Once Ginny and Ron had reached the Entrance Hall, Ginny decided that she couldn't face the boys yet and headed up toward the Room of Requirement. When she was halfway up the stairs Ron called after her.

As she turned, he looked up at her and said, "I just thought you should know, Harry still fancies himself in love you."

She sighed deeply, "I figured as much, but I still hoped I was wrong." Her eyes were deeply sad as she turned back upstairs.

Ron stood in the Hall for a few moments trying to decide whether to leave or go into the Great Hall. Finally, he decided to go in and see the others while he was there. As he approached the door he could hear them talking.

"You just don't get it," Blaise was saying, "she has to yell at you. It's the only option you give her. She can't stand by and watch you behave like an ass, and since you won't listen to reason reasonably she has to throw it in your face and hope some of it sticks. It isn't like she enjoys it. Hell, how many times has she asked you why the two of you always end up yelling at each other? She hates it and would give anything to change the way things are."

Ron couldn't hear what Draco said in response but figured it must have been sarcastic to warrant the sound of frustration Blaise presently emitted.

"You bloody moron," this was the first time Ron had ever heard Blaise curse and somehow it sounded much darker coming for the man than it did from anyone else, "she's tried to give up on you. She's tried to turn her back on your memory and get on with her life a hundred times but she can't and if you are too damn blind to understand why you are a fool and deserve all the shit life throws at you." Ron began to wonder if it was merely do to his limited acquaintance with Blaise that he had never heard this language from him, but as he stepped into the room and saw the look on Draco's face he realized the man's best friend was no more used to it than himself. Somehow, as the words came from Blaise they retained their actual meaning rather than being reduced to generic expletives.

Draco growled. "If all I do is cause her pain like you say, how the hell can she be in love with me?"

Ron leaned up against the table opposite the two men and ignored the look on Draco's face that clearly expressed his disdain of the intrusion. "You cause her so much pain because she's in love you."

Blaise clenched his jaw and glared at Ron. Surely he knew his sister well enough to know how she hated interference.

Draco was torn for a moment between asking for an explanation and telling Ron to fuck off. Finally curiosity won over indignation. "Expound," the one word was cold, hard, and slightly desperate.

Blaise looked sideways at his friend before looking back at Ron and asking, "Are you sure that would be wise?"

Ron smiled self-consciously and shrugged. "Not really, but if she's willing to spend her life yelling at an idiot who causes her more pain than I ever have because she loves him whether he ever gets it or not, I'm willing to commit what she considers the worst offense and run her wrath for her own good." Blaise rolled his eyes and shrugged his shoulders before crossing his arms and waiting.

Draco growled again, "Well?" he demanded.

"First of all," Ron said in the authoritative tone he had developed over years as head auror, "it isn't wise to antagonize someone about to do you a favor at the risk of his own neck. Secondly, you'd do well to remember that I'm speaking to you for her sake you, not yours. She yells at you because there are things she is desperate for you to understand and if she speaks to you in any other way you will not only turn a deaf ear for the moment but you will never hear another word she says and all ground she has gained with you will be lost never to be regained. The things she is desperate for you to understand are numerous but the most important are these: she does not believe that you are an arrogant, pompous jack-ass who believes he is better than everyone else, she believes you are a lonely, insecure man who is desperate to believe that he has no need for anyone else because he is terrified of failing, or worse, being hurt; and that she believes underneath your fears and insecurities hides the strongest, most honourable, most wonderful man she has ever come to know and that if you could truly understand that you would realize how foolish your insecurities are. Since she cannot attempt to show you how ridiculous your low self-esteem is without providing examples and all you would hear would be you own skewed perceptions, she is forced to restrict herself to attempts at treating the symptoms rather than cause. That takes the form of yelling at you for acting like a jack-ass." With that, Ron stood up and left. He didn't feel like waiting for the reaction. At the door he turned back. "I may have failed to be the brother she deserves for most of her life, but I swear you this, push her too far, hurt her so bad that she does give up on you, and no brother in the history of man will have taken more pleasure in avenging his sister."

a/n now that i have a baby i cannot update anywhere near as regularly, but i still plan on finishing the story