Disclaimer: If I were JKR, I wouldn't have named my main character Harry Potter. Goes to show that I'm not Rowling. How disappointed you all must be.

A/N: Hehe... I've had this on my laptop for a while now. Just had to brush it up a little and actually be bothered to post it. You know, I would love to have a reviewer of this story. Since in my ever so modest opinion, I really deserve one. I like this story more than my other ones anyway. Inflates with pride See how I've grown as a writer - I can now write dialogue! Tada! (Not that anyone really cares and will actually read this other than me. Since I know I'm not the sort to regularly read ANs). Right - onto the story!

Thanks for Everything

Arc II – Hermione & Ginny

'Ginny, did you even brush your hair this morning?'

'Nope. Can't be bothered.'

'Well, if you're sure…'

'Of course I'm sure. It's not as if anyone's going to barge into the Burrow just to see me.'

'You never know though – '

'Yeah, yeah, yeah… someone like Dumbledore or Professor McGonagall might decide to pop in to talk to mum and dad and I wouldn't want to look like this if they just happened to turn up uninvited.'

'So?'

'So what?'

'Are you going to brush your hair?'

'Of course not! I don't care about impressions anyways. We've already met – about ten gazillion times. You can be the one to impress them, once again, with how neat and organized and mature you are.'

'… – '

'Don't say it Hermione. I'm not going to regret it. What is there to regret anyway?'

'Stop interrupting me! And how did you know what I was saying? Don't roll your eyes at me young lady! It's rude to interrupt someone when they're trying to talk.'

'…'

'And don't snort like that. You've probably picked up a multitude of bad habits from your brothers – Ron especially. I don't know how you can tolerate him being around you without trying to explode every day. He's so frustrating!'

'Oh, stop your huffing and puffing Hermione. You only say that 'cause you like him.'

'I do not like him!'

'Denial – de-ni-al! You so do like him. See? You're blushing. I knew it!'

'That's ridiculous! Stop jumping around like a monkey. I don't like him. He's just extremely aggravating with his emotional range of a teaspoon.'

'You like him…You like him… You like him…'

'Ginny! Oh, honestly, stop this puerile nonsense! I don't.'

'You do, you do, you do! It's in your tone – you're all indignant. And your face is really red. That just proves it.'

'It doesn't prove anything!'

'Everyone knows about you and Ron – oh stop sputtering – in fact there's a Gryffindor betting pool on when you guys will get together.'

'I don't like – what?! There's a betting pool? On when we'll get together?'

'Oh don't sound so incredulous Hermione. It was bound to happen.'

'Bound to happen!'

'There is absolutely no way that it could not happen.'

'…Why me?'

'Why you? More like why any potential couples. The Hogwarts Rumour Mill is always churning.'

'Right – and pray tell, what useful information am I going to leach from this so-called Hogwarts Rumour Mill?'

'All the latest rumours and gossip of course! Besides, it's important to know what's going on. You really need to get a personal life, Hermione, apart from those two poor bozos that are your best friends. Men just don't get us sometimes.'

'You're telling me.'

'Yeah, I know. You need to be around us girls more.'

'But it's so different to when I'm with Harry and Ron – girls, well Lavender and Parvati at any rate, they're so… I don't know, aggravating? Coy? … Giggly?I still find myself more comfortable around boys than girls.'

'Okay then… Hermione likes boys… Hermione likes boys… Hermione lik- '

'Stop that!'

'Stop interrupting me. It's rude to interrupt someone when they're trying to talk.'

'Well… stop imitating me then!'

'But I like to imitate you, for example: "I don't like him. He's just extremely aggravating with his emotional range of a teaspoon." '

'Ginny…'

'Oh, stop nagging. And how did you notice that he had an emotional range of a teaspoon? Hoping that he would finally notice that you lurrved him?'

'…'

'Oooo… Hermione's pouting. You know, you look pretty cute when you pout. Do that around Ron more, maybe then he'll pounce on you. That's what you really want him to do isn't it? Pounce on you and ravish you so you're all – '

'Ginny!'

'Hermione!'

'…'

'No need to moan and groan at me… That's what's Ron's for.'

'Gin-ny!'

'Oh, quit your whining Hermione. You know it's true.'

'You, Ginevra Molly Weasley, have precisely five seconds to walk away from this breakfast table and away from me. Five… four…'

'Erm… okay… backing away here.'

'Three… two…'

'…!'

'One…'

'Hehe? Dramatic effect… the scraping chair on floor-boards thing…? Right?'

'…'

'Running away now!'

'Ginny!!'

'Up the stairs, girl… ha! My room – my beloved beloved room! Okay, lock the door… Lock, dammit, lock, you blasted thing! … Lock, LOCK!! Argh – stupid! … Colloportus! … Phew…'

'GINNY!'

'AHHH!!'

'Open this door this instant! Or I'll blast it open!'

'What to do, what to do?!'

'EFFRACTUM! …You thought you would get away, didn't you?'

'Did I ever tell you just how much I appreciate you Hermione?'

'…'

'Ummm… Is this a stand-off?'

'Tickle attack!!'

'No! Haha – no! … Hermione – hahaha… stop, no, eep!'

'Do you give up!'

'No! Weasleys… hahaha… never giv- haha… stop, Stop! Hahaha…'

'Surrender now!'

'… Never! HAHAHA… No, no… stop! St- hahaha… OKAY! Okay – haha – Stop! I surrender, I surrender! Just… need to catch… my breath.'

'…'

'What are you looking so happy for? Hey, don't stare at me like that! Do I have something on my face?'

'…'

'What? What are you laughing at? Hermione... Hmph! I'm not funny! No, I mean, I am, but not… like this, right now.'

'Your incoherency astounds me.'

'Just you wait. You and your big words will get yours.'

'Get what?'

'You, Hermione, you… You're hopeless.'

'I know.'

'Smugness doesn't suit you.'

'Defensive much?'

'You know what, you win. Hows about we just stop here? It's not as if this is going to go anywhere anyways.'

'Resistance is futile.'

'Yeah, yeah, yeah…'

'…'

'Stop your god-damned whistling! You're deliberately trying to annoy me, aren't you! Hermione, why did you choose today of all days to get all wacko?'

'Wacko?'

'Yes, you know, round the bend, off your rocker, insane, crazy, all in all mental? Recognize any of them? Hm?'

'Sarcasm doesn't become you Ginny. Besides, why can't I choose today to "get all wacko"? Seems like a perfectly fine day to me – sunshine, rainbows and lollipops; not a cloud in the sky. Cheer up 'ickle GinGin.'

'I don't know you.'

'Oh yes you do.'

'No. I don't.'

'Yes you do.'

'Don't.'

'Do.'

'Don't.'

'Why am I sitting on your bed then?'

'Because you're an auror under Polyjuice who's infiltrated The Burrow in order to protect my family under a familiar and seemingly harmless guise. You know, just in case Ron's Imperio-ed by Mum, who's secretly the right-hand lady and chef of dear old Voldie, to act normal until we are half-way through our journey on the Hogwarts' Express where he'll go on a homicidal rampage and kill everyone on the train. So really, I don't know you at all. I'm just making conversation to keep up appearances.'

'Ouch.'

'…'

'…'

'Do you really think anyone in the Order could be, you know, a traitor?'

'Well, that was unexpected… Logically, it's quite possible… But I can't really think of anyone who would do something so horrible.'

'Like Peter Pettigrew?'

'Like Wormtail.'

'I still get the creeps when I remember that I used to play and talk to him in my room almost every day before I started Hogwarts, and before he was discovered. And to think that at any time he could have, could have just… upped and killed everyone.'

'And when Crookshanks was all over him, we didn't even realize what was going on. Ron and I fought so many times just because of that dirty rat.'

'… It's just so hard to understand why he, anyone, could do something like that.'

'I know. I can't even comprehend why people would betray their friends to become some sort of branded servant of the Dark Lord.'

'I suppose there's always a reason. Nobody does anything for no reason. Kindness, compassion, hatred, cruelty… I think everyone has a motive somehow.'

'So you're saying I have a motive for sitting here listening patiently to you?'

'Yep. To escape from those horrible boys of yours.'

'Well, I can't disprove you of that. What if I throw a few sickles at a beggar? What's my motive for that? I don't stand to gain anything and I could buy some ice-cream with that money.'

'Guilt.'

'What?'

'Guilt. You'll feel guilty if you just brush him off like everyone else usually does. You're supposed to be kind and compassionate and good, but you can't even give a few coins to a penniless man.'

'I get your point.'

'Haven't you ever wondered what it would be like if you could just know what another person was thinking, so you could find out how they work and why they do what they do?'

'No, not particularly. I suppose I never really thought about "what ifs"; I've always been too pragmatic to do that – no need to wonder about things you can't have.'

'Yeah… but I've always wanted to know why Tom did that to me, you know.'

'…'

'What?'

'Do you really actually want to know?'

'Despite what I'll probably find in there? Yes, I mean, he couldn't have been born that way. I just want to know what happened to make him like that. You want to know what I think?'

'What do you think, then?'

'I think that for Tom to turn out like that, something really awful had to have happened when he was a kid. Something so dreadful that it was too hard for him to find a way out of the dark again. I suppose he tried hard at first, tried very hard. He wandered and wandered and searched and searched for a way out but eventually he gave up and believed that there was nowhere else to go. Nowhere else to turn to, and no brighter, better place that he could remember or forsee so that the darkness was all he had left. So he clung to the only thing that he had and never let it go.'

'…'

'…'

'Wow. That's pretty deep… and kind of creepy too. Since when did you get so insightful? And, not to mention, eloquent.'

'I don't know. So that's my theory, I guess.'

'…'

'…'

'What was it like – in your first year? … Oh! I mean, I'll understand if you don't want to answer because it's private and I'm invading your per-'

'Hermione.'

'-sonal space and everything. I don't know what came over me. I shouldn't have asked you that, I'm sorry – you don't have to feel like you have to –'

'Hermione. It's alright. You don't have to apologize.'

'-reply to any of my nonsensical quest- what?'

'Hermione, in case you've forgotten, I brought up the subject of Tom.'

'…So you did. But I still feel rotten. I didn't have a right to ask you that.'

'I'll have to talk about it with someone. I didn't – couldn't tell mum and dad. They would have coddled me and worried about me for the rest of my days, which would have been really annoying and well… I guess I didn't want to disappoint them.'

'Why on earth would they be disappointed?'

'Because I didn't stop him… I didn't fight back or anything, or stop him from opening the Chamber. Because… I was the one who was helping him do all those horrible things.'

'Oh, Gin. How can you believe that? That's not true!'

'But it is! That is the truth. If I didn't write in that diary then none of it would have happened.'

'Ginny, you were only eleven. You couldn't have known.'

'Harry was old enough to go through all those traps to save the Philosopher's Stone from Voldemort when he was eleven.'

'Don't be like that Ginny – I am not just saying this to make you feel better. Listen to me – it was not your fault. We aren't all heroes like Harry, you know. You do your best and fight your hardest and that is all that anyone can ask of you. Sometimes even your best is not enough… but that's what heroes are for, aren't they?'

'…'

'…'

'Hermione?'

'Hmmm?'

'… I-It was dark, I remember. I was so scared. A-at first I was just a little girl writing to somebody who I thought finally understood me and then it just got so bad… The first time it happened, I was confused, you know. I-I… there was so much blood… feathers when I woke up. In the Chamber. It was cold, I didn't know where I was or, or how I got there and the blood was everywhere. I can see it so clearly, just like yesterday. I can smell it, even, a-and… feel it over my hands. God Hermione, I had nightmares for ages after that. About the blood and that terrible blank space in my memories between the end of classes and when I woke up.'

'… Oh, Ginny-'

'Am I a bad person?'

'W-What? No! No – you aren't! Why are you asking me this?'

'Tom's diary was lying beside me in the Chamber. I-I should have realized, Hermione! I should've known that something was wrong with it! I should've worked it out! … I could have stopped it, but I was so stupid. I kept on writing.'

'Ginny, if Voldemort made his diary like I think he did, then he made it for the express purpose to resurrect himself in the case of something happening to him in the future. Don't you think he would have designed it deliberately just to ensnare somebody's mind to accomplish this? All those enchantments to have him being able to talk to you – don't you think there would others to catch your attention, reel you in, beguile you into thinking a mere book could understand you more than a person?'

'Well, I… I never thought about that before.'

'Of course you haven't – it is my job after all! With all those escapades with two rash idiots… What I'm really trying to say is that you were just the victim there. Voldemort is, was, an extremely powerful wizard – it's not so easy for somebody of only eleven to figure out his intentions.'

'But-'

'Since when have I been wrong?'

'…'

'Exactly.'

'There's just no winning against you is there?'

'No.'

'Hermione… Thanks.'

'For what?'

'Everything.'

Sigh - Nobody tends to do Hermione and Ginny friendship scenes on their lonesome these days. Or maybe it's because I haven't actually been reading Harry Potter fanfics for the last... half year or so. Hope you liked reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. And please - puppy dog eyes - review!