A/N: First off, thanks to all of you that are reading this story and those of you that reviewed the last chapter (Karma11, werecoolparka4, VickiWeasley, fs;alfkjsd;lkf, lonelyzepher83, nihon-no-schoolgirl, thechosenrockchick, Altair1, EJC, Dragon of the lost world, Jessy, kitotterkat, Frecklednproud, pinkpygmypuff, sea-my-eyes, J.Rhaye, jkg-vader, Aracalien, Georgentosser, Marz the green planet, cho-kaoru88, Baby-Atemu). I'm so sorry that it took so long to get this chapter out and I feel really awful about it, but life got in the way. I did promise that I was going to finish it, though, and I'm sticking to that. Unfortunately, Harry got himself into such a mess that this is going to take one more chapter than I thought. So this is the second to last chapter (I promise this time!) and it won't take me a year to get out the last one. Two or three weeks, tops. Sorry, sorry, sorry again for making you wait so long. I hate when I have to wait forever for stories and so I feel just awful that I made you wait. I hope you like the chapter and that you'll be kind enough to review. I always love to hear what you think!

Things Get Personal

Where we left off:

"Ginny, I love you."

The words spilled out before I even had a chance to stop them. Ginny's hands on my back stilled.

"What?"

I started to get nervous. This was not the reaction I'd hoped for.

"I love you?"

She laughed. "Do you really now?" I was indignant. How dare she think this is some sort of joke.

"Of course I love you," I said. "I love everything about you. I always have."

At my last sentence her eyes narrowed and she pushed me off of her.

"What a load of dragon dung," she muttered.

I landed with a thud on the ground and groped around for my glasses with my right hand while keeping my focus on Ginny. I put them on just in time to see Ginny standing over me with her arms folded and a furious expression on her face.

"So this is how Ron decides to get back at me, huh?"

"Ginny, what are you talking about?"

"This is low, even for him." She started pacing. "Mind, I'm not mad at you Harry, he probably slipped something into your pumpkin juice at dinner."

"Ginny -"

"He probably got one of those wretched love potions from the twins," she mumbled to herself.

She thought that Ron had slipped me something? It was ridiculous. How could she not know that I fancied her? Hadn't I made it painfully obvious?

"Ugh, that bastard!" Ginny angrily drew a hand through her hair. "How could he do that? He knows how I feel -"

"Ginny," I grabbed her shoulders and made her stop pacing, "Listen to me. I really do like you."

"Stop saying that!" She shoved my arms away. "Bloody brother and his sodding revenge."

"Ginny," I started, but she held a hand up to stop me.

"Don't," she said. "I can't handle any more lies and I can't hear anything you have to say right now because I might start to believe that it's true. Ron knew exactly how to get back at me and he managed it well." She gave me a half-hearted smile and put her hand on my shoulder. "You've always been my weak point Harry. I'm just surprised that it took this long for somebody to actually exploit it."

I didn't know what to say, so I just stood there as she slowly slid her hand down my arm and took it away. It hung loosely by her side and I missed the touch of it immediately. I frowned.

"Don't worry Harry," she said with her chin held firm and a look of sad determination in her eyes. "I won't embarrass you, not like I used to. I won't tell anyone we kissed and we can both forget that it ever happened. You can go back to fancying whatever girl you fancy at the moment and I can go back to just being your friend."

"But I fancy you!" I blurted out.

Ginny's eyes started to tear up. An hour ago I would have taken that as a sign that she simply didn't want to hurt my feelings when she rejected me, but I know that she felt everything in that kiss just like I did in that.

"No, you don't, Harry," she said softly, as if she were speaking to a child. "You think you do, but you're just under the affects of an enchantment."

"I'm not," I said as I stepped towards her, "I really love you."

The words had slipped out the first time I'd said them, but I said them the second time because I knew it was true.

"Stop saying that," Ginny yelled as she stomped her foot on the ground. "I know you don't mean it." Her eyes were closed and her head hung down as she shook it back and forth.

I took another step forward and touched my hand to her cheek.

"I'm not under any sort of spell or enchantment or potion. I'm a right prat and apparently a bloody fool for not telling you this sooner, but I really fancy you. I love the way that your eyes light up when you're plotting something and the way you chew on your quill when you're working on an essay and the way your cheeks flush when you fly. I love when you make sarcastic little comments to Ron and Hermione that they don't even notice and the way you glance at me to share a laugh. I -"

"Oh Harry," Ginny sighed as she leaned her face into my hand, eyes still closed. "It would be so easy...to just pretend."

I didn't know what else I could say to convince her and I still didn't know what had set her off on this conclusion in the first place. I felt lost. It was my typical reaction to being confronted with my feelings and Ginny Weasley. If she thought I was under some sort of magical influence I'd let her do any sort of detection spell in order to prove her wrong. I'd take Veritaserum or even touch some of that potion we'd made today in Snape's class. It worked wonders for Hermione.

I rubbed my thumb across Ginny's cheek and her eyelids fluttered.

"Hermione and Ron are snogging," I said.

Ginny opened her eyes and backed away from my hand, looking less than pleased. She crossed her arms.

"At least we know that it's wearing off," she said. "That wasn't the least bit romantic."

Oh, bugger. That wasn't what I meant to say.

"I'm sorry. I meant that..."

What had I meant to say?

"Yes?" Ginny asked a tad impatiently. She tapped her foot.

"Well, Hermione and Ron are snogging," I started again. "So that means Ron doesn't care about revenge at the moment so he couldn't have slipped me a potion?"

I looked at Ginny hopefully, but she shook her head.

"Nice try, but he was still quite angry at me at dinner in case you've forgotten. Plus, I don't believe you."

I suddenly had a brilliant idea.

"What if I showed you to prove it?"

"Show me what, Harry? No offense, but I think I might just want to go back to my dormitory and hope that everything's back to normal in the morning."

"No," I said as I grabbed her hand and started pulling her along with me to the castle. "I'll show you that the plan worked." And then maybe, I hoped, she'd believe me about everything else too.

"Harry," Ginny said as she ran to keep up with me, "I don't want to see my brother and my best friend snogging. And if they aren't, which I believe is more likely, I don't want to be anywhere near my angry brother and furious best friend. So let me go!"

She tried to tug her hand out of my grip, but I wouldn't release her.

We reached the castle and I stopped. It was after hours and we couldn't get caught. I turned to Ginny and held up my invisibility cloak.

"No," she said firmly. "I am not going under that with you. You're clearly insane."

"And apparently you want to get caught," I replied. I swung the cloak over my shoulders and held it open for her. She didn't move.

"Come on, you know you want to," I pleaded.

She didn't look like she wanted to. In fact, she seemed to have decided that she was mad at me after all. We were in a standoff for several moments until Ginny gave a frustrated huff.

"You're infuriating," she said as she took her place under the cloak and pulled it in front of her. "If this is how you act when you think you're in love with someone, I don't know how you're ever going to get a girlfriend. I can't believe that you think taking a girl to watch other people kiss is a good idea. You're daft."

I ignored her rant and reached my arm forward and outside of the cloak to open the door. My arm brushed against Ginny's and I heard her sharp intake of breath before she started rambling on again, angrier than ever. Her sarcastic words were familiar and they calmed me. We slowly and haltingly walked in the direction of the Potions classroom. I had to concentrate in order to avoid stepping on the backs of Ginny's feet and sometimes I had to back up and strain the fabric of the cloak because her body was too close for comfort.

Ginny's hair was itching my face and I was trying to keep from sneezing when she abruptly stopped.

"We're here," she whispered."What now?"

"We go in," I said as I pulled open the door to the classroom. We stayed close under the invisibility cloak as we scooted inside.

"Look over there," I whispered into Ginny's ear as I nodded in the direction of Ron and Hermione over by the sinks in a close embrace. Now that we'd gotten to the Potions classroom I realized that I didn't actually want to be here. I didn't particularly want to see my two best mates kissing, though I suppose it could have been worse. They could have been doing more.

I don't know why I had thought this would be a good idea.

"All right then," I said. "Let's get out of here."

I grabbed Ginny's arm and pulled her out of the classroom into the corridor, the invisibility cloak slipping off as we moved. I caught the cloak with my hand before it fell to the ground.

"Well," I said awkwardly. "So that's that."

"I suppose you were right then, weren't you?" Ginny said, looking a bit shell-shocked. "They seem to have gotten together."

"Er, yes. Seems that way."

"I'm glad for that," Ginny said, "but what was the point of bringing me here again?"

I couldn't remember what the point had been.

"Your plan worked?" I finally said. I'd had to make a last minute correction to the plan, but it had worked out eventually.

"It did, didn't it?" Ginny's lips turned up into a soft smile.

"It really was a brilliant plan," I admitted.

"I know, I'm a genius," she joked, looking up at me. "Of course, you weren't too bad either."

"Thanks," I replied, glad that things were starting to get back to normal.

I smiled at Ginny, perhaps a bit too widely because she looked away from me and down at her shoes.

"I think we should probably go back to the tower," she said, still avoiding my eyes. "It must be after curfew by now and we don't want to risk losing any points."

There was something in Ginny's words and the tone of her voice that didn't sound right. She never worried about losing points.

"Ginny?" I asked. "Are you okay?"

She looked back up at me with a grin plastered across her face. It didn't seem to reach her stormy eyes.

"I'm fine. Just grand. Let's head back."

She turned and started to walk down the corridor, her footsteps heavier than usual.

"Is it about seeing Ron and Hermione snogging?" I asked as I trailed behind her. "Because as happy as I am for them, it made me feel a little sick to my stomach too. I don't know why I thought it was a good idea in the first place."

Ginny just huffed and kept walking.

"It's awkward," I tried again, "but I'm sure whatever you're feeling will pass."

I hadn't expected a response, but Ginny spun around with her hands on her hips.

"Oh, it'll pass?" she snapped. "How convenient for you. Well some of us might have human emotions instead of love potions controlling their feelings!"

She glared at me in the dim light of the corridor and I got frustrated. What the hell had I done wrong? I took a step closer to her. She tilted her chin up and crossed her arms in front of her chest. I didn't know if she wanted me to leave or wanted to have it out with me. I couldn't leave.

"Ginny, what's the matter with you?" I finally burst out.

"Oh, of course." Ginny gave a hollow laugh. "It must be that something's the matter with me, you prat. Fine, I'm jealous and I'm frustrated and I'm lonely. What the hell kind of defective love potion did Ron give you anyway?"

"Ron didn't give me a love potion! Stop being so stupid."

"You're not supposed to insult me. You're supposed to be showering me with compliments, trying to kiss me again. Or did you forget we even did that out on the grounds?"

How could I have forgotten? I'd barely thought of anything else, aside from not wanting her to be mad at me.

"I'd never forget that," I said softly.

"Fine way of showing it," she said harshly, her voice quavering a bit at the end.

Now that she'd brought it up, I couldn't think about anything but wanting to kiss her again. I took another step towards her.

"You know I'm not great with emotional stuff," I said. "I've said more today than I probably have in my entire life."

Ginny sighed. She didn't look angry any more. She looked tired.

"I know that Harry, I really do. It's just, I've had this dream before and each time I wake up and realize it wasn't real and that's always harder than if I'd never had the dream in the first place." She frowned. "I'm not explaining this well."

"This isn't a dream," I said. "Is it that unbelievable that I'd fancy you? I didn't think I'd been hiding it that well."

Ginny gave a slight 'hmm.' I didn't know if she was agreeing that I'd made a fool out of myself or if the sound meant something else.

"Say something romantic," Ginny said as she looked up at me.

I froze.

"Romantic?" I sputtered out. Hadn't I covered that back somewhere when I was admitting that I loved her.

"Yes," Ginny said with a sudden grin. "Preferably something in the form of a poem."

"A poem? I don't…just can't make that up on the spot."

I could only think of two poems off the top of my head. One started, "Roses are red, violets are blue" and the other, "His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad." Neither of them did me any good.

"Pity," Ginny said with a slight shake of her head. She turned and started to walk away.

"Why have I got to say a poem anyway?"

"Would've been great blackmail material," Ginny said wistfully to a portrait on her right. The woman in the painting nodded in agreement.

"Ginny!"

She turned around and faced me, questioning.

"What's got you convinced that I must be under a love potion?" I stepped closer as I asked. "Because if this is what it feels like to be under a love potion, I've been under one for several months now."

"You said always," Ginny replied. "You lied when you said always."

I had no idea what she was talking about. When had I said "always" and what did that have to do with anything?

Ginny must've seen the cloud of confusion cover my face because she frowned.

"The only thing that makes sense is that you're under a love potion," Ginny said, "because otherwise you lied. I'm not sure which would be worse for me. I don't like when people lie to me."

I could feel the undercurrent of Tom Riddle in Ginny's last sentence and I hated being compared to him, however subconsciously. Ginny sighed and turned to walk towards the entrance of Gryffindor Tower. I stood stock still for a moment before jogging after Ginny.

"Ginny!"

She kept walking with her head forward.

"Ginny," I said as I caught up with her and touched her shoulder to stop her. I seemed to be chasing after Ginny Weasley a lot recently. The Fat Lady let out a curious, "Hmm" in front of us.

"Harry," she said firmly when she finally turned around to face me. "It's been a really long and stressful day and I want to go to sleep. I'll speak with you in the morning when I know which of the two situations I mentioned before is the one I'm dealing with."

Love potion or liar? I wanted to point out that there was the very plausible explanation that I was neither a liar nor under the effects of a potion, but I don't think Ginny would have listened to me at the moment.

"Just tell me what I did wrong," I pleaded. "Let me fix it."

Ginny gave a slight shake of her head and looked pointedly at the hand that was still resting on her shoulder. She wanted to leave, fine, but I couldn't get to sleep with a mess like this on my hands. Somehow I had wrecked Ginny's night after I'd kissed her. Or maybe when I kissed her. Although she had seemed like she enjoyed it.

If she didn't fancy me I wish she'd just say so.

"Ginny, I'll let you leave and go to sleep if you tell me what I did wrong and promise to talk to me in the morning. Please?"

"Fine," Ginny agreed with a suddenly blazing look in her eyes. "It's about time all of this got over with. You, Harry Potter, said that you loved me. That you always had, which, as we all know, is complete and utter rubbish. Good night."

Ginny strode over to the portrait, gave the password, and marched inside. I stayed right where I was, in shock.

Had I really told Ginny that I'd always loved her? I suppose I had. That's why she'd thought I was a liar. Because she'd seen how I was around girls like Cho and then I told her it had always been her. She knew how I'd treated her when we were younger, as if she was a blushing piece of Weasley wallpaper, and she'd put it all together and I ended up as either out of my mind or the worst kind of cad. I felt sick to my stomach.

The worst part of it was that when I'd said it, it felt true and Ginny said it was a lie. Maybe it wasn't literally spot on, but my heart couldn't remember a time when I wasn't in love with Ginny Weasley.

The problem was, the truth did sound like "a load of dragon dung" as Ginny so eloquently put it. I had no idea where to go from here. Making things right suddenly seemed a lot more difficult and a lot more personal.

A/N: I look forward to hearing what you thought of it!