A/N: Hey guys! So! Chapter 8 is done and I'm working on chapter nine as I look for a beta reader. I just wanted to say that if I ever take that long to update again, feel free to email me a rant about how you want an update, although I'm pretty sure things won't ever get that b ad again.

Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter the sixth year would have turned out much differently. I promise.

Ginevera sighed heavily.

It was the sigh that roused her from her daydreaming long enough to realize that all hopes of doing her homework that night had been abandoned long ago. Glancing down at her books absently, Ginny realized that she'd been on the same page since arriving at the library nearly an hour ago. Carelessly, she closed the book and continued with her reverie.

She needed to talk to Draco. She had decided this not long after returning to the Gryffindor Tower late Saturday night. Unfortunately, she didn't know how to get him alone.

Blaise would be able to help, she thought, but immediately discarded the idea. She was still upset about him teasing her after what she'd gone through. She desperately wished there was someone she could talk to, but the only other person who knew what was going on wasn't speaking to her.

"A sickle for your thoughts?"

Ginny started at the voice and turned to see that Harry had joined her. He sat across the table watching her with guarded curiosity. His body was turned away from her, though, toward the exit. The statement he made was clear. I'm willing to listen, but I don't have to be here.

"Are you sure you want to spend that much on something you won't even like," Ginny asked as she turned toward him fully and looked down at her books once more. After a moments silence she glanced up past her fringe to see Harry looking away. His jaw clenched and he looked at her once more.

"I'm sure I already have a good idea of it," Harry informed her flatly. "Just say it. You're thinking about him."

"I am," she said as she straightened, "but I'm also thinking about Blaise...and about you, Harry." He started at that and turned slightly toward her.

"I miss you," Ginny confessed with a sheepish look. "I hate to think that I've lost your friendship, and I hate the way you look at me now. I wish that things could go back to the way they were, but I know that can't happen. I just want your friendship, Harry."

The look her gave her then was pained, and he turned away with a frustrated sigh. His finger found their way to his hair as he tussled it, a nervous habit he'd developed. Finally, he looked at her once more with sad eyes.

"Why'd you have to go falling for him, of all the guys in this school?" He shook his head. "You know, he's practically my arch nemesis. I mean, he's right up there with the worst of them." To illustrate his point he raised his arm and angled his hand to be parallel with the table. "On the list of people I hate most it's Voldemort, Snape, and then Draco."

"I know," Ginny murmured, looking down at the table shamefully, "but it's not like I made a conscious choice to like him. It just happened."

"What could do even see in a snake like him?"

"I see..." Ginny began slowly, biting back a sharp retort, "a vulnerability about him. There's more to him than he likes to let on, but I've seen him in here. When he's reading, his walls are down and I see the kindness in him. I know there's something more to him than what everyone thinks."

Harry watched her for a moment, as though trying to see what more there was to her. He leaned forward and rested his chin against the palm of his hand as he asked, "So where does Zabini fit into all this? You said you were thinking about him, too. Please don't tell me you have a crush on both of them."

Flushing Ginny hissed, "I don't! There's no way I'd crush on a jerk like Blaise!"

"Then why are you blushing?" Harry said as he grinned.

"I'm not!" Ginny insisted, bristling with anger. "Why is everyone teasing me about that! "

Harry's eyebrows shot up at this and he said, "Everyone? Maybe it's true then, if everyone is picking up on it. Did Malfoy tease you about it, too? Is that why you seem so down today?"

"Oh shut up," Ginny snapped as she leaned away from him, seething. "That's not why I'm upset, and anyway he didn't tease me!"

"Okay," Harry conceded, laughing as he held his hands up in surrender. "I get it. Now, are you going to tell me what Zabini has to do with anything or not?"

Huffing, Ginny glared at him for a minute more before admitting, "He taught me to Tango." When Harry maintained a bemused expression, she continued, "Last week he taught me a dance and we performed it together at the Slytherin party on Saturday."

Harry's eyes furrowed at that and he muttered through clenched teeth, "You two danced the tango together?"

"Yeah, but only so I could get Draco's attention," Ginny informed him quickly, "and it worked."

"I'm sure," Harry murmured, sounding annoyed. Ginny shot him a look of inquiry, but he merely shook his head and asked, "So...did you manage to get him to show his 'vulnerable' side?"

"No," Ginny said dejectedly. "The whole thing was ruined, because he thought I was partaking in some sort of list. He yelled at me for just trying to get sex and then stormed off."

"What!"

"Shh! Harry, we're in the library!"

Quieting from a shout to a hiss, Harry asked incredulously, "He actually thought you'd partake in something so...so..." Harry made a face of disgust, unable to find words descriptive enough for his emotions.

Briefly entranced by the strength of his disgust, Ginny didn't immediately processes his reactions. After a moment, however, she realize, "Wait! You know about the list?"

"Of course I do," Harry said matter-of-factly, shrugging a little. "I'm on the top."

"So what is it," Ginny asked as she leaned closer to him.

"It's...it's despicable," Harry informed her flatly. "I don't know exactly how it came about, but according to rumor it started as a dare. Some girl dared another to try getting either me or Malfoy - I'm not sure which of us, exactly - in bed. It escalated from there and now there's a whole list of about ten or twenty guys. You start at the bottom of the list and work your way up to the top."

"Merlin, that's just...just wrong," Ginny murmured, put off. "Who would want to do something like that? It's so degrading."

"We don't know," Harry said with a sigh of annoyance. "The story changes depending on what house spins it. Some say that Slytherin girls started it, some say the Gryffindors. The Ravenclaw girls have even been accused."

"No wonder Draco was upset," Ginny said, shaking her head. "If I knew there was a group of people using me as a form of entertainment, I'd be upset, too."

"Yeah, he's not the only one pissed," Harry said frowning. "Although, I heard that he found out about the list sometime last week. Apparently, he bit the girl who told him on the chest when she told him. Right in the middle of...snogging. He made her bleed." At that, he laughed hollowly. "For the sake of whoever started the list, I hope Malfoy's not the one to ferret her out."

Ginny shivered at the thought before asking, "What will the guys on the list do when they find out who started it?"

"I dunno," Harry admitted with a shrug. "Some of them won't do anything, they consider it an easy lay. Whoever's on the list won't have a respectable choice of dates, though. Which is ironic in a way."

"Yeah," Ginny agreed. "Do you know who's on it, besides you and Draco?"

"Well, Blaise is third," Harry said slowly as he tried to remember. "I think Dean Thomas and Thomas Knott are on there somewhere, too. Oh...and Ron's on the very bottom."

"Ew, gross! I did not need to hear that," Ginny said giggling. Then a thought occurred to her and she paled before cringing. "Wait...you said that some one got all the way to Draco that means...oh ew!"

"Yeah, that means Ron's not a virgin," Harry said laughing. "He's finally beat me at something."

Ginny buried her head in her arms. "I don't want to hear this!" After a moment, though, she raised her head and added, "Well, if he's not a virgin he has to right to tell me not to kiss who I want!"

The mention of her kissing whoever she wanted brought the memory of the kiss she'd shared with Draco to the forefront of both their minds. The mood darkened quickly and Ginny stared at Harry, horrified at herself. Clenching his jaw, Harry stood and excused himself.

"Wait!" Ginny called after him as quietly and yet urgently as she could. He didn't respond, and Ginny was left watching his back retreat from her before he disappeared through the doorway altogether.

"Merlin, I'm an idiot," she proclaimed too late. With a sigh, Ginny looked down at her things and decided there was nothing more she could do here. Not for anything that mattered, and she certainly didn't feel like doing homework now. Defeated, she gathered her things and left the library as well.

A/N: So, this came across as something of a filler chapter, I know, but there was a lot of valuable stuff in here. I had to get Harry back into the game for what's to come, and now you all know a little bit more about the list that caused so much misunderstanding in chapter 7.

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