I'll do some tryouts. " He said.

Ron took a breath, "Are you absolutely sure that you want to-"

"Ron, we've already discussed this. No, I do not intend to keep your sister in our team. She betrayed us, therefore she is out. Full stop."Harry snapped.

"But she is my sister, Harry!" Ron said.

"That doesn't change it. I wish I didn't have to spend Christmas in the same house as her."

Harry concluded.

There was no way to reason with him about Ginny, she had done something horrible and he wasn't willing to forgive her, at least not yet.

Draco and Hermione looked at each other, awkwardly, as silence fell on them.

"Wow guys, won't you look outside? The weather is dreadful." Hermione said, something like five minutes later.

Talking about the weather was always a good way to deal with awkward silences.

When the four of them left the bar, it was snowing outside and there was a strong wind.

They all had to hold on to their scarves to prevent them from flying away.

On their way back to the castle, the two couples saw Pansy approaching to them.

Her cheeks were both red, she was wearing a large hat that covered her eyebrows and her Slytherin scarf kept going left and right.

She was visibly cold, as she had her arms crossed and she was shivering.

Draco wasn't ecstatic to see her, but he couldn't be too mad at her, not when she had snowflakes all over her face.

Harry was ready to fight her, but Draco stopped him. If Harry wasn't in anyway inclined to forgive her and Ginny, Draco didn't have the same idea. He wanted to hear what she had to say.

"Hey, Draco... have a minute?" the Slytherin girl asked.

Draco nodded.

"Well,we will leave you to it." said Hermione, then she grabbed Ron's hand and together they left for Hogwarts.

Now, it was only Draco, Harry and Pansy on the spot.

"I just want to say how truly sorry I am." the girl said, looking down at her feet.

"I shouldn't have... I don't know what got into my head, really. I was just angry and... I let that get to me. It was just a shock for me to see... this." Pansy said, referring to the two of them.

She stopped speaking for a moment when she noticed that Draco was wearing a Gryffindor scarf while Harry was wearing a Slytherin one.

They were that close now.

"It's just a lot to take in... You've changed so much since this...happened and I guess I blamed it all on Potter..."

"Pansy, look," Draco said. "I know that I'm different now. And yeah, the fact I'm dating Harry played a part in that, but in the end, he just let me be the person that I always wanted to be, underneath it all. Now I am free, Pans. Partly because of you, I finally spoke up to my father."

He concluded. He wasn't lying. He had finally found the courage to be himself.

Also, he thought that not forgiving Pansy would be silly on his part, given that he had done things that were significantly worse than putting a picture on a banner.

Pansy smiled with tears in her eyes, then she threw herself at Draco.

The blond boy held her into a tight hug. He didn't even mind her tears all over his coat.

"I l-love y-you." Pansy said in a hiccup of sobs. "And I-I u-understand that... we will never b-be t-togeth-her."

Harry watched as the two friends rekindled, without saying a word. He didn't buy it one bit, even if Pansy was sobbing her heart out. It seemed to him like she was just acting, so that she'd be back in Draco's grace again, just for convenience. However, he didn't externalize these feelings to his boyfriend.

He just gave Pansy a fake smile.

That night, the Room of Requirement was occupied by Luna and Ginny, who needed it for a thorough research on Wrackspurts.

Ginny didn't really care about the subject of their meeting, she was more interested in spending time with her friend.

As Luna babbled, Ginny would find herself looking at her hair, her eyes and her moving lips. The entire ensemble was rather hypnotizing for her. She began to wonder what it would feel like to kiss those lips while running her fingers in her hair... No, that wasn't possible, Ginny was straight and still mourning the loss of a relationship with Harry.

"...and the spectrespecs are the only mechanism known to man that makes you see the Wrackspurts." Luna concluded, although she noticed how Ginny had been staring at her.

"Are you staring at me because you want to kiss me?" She said,without thinking. "Because I'd be fine with it."

Ginny immediately snapped out of her thoughts and her face turned crimson red.

"Oh...Luna... no I mean... you like me?" Ginny asked, embarrassed.

"Yes. I mean, you're a cute girl, you're my only friend. Why shouldn't I like you, you silly." Luna said with one of her dreamy eyed smiles.

"Oh, but I don't like girls... I was just thinking of..." the redhead tried to say.

"Of me." the blonde said, finishing the sentence for her. "I noticed how you look at me, Gin Gin. "

Ginny took a breath. Luna was right, she had found herself thinking of her in some... ways. Even throughout her relationship with Harry, but at the time she had simply mistaken it for sexual frustration.

Suddenly, a mistletoe appeared. Both girls looked at it, Ginny was nervous.

"Oh, a mistletoe." Luna observed. "Nargles like to infest these. Thank God I have my necklace to keep them away." She said, moving her head excitedly and fidgeting with her butterbeer caps necklace.

Weird, Luna wasn't talking about kissing Ginny. Maybe Luna, in her own little world, didn't know much about mistletoes and had only seen them as "Nargle hives".

"Ah, silly me. Almost forgot." the Ravenclaw continued, looking like she had forgotten to do something very important. Then, she took Ginny's face in her hands and planted a kiss on her lips.

The Gryffindor girl was taken aback, but she let her do that. She had to admit that the kiss didn't feel so bad, after all. It was different than the ones with Harry, this was sweeter, softer and it felt more real. Harry's kisses lacked passion, basically. While Luna's was full of fire.

Something inside of her, though, told her to push her away. She wasn't a lesbian, she had dated so many guys and that should have confirmed her heterosexuality.

Her body didn't obey her voice in her head saying 'push her away!', though. She just relaxed into the kiss. When Luna pulled away, she gasped.

The other girl simply smiled and went back to her magic beasts ramble.