Oh my gosh. I'm a horrible liar! It's been a month since I updated! I'm so sorry, but I had a million projects, plus finals to worry about. But now schools out, so I'll have a lot more free time. Err...this chappie is extremely long, and it's really late, so I expect there are probably even more grammatical/spelling errors than normal. I reread it like, 16 times, but I'm aterrible proofreader, so sorry.

On a completely different note, 600 reviews! Thank you all so much! I started this story thinking I'd be happy if I broke twenty. So, thanks again.

Disclaimer: I'm poor. Don't sue me.

Ginny sat on her bed with her knees pulled tight against her chest, trying to figure out exactly what had just happened. Almost woodenly she'd changed from her wet clothes into her warm flannel pajama pants and a t-shirt.

She couldn't count the times she'd been in that exact same position with boys: Harry, Colin, Dean, not to mention all of her brothers but they really didn't count. But never had she felt the rust of pure exhilaration she'd felt looking down at Draco in that one moment.

There was nothing quite like Draco when he smiled, she decided. The picture of him poking his head out from behind his tree, snowball in hand was so far detached from the likeness of his angelic face curled into a cruel sneer that it was almost impossible to associate the two. Her mind had effectively split in two, one part holding images of Draco as she knew him, the other, much smaller part, squirreling away the brief glimpses of Draco as she was coming to know him.

One, how he looked when he talked to Blaise. Calm, relaxed, occasionally grinning. Another the contentment she'd seen on his face when she'd caught him sleeping. Also the pride and concern she could see in his eyes when he spoke about his mother. And now, a new one; Draco laughing and playing in the snow with the exuberance of a child.

She couldn't think of a time, even when he was with Blaise that she had seen him look so untroubled. She wondered sadly if it was, perhaps, the first time he had been.

With a frustrated sigh she stood and crossed the room stopping in front of her mirror.

You're far too nice for your own good, Ginny Weasley. She scolded herself. She'd been saying that same thing for years and nothing seemed to have changed. Self-criticism was obviously not her forte.

She picked dejectedly at a misplaced strand of hair. She'd always had a soft spot for it. Unfortunately, it gave her away far too easily. Redheads blushed more than anyone else. In the mirror, she could see her cheeks were still flushed. She stared at her reflection for several moments until it blurred and faded away and she was left sitting in quiet contemplation. A quiet tapping brought her back from her pondering, her eyes snapping back into focus. For a moment, she had to search for the source of the noise, and finally identified it as coming from the window. She pushed aside her curtains and found herself facing a large, black owl.

She opened the window and the bird jumped over the jam, and looked up at her from where it now sat on her window seal. She recognized it immediately: the owl from that night in the owlery: Snape.

She hesitated a second, unsure of what to do, but finally she smiled down at the thing. She hadn't said anything to anyone about Snape yet, and she didn't plan to. If there was one thing she could gather about her potions master, was that he cared about Malfoy. And she trusted him. Mostly.

She stuck out her arm for the bird to step on. "You'll be wanting the next window up then." The large eyes scrutinized her for a long moment and Ginny was quite sure Snape was trying to figure out if she recognized it was him or not.

"You must be looking for Draco. You're far too pretty to be from anyone we know." She said. Which was true; Snape made for a lovely owl. "I'll go tell him to unlock his window."

The bird finally turned away from her and hopped back out of the window. She quickly turned and ran up the stairs, stopping when she reached his door. After a short pause, she knocked on his door. He answered and she thought for a second she saw surprise register in his eyes.

He smirked. "Can't be without me even ten minutes, can you Weasley?"

"Remind me to never do you a favor again." She said, remembering at that moment that her cheeks had still been red several minutes ago and wondering if they still were. "Unlock you're window. You've made a poor owl wait outside in the cold for you."

He, leaving the door, unlocked the window and immediately the owl entered in a flurry of wings and feathers, making Draco duck to get out of its way. The raptor landed easily on the boy's trunk.

The blonde reached out and took a letter from the birds foot that Ginny was quite sure had not been there a second ago. It was probably enchanted to appear only to Draco. He unrolled it and began to read.

Ginny stood awkwardly at the door that he had left ajar. She didn't know if she was supposed to leave or just stay there. He hadn't indicated that she should go, but then again, he wasn't exactly throwing the door open for her.

"You can come in, you know." He said without looking up, startling Ginny.

"Excuse me?"

"I said you could come in." This time he looked up at her over the parchment he was reading. He was obviously amused by her unease, which was annoying to no end. With a huff, she entered the room and glared at him, but he had returned to his reading. After only another second, he tossed the letter aside.

She didn't feel any less awkward standing there in the middle of his room than she had felt standing outside it. She waited silently while he went to his trunk (the bird moving aside obligingly) and fished out another length of parchment, tying it to the birds outstretched leg. With its load secure, the owl flew silently back out into the cold afternoon.

She touched her cheek, quite sure that by now it had to be back to its normal color. "Lovely owl."

Draco made a noise, which could have either been an agreement or a sneeze.

"I don't have one." She said, shifting from foot to foot. "Always wanted one, actually. I though for sure mum would get me one for making prefect, but she sent me a new dress robe instead. Didn't have the heart to tell her it was absolutely dreadful." She was prattling on, but she couldn't seem to stop herself. "It was pink, and kind of lacy. Kind of like Ron's dress robes, actually. Do you remember those? He was mortified."

She bit down on the inside of her cheek. Not only had she now thoroughly embarrassed herself, she had brought up a memory so horrifying for Ron that it was likely he'd kill her if he found out.

Draco was facing her now, and didn't seem like he was going to say or do anything to assuage her discomfort. She couldn't see it, but she knew that he was immensely enjoying it. She was about to make up some reason why she would have to leave, when he, very casually asked, "How about a game of wizard's chess then?"

She shrugged but it didn't matter because he was already at his truck digging through his belongings. He took a seat on the bed and began setting up the board without looking at her. When he was done, he glanced up at her expectantly as though he couldn't figure out why she hadn't sat down yet. She sat.

On a broom, she flew recklessly. It was something she'd learned from Harry. But when she played chess, she sat, examined her pieces, calculated each move in her head, tried to guess where her opponent would move and finally, after much deliberation, would make her move. Draco, on the other hand, seemed to make moves at random, examining the board only a second before moving his piece.

She lost. Horribly.

Ginny glared at him. "I really don't like you sometimes."

Draco grinned back at her, obviously pleased with himself. "All part of my charm, love."

He set the board up without asking whether she wanted to play again. She doubted he'd even thought about it.

It was comfortable; quiet other than Ginny's occasional outbreaks when he made a particularly frustrating move, but nice. After two more games she stood and stretched her legs.

"I can't take anymore of this. If I wanted to get beaten this badly I would have played Ron."

"Weaselbee?" He asked, the expression on his face something akin to what it would have been if she had told him that McGonagall had suddenly given up teaching to become an exotic dancer; one of almost equal disgust and surprise.

She cocked an eyebrow in a superior manner. "Ron," she said putting emphasis on his name "happens to be a fantastic chess player."

She was suddenly very proud of her brother. She made a mental note to get him something especially nice for Christmas.

After a moment, Draco shrugged. "Well, statistically, he had to be good at something."

She frowned, "Stop being so horrible."

"I'm fabulous, he's the one that makes small children cry."

She snorted. "You're loosing you edge, Malfoy. That was only vaguely insulting and not very clever."

"Yeah, well, it's an off day. Get back to me tomorrow."

She frowned at him again.

"I'm hungry." She said suddenly, and walked out.

He couldn't tell whether she was being abrupt because she was angry or not. He doubted it. She hadn't seemed upset, at least not anymore than her everyday frustration with him. After a second, her bright red head appeared in the doorway.

"Aren't you coming?"

Being alone with a room full of Weasleys was not high up on the list of things Draco had ever wanted to do. In fact, it landed somewhere between eating a live bug and poking an annoyed hippogriff. It even beat out going a day without his hair gel. So far, they had been fairly civil, which he was now convinced was all a clever ruse to lure him into a false sense of security. Ginny, her mother, and Hermione had spent almost half an hour in the kitchen cooking lunch. Ginny hadn't looked very pleased about. She wasn't, she informed him, exactly the domestic type. A fact that the loud, shrill, shrieking alarm had confirmed. Hermione came out of the kitchen waving the smoke away with a cookie sheet to inform them everything was all right.

As for the men in the house, they sat around in the living room staring at each other. Or, more accurately, glaring. Charlie seemed rather exasperated with all of them and struck up a game of exploding slaps with William, who was too young and too detached to have much stake in the rivalry. But the rest of them sat glaring, the coffee table a clear line of demarcation; Draco on one side, the Weasleys on the other. He looked over at Harry (loyally glaring with the rest of them) and noticed he looked rather faint.

"All right there, Potter? You're looking a bit peaky."

Ron glared. "What's next, Malfoy, gonna insult his mum too?"

But Harry didn't answer. Draco said, "Don't be stupid, Weasley, look at him."

"I'm fine." Harry said, but he wasn't glaring anymore and his hand had gone to his forehead.

"Maybe we should go upstairs." Ron said, helping Harry to his feet and then up the stairs.

Charlie stopped playing with William. "Hey, Will, why don't you go on in the kitchen and see if the girls need any help?"

William frowned. "I don't want to. I hate cooking." He said, because to a ten-year-old boy, being forced to cook with a bunch of girls was the equivalent of dying a long, painful death.

"Well then," Charlie said patiently. "You can put out Ginny's fires."

With feigned reluctance the boy got up and ran to the kitchen. Even if cooking was feminine, playing with fire was enough to outweigh it.

Draco didn't like the sound of this. It seemed that the boys had moved forward on the couch. Out of seemingly nowhere the speccy one appeared. Or maybe he had been there the whole time; Draco had a hard time noticing that one.

Even Charlie, the only one Draco trusted not to kill him in his sleep, looked solemn. "See, Malfoy, there was something we wanted to talk to you about; we just haven't had the right opportunity until now, because we didn't really want Harry or Ron –actually, mostly just Ron really- here. We wanted to know-what I mean to say is-"

Charlie seemed to falter, too many words tumbling off his tongue at once forming an unintelligible burble. He was blushing brilliantly, and the rest of the Weasley brothers had moved even further towards him starting at Draco with positively predatory gazes.

"Are you shagging Ginny?" Fred (or possibly George) asked.

Draco nearly choked; they couldn't have found a more tactless way to put that if they had tried. Or maybe that was the point. "I- I mean- what?"

"You heard me." The other twin said. Draco paused to wonder at this rather loose use of pronouns before even trying to formulate a response.

"I don't- I don't know what you're talking about."

"Shove it, Malfoy. You just show up out of nowhere, asking to spend the holiday with her- who up until like, a week ago, you couldn't stand- and you expect us not to be a little suspicious?"

"No." Draco answered, shaking himself from his stupor.

"No? Do you think we're complete idi-" He stood up

"Fred, I think he meant no to the first question." Charlie said.

"Oh." Fred said, sitting back down.

"You and Ginny- you're not…then?" George asked.

"No." He said. He was desperately groping his mind for a clever response but he couldn't think of any. "Err…no…you…"

Draco was feeling very unpopular at the moment. Charlie was smiling encouragingly at him, but the others had closed in on him until he was completely cornered.

"I'd-I'd never lower myself to that level." He managed.

The twins emitted two identical scoffs, Percy sniffed his disappointment, Charlie looked rather crestfallen, and Bill glowered, an expression that combined with his fang earring was rather intimidating.

"Don't even try that, Malfoy. Don't think we haven't seen you looking at her, even if Ron and Harry are too blind to see." Fred said.

"Hermione saw it though. Spot on, that girl. Never would have noticed it myself if she hadn't said something." George added.

Draco glared, wondering if the girl had nothing better to talk about than him. Actually, he rather understood her predicament; there was nothing better to talk about other than him.

"If you really think I'd…do that…then you have then mental capacity of a squid."

He cursed himself. He sounded like a ten year-old. Do that. Merlin, why couldn't he even say the word sex? That was Ron's department. Not him. At least it helped out his story. Not that it was a story, he really wasn't with Ginny. Or maybe, because he was being such a royal wanker about the whole thing, they would just assume he was lying. Draco was quite sure he didn't want to be around if the Weasley brothers decided he was lying. Merlin, he thought again, he was babbling and he wasn't even talking out loud.

"You know, I've been called a lot of things, especially when it comes to Ginny, but I'm pretty sure squid is a new one." Bill said thoughtfully.

"The point is Malfoy, you don't want us angry at you. We can be like…. an angry cat…when we're angry." Charlie said. Threats were not his area of expertise.

"Angry cats?" Fred scoffed. "C'mon Charlie, can't you do better than that?"

"We're more like…an angry lion." George said.

"Like two angry lions!" Fred agreed. "Two really hungry, really mean, angry lions."

"Hungry lions?" George asked thoughtfully. "Really, I don't think that's quite impressive enough."

"You were the one who said lions in the first place!" Bill said.

"Only because he said angry cats! Now what self-respecting man would be afraid of a cat?"

"Well," Charlie said defensively, "maybe if the cat had rabies."

"Ahh, see Charlie, you have to clarify these things. An angry cat with rabies." George said trying it out. "Nope, still not quite terrifying enough."

"McGonagall." Bill said. "McGonagall is a cat, and she's bloody well scary enough."

"Thanks, Bill." Said Charlie looking pleased.

"Dragons." Fred said suddenly.

"What?" The three other boys asked in union.

"Dragons are scary." Fred pointed out.

Charlie stiffened. "I kind of resent that, actually, that after all these years you still fit dragons into that stereotype. I've told you, they're simply misunderstood. Didn't you read those pamphlets I brought back from Romania?"

"Right, Charlie, because that really sounds like something we'd do." Fred said.

"I didn't even do school work when I was in school." George agreed.

"Ahem." Draco said. "Maybe we should get back to the matter at hand. I'll just pretend you came up with some stunningly clever threat, and that I'm properly intimidated. How does that sound?"

"You know, Malfoy." Percy said suddenly, breaking his silence. "I don't appreciate that cheeky tone of yours."

Draco grinned. "I've always been told I had very lovely cheeks, actually, but mostly by females. However, if that's how you get your jollies far be it from me to stop you from looking."

Percy flushed horribly and straightened his glasses. "You're not funny."

"Really?" Draco asked. "Because I thought it was extremely funny. I mean, the delivery might need a bit of work, but, I thought it was pretty good for improvising."

"This is ridiculous!" Percy snapped. He looked for his brothers for help but they all were hiding behinds their hands trying not to snicker. Percy screamed in frustration. "I didn't come here to take this abuse from a bunch of…of… ruffians! Mr. Malfoy, stay away from Ginny. She's the only one in this house with the potential to be redeemed. Although, after spending all that time with these hooligans-"

"You hear that, Gred, we're hooligans!"

"I did indeed, Forge. And ruffians too!"

Percy stomped his foot. "I've said my piece. I hope you take my advice, Mr. Malfoy. I wouldn't usually abuse my power at the ministry, but I might make an exception if you harm my little sister. I could make things very difficult for you indeed!" He said in a huff and stormed of to his room.

"Yeah," George said darkly. "It would be kind of hard to get around with a speccy little git running around behind you threatening you with his stapler."

"Good thing Percy hates you." Fred said.

"Or there'd be nothing good about you at all." George finished.

"I wouldn't say nothing; I've been told I have lovely eyes."

"Stow it, Malfoy, we still don't like you." Bill said.

"Well that's good, or otherwise I'd have to spend a great deal of time examining my life choices and trying to figure out what I've done wrong."

"Malfoy…if you're not here for Ginny…then, why…?"

Draco was suddenly on edge. "I can't tell you and it's none of your business."

"We don't care if you're here because you and Snape are secretly lovers and have just had a bit of a spat." Draco blanched. "We just need to know that Ginny's not in any harm." Bill said.

"Ginny always in danger. We all are." Draco said. "Especially Potty and his little friends."

"That's not what I meant."

"Look, you're sister's fine. With all of you swarming around her, I don't know how she couldn't be."

Just then, Ginny burst into the room, grinning and covered in flour. "I finally burned enough stuff she let me out."

She stared at them all. "It got awfully quiet all of the sudden. Were you all talking about me?"

"Merlin's beard, Weasley. And you call me vain." Draco drawled.

She smiled. "Look, what ever vague threats they've come up with, just ignore it. I've hidden all the sharp objects."

"I'm so comforted." He said with a snort.

"I have to go change." She said, trying to wipe some of the flour from her clothes. "Cooking's hard."

After she had been gone a second, Hermione appeared.

"Is she gone?" The girl asked with a quick inspection of the room. "Merlin, that girl is terrifying with a spatula. Mrs. Weasley says everything's ready if you boys want to go ahead and eat."

"Thanks." Bill said. "You might want to go in and check on Harry and Ron; Harry was looking a little green."

Hermione stared at them in wonder; she had mentioned food and not a single one of the Weasley boys had jumped up and ran in the direction of the kitchen. She stared at them skeptically. "What are you all planning? Should I be concerned?"

"Why, Hermione!" Fred said, aghast. "Why would you ever say such a thing? Have we ever given you reason to mistrust us?"

She stared back and forth between the couch full of redheaded boys and Draco, who was coolly examining his nails.

"Well, come on then, boys. Hermione's giving us that look like she's about to deduct house points. I think we were just about finished here anyway." Bill said, and stood.

Reluctantly, the other Weasleys stood, and walked off to the dining room. With one last baffled look, Hermione went upstairs, presumably to check on Potter.

Draco sighed, closed his eyes and allowed himself to sink back into the chair.

"Malfoy…" Charlie said. He had reappeared at the door.

Draco didn't move.

"Malfoy…you'd tell me if Ginny was in any kind of trouble, wouldn't you?"

"Ginny's a big girl." He said. Draco's eyes were still closed, and he could hear Charlie shuffle his feet. He paused waiting to hear the sound of footsteps, but they didn't come.

"Keep an eye on her, Malfoy." Charlie said finally and returned to the kitchen.

A moment later, Ginny descended the stairs. "Awake, Malfoy?"

He lazily opened one eye to look at her. "Don't suppose you'd just bring my food in here would you?"

She laughed. "I, Draco Malfoy, am not a house elf."

"Yes, forgive me, I sometimes forget; the resemblance is uncanny."

Just then, the trio came down the stairs, Ron's arm around Harry's shoulder, and Hermione fluttering about behind the two boys like a mother hen. Ron, Ginny noticed, was glaring with particular ferocity. The small group disappeared into the dining room, and Draco turned and smirked at her and she could tell he was gloating.

"Fine then, but don't get used to it." She said, and followed the rest of her family into the kitchen, reemerging a moment later with two plates of food. She handed him one and took a seat on the floor, leaning back comfortably against the sofa.

He, for the first time, righted himself in the chair.

"What, no drink?" He asked, grinning. She stuck her tongue out at him. He picked cautiously at the food for a moment, before taking a hesitant bite.

She smiled. "Don't worry. Mum made that bit. Completely safe to eat."

From the dining room, Mrs. Weasley's voice sounded. "Oh, good, you're father's home."

And a second later the front door opened and Mr. Weasley came in, dropping his cloak on the rack.

"How was work, Dad?" Ginny asked.

"Oh, the same. People just don't understand how serious a crime it is to go messing about with the poor muggles. Fifteen cases of nose-biting tea cups, that just happened to end up in muggle shops." Mr. Weasley said, crossing the room and kissing his daughter on the forehead.

"Dinner time already?" He asked, noticing the plates. "Why are you two out here? Your mum didn't kick you out again did she?"

Ginny smiled. "No. Just a bit quieter out here."

"Oh." He said. "More company tonight then?"

"Just the usual crowd." She answered. "And Kingsley's here too, his turn on guard."

Her father nodded. The kitchen door opened and William was peeking out.

"Hiya, Uncle Arthur." He said, grinning a nearly toothless grin, which his uncle happily returned.

Mr. Weasley gave his daughter a wink, before following his nephew.

Ginny smiled. "I'm really glad they came, my family, I mean. I know Mum and Dad have missed having the house full of kids."

"At least they'll always have the Weasel to take care of them. Merlin knows he'll never find himself a girl and move out."

"And you wonder why he doesn't like you."

"Oh no, I know exactly why he doesn't like me. I've worked very hard at insuring that very fact."

"And Will's an absolute doll." She said, apparently deciding to ignore him. "It's been really good for Sirius too."

"Sirius…" Draco said, trying to place the name. He'd only heard of one other Sirius and that was Sirius Black and she certainly wasn't talking about him.

"The big, dark, kind of scruffy man who hangs around with Lupin."

"Yes, he did look rather familiar."

Ginny snorted. "He should; he's your cousin. Not that he'd admit to it. He was blasted of the Black family tree ages ago."

Draco choked on his roast beef. "Black? That's Sirius Black? The murderer?"

Ginny looked startled. "I thought you would have figured it out by now." Then, as an afterthought, she added, "And he didn't murder them. I would have thought you would have known that too. It was the Death Eaters who set him up."

"And I know exactly what the Death Eaters are planning, then?" He said coldly, and his eyes were filled with a quiet kind of rage that she didn't quite understand, but she did know she had said something horribly wrong.

"Malfoy, I didn't mean it like that." She said.

"Yes you did. But don't worry, if I was you, I'd hate me too." Then he paused. "No, actually, I'd be positively taken with myself, but that's just me."

Ginny smiled. "No, really Draco, I didn't mean it. I'm sorry. I just assumed your father would have said something…"

"He didn't." Draco answered so harshly that she was again taken aback. They sat in a long silence. Then, hesitantly, she reached forward and put her hand on his, lightly at first, as if afraid he would pull back, then more assured. He was much higher than her, he still seated on the chair and her on the floor, and the position looked unnatural.

He looked at his hand with an emotion she couldn't place. There was some amusement in it, but also something almost like sadness. And at the same time, there was a detached quality, as though he wasn't looking at his hand at all.

"I said I didn't want your pity, Weasley."

"Good, because I'm not giving it too you." She smiled. "I was asking your forgiveness."

Suddenly, his eyes focused and he leaned down towards her with a raucous grin. "Really, and what would you do for it?"

Her breath caught and she found herself staring into his gray eyes, knowing that she should say something, but also incapable of saying anything. And his eyes were laughing, and she hated that, hated the fact that he once again had the upper hand, but she couldn't move.

"I don't care what you say, the Gargoyles are rubbish." Someone said, as the door that adjoined the living room to the dinning room swung open. Within a second, Ginny had retracted her hand and Draco barely managed to keep himself from sprouting several loud and extremely rude words. Once again, he'd had the perfect opportunity, and it had been ruined.

Charlie and Bill were walking amicably towards the stairs.

"But their last match was bloody brilliant." Charlie insisted.

"Anyone who chooses to be called after a great ugly hunk of stone is an unbelievably prat." Bill said, and then he noticed Ginny and Draco. "Gin, mind if I tag along with you to Diagon Alley tomorrow. I promise I won't say anything embarrassing to your boyfriend."

"Seamus is not my boyfriend!" She said. "And you can come along on the condition you don't call him that."

"Night, Gin." Charlie called, and then the two boys headed upstairs.

"Well," Ginny said standing up. "I'd better go do some homework."

"Homework?" Draco asked. "You've still got ages to finish it."

"I just like to get things done early. Guess I've been hanging out a bit too much with Hermione." Then she scurried off towards the stairs, trying to escape as quickly as possible. And she would never really be able to say what had compelled her to, but she stopped. "You're coming tomorrow right? To Diagon Alley?"

"I hadn't thought about it." He said with a shrug.

"You should. I'll have to help Seamus in the morning, and I know you'll hate that, but we could meet up later."

"I guess." He said.

"Oh…okay then." She turned and began her ascension up the stairs.

She had just reached the foot of the second landing when she heard him call. "Goodnight, Weasley," and she smiled to herself.

Draco, downstairs, was still sulking over his lost opportunity. Every single bloody time he got close, something got in his way. He'd fix that somehow; he had too. It was like some kind of cosmic joke, and as far as he was concerned, it wasn't funny. This was turning from amusement into obsession. Last night he'd dreamt about her. She'd been in his bedroom, the one back in the Slytherin dorms, just sitting on his bed staring up at him, and just as he moved in to kiss her, he'd woken up. He'd had conquests like this before- girls he'd been determined to date- but it had never been this hard before. They'd always simply given into his charm. And, he'd never been so distracted with it before. He found himself picturing what it would be like to kiss her; he could almost smell the vanilla on her, taste her lips on his. He could still feel the warmth of her hand where it had been on his, and he pictured her small, warm hands on his neck, in his hair.

He frowned; this was getting ridiculous. He sounded like some lovesick nancy and he didn't even like the girl. He couldn't quite categorize the way he felt about her, he would have called it lust, but he'd experienced lust and he knew that that wasn't what he was feeling now. Intoxication maybe. Whatever it was, he wasn't entirely sure he liked it. In fact, he was quite sure he didn't.

Draco sighed and closed his eyes. He wasn't sure what had made him recall it, but at that moment, he remembered Ron's words from earlier that day. Not only did Seamus date my sister, he broke her heart.

He stood and made his way up the stairs to his room. Maybe, he decided, he'd have a little talk with Seamus.

Ugg...I really meant to get all the way through the Diagon Alley scenes in this chapter (yes, I know I said that LAST TIME too, but like I said, I'm a horrible liar; I'm thinking about going to someone about it), but it was just so long. Anyway, I swear, it's in the next chapter (in fact that's how the next chapter starts out) and a huge part of the plot comes up (just so you don't give up in actually thinking that there is one).

Again, thanks so much for your reviewing! It's what makes me keep writing. Now, go hit the pretty little button that says review so I know you all haven't forgotten about me.