"Ron, maybe you should see Madame Promfrey," Hermione remarked.

"Nah, I don't need to. It looks worse than it is, really. But Malfoy-- ugh. He's about as innocent as Peeves. And now I have a whole week of detention with him," Ron said. He then eyed the room and said to Harry, more quietly, "Hey, Harry, do you want to maybe take your invisibility cloak and sneak into Hogsmeade for some firewhisky?"

"No thanks, Ron," Harry muttered, glancing over at Ginny. "I think I'll stay here."

Ron sighed.

"Ahh, well. I think I will go see Madam Pomfrey. I have a bloody headache."

"I'll take you, if you want," Hermione offered quickly.

"Well," Ron hesitated. "Alright, then." He swung the portrait hole open and gestured for her to exit.

Hermione walked towards Ron, but not before shooting a meaningful look towards Harry and Ginny. She gave Harry a small smile before heading out of the portrait with Ron.

Ron looked at Harry and Ginny and gave another small sigh. He then followed Hermione out of the portrait hole.

"I didn't mean to," Ginny whispered suddenly, her gaze fixed on the flickering orange flames in front of her.

"You didn't mean to do what?" Harry asked.

"He told me that he loved me. He did! But I was stupid enough and believed him. That's all I am! I'm a stupid little girl. Stupid little girl..." her voice trailed off, and she felt anger flying through her.

Harry leaned forward and put his hand on hers. He said gently, "What are you talking about, Ginny?"

Ginny roughly brought her hand up from underneath Harry's. She stood up, not daring to look at him, and began pacing. "I should've known! Malfoys never change! Never! They never fall in love. They never become human!"

Harry stood up abruptly. "You fell in love with Malfoy?" Harry said through gritted teeth.

She stopped pacing, but didn't look at him. How could she look at him, when she was telling him that she was in love with someone else? "Yes, okay?! I'm a stupid little girl! A stupid little girl who fell in love with the enemy! And you know what 'love' lead to?! Him seeing how long it could take for him to get me in bed! Yes, okay, it was a mistake! I know that, Harry. But he took away my innocence. And then treated me like yesterday's garbage. I FELL IN LOVE WITH HIM."

"Do I need to spell it out for you, Harry?!" she asked hotly.

"No, I'm not that thick," Harry spat.

"You could've fooled me, Potter. I thought I would've had to actually tell you that Malfoy and I shagged," she snapped. She covered her mouth, suddenly realizing what she said, and sank to the floor.

Harry's mouth fell open, then walked over to her. He sat down beside her and let her head rest on his lap, as he held her hand and told her that Malfoy wasn't worth anything.

"Funny. You're talking like you know what love is," she spat.

He sat up at once. "Of course I know what love is!! Because-- because I'm in love with you!!" Harry said all of this very fast and quickly turned a shade of alarming crimson.

"No you're not," Ginny said quickly. She couldn't let Harry love her. She couldn't.

"Yes, I am. I've loved you since I first laid eyes on you. I just didn't know it."

"Didn't know it," she said slowly. "Of course not. I'm Ron's little sister. Ron's stupid little sister... No, Harry, you can't love me."

"You're not stupid, and you're better than Malfoy. And yes, I do love you."

"Harry, I--" she began. For once, Ginny Weasley didn't have a witty remark. She was left speechless. She didn't want Harry to love her, because she didn't want to be hurt, like Malfoy hurt her. But Harry wasn't like Malfoy, she knew that... there were too many risks for her... she couldn't... too much hurt...

Ron was walking down the corridor with great difficulty. Most of his energy was being put into lifing up his leg to ease the pain, resulting in an awkward limp.

"Here, lean on me," Hermione offered, moving to wrap his arm around her waist.

"Thanks," he muttered. They were completely silent for a full minute, then Ron began to curse under his breath. "If only McGonnagall didn't pull us apart, I would have finally given him a piece of my mind."

"Piece of your mind, or a piece of your fist?" Hermione asked, hearing every word he was muttering since they were so close.

"Quite a bit of both," he confessed.

"Ron, I know she's your little sister, but--" Hermione began, unsure of how to word quite what she was going to say.

"Go on," he insisted.

"You can't always fight her battles for her," she continued. "She has to learn how to defend herself."

He raised his voice a bit. "How was she planning to get back Malfoy?!" he yelled. A ghost floated by and said, "Well, I never." Annoyed, he stopped in the middle of the corridor and accidentally placed all of his weight on his bad leg. He grimaced, had a blank expression on his face for a moment, and continued down the hallway.

"Ron," Hermione groaned, going over to help him.

"I can walk myself, thanks very much," he said stubbornly.

"No, you can't," she remarked. "Unless you feel like cringing in pain every two seconds and falling down in the process. I'm not letting go of you until we get to the Hospital Wing." What she would've liked to say was, "I'm never letting you go," but he'd never know it.

He groaned, but allowed her to help him walk the rest of the way there. "Malfoy should be gone by now," he said. "He'd better be gone for his sake," he muttered.

"Ron, please..." Hermione muttered. "Stop thinking about Malfoy for once."

"Who am I supposed to think about?!" he said.

"I don't know! Why don't you think about us?!" she exclaimed before she could stop herself.

"Us?" he said, his voice breaking a bit, his face turning as fire-colored as his hair.

Brilliant, Hermione, she scolded herself. Just go and make things uncomfortable... "Well, it's better than Malfoy, isn't it?" she asked.

Ron eased a bit. He stopped just outside the Hospital Wing and turned to Hermione. He stroked her hair a bit while saying, "Thanks for walking me up here, Hermione. Really. It means a lot."

She raised her eyebrows a bit, glancing at his hand that was stroking her hair. What was going through that boy's mind? "Well, you couldn't have gotten up here yourself, you know. I'm always hear if you need me, Ronald. Always. Let's get you settled, shall we?"

"Well, let's go in," he said. He opened the door and once again let her walk in first, but Madam Pomfrey practically shrieked at the sight of him.

"Er, I guess I'll leave you here, Ron..." Hermione said.

"Well, er-- alright," said Ron, looking a bit disappointed.

"I'll, er... I'll s-see you later, okay?" she questioned. Merlin, why did you have to stutter? she scolded herself, turning a bit red

"Bye," he managed, before he was dragged into the Hospital Wing by a worried Madame Pomfrey.

Ginny was walking down the corridor with Harry one afternoon about a week after the incident. Ron and Hermione were walking ahead of them, probably bickering about something when she accidentally ran into someone. Someone disgustingly familiar.

Malfoy was walking down the corridor in their direction, accompanied by Crabbe and Goyle. He was apparantly amused by something, but stopped abruptly when he saw her.

"It's you," Ginny snarled in disgust.

Malfoy said nothing, but stopped in his tracks, gaped at her, and slight color rose in his normally pale cheeks.

"What? Can't think of something to say? That's funny. You used to have plenty to say to me," she chided.

Draco closed his mouth, lowered his head and continued walking. Crabbe and Goyle continued after him.

"Lose your courage, Malfoy?" she called after him. "Oh, that's right! You never had any of that to begin with!"

"Ginny--" Hermione began. Malfoy glanced back quickly at Ginny.

"What, Hermione? At least someone here knows to say how he feels!" she exclaimed, referring to Harry. She still hadn't said anything about him loving her, and even after he had kissed her...

Hermione silenced at once.

"Even if you don't want them to..." she whispered.

"Don't you walk away from me, Draco Malfoy. You've done that already," she remarked.

Draco stopped walking once again. He spun around. "Alright," he said quietly, almost whispering. "I'm listening."

"Not here. Somewhere else. But we need to talk," she said just as quietly. To everyone's surprise, including her own, she walked up to him and grabbed him by the arm, pulling him into an abandoned classroom.

Ron started to go after him but Harry held him back by the arm.

Ginny slammed the door shut, and pushed Draco away from her once they were away from prying eyes.

"What is it, Ginny?" Draco said impatiently, yet quietly, while Ginny stood astounded at the fact that he did not call her "Weasley" or her old nicknames.

"How could you do that to me?!" she demanded. "Take me away like that, sweep me off my feet... then treat me like trash!"

"You wouldn't understand."

"I wouldn't? Then make me understand, Malfoy!" she exclaimed. "That's what you're supposed to do! Make me understand. But you gave up too quickly before the explanations would have to come."

"I can't explain it, it's just like-- a feeling."

"A feeling," she remarked sardonically. "I thought Malfoy's don't feel. Wasn't that one of your rules or something?"

"You can't even imagine why I can't do this!" To Ginny's surprise, he burst into tears. "You and I can never be together!" he gasped.

"It's not like you'd want us to be together, Malfoy," she remarked softly. Softly, but harshly.

"Stop pretending," she said softly, feeling her own, warm tears from behind her eyes form

"We don't belong together," he choked. "We come from two different worlds."

"And those two worlds collided," she remarked. "Please, stop acting as though you care about me, when you've made it painfully obvious that you don't."

"Ginny!" he remarked, getting a better hold of himself. "I'm not acting! Why can't you see that?!"

"Because. You're. A. Malfoy," she said coldly.

"What has my family got to do with anything?!" he yelled.

"Draco..." she sighed. "Your family has everything to do with it."

"I don't care about them, about anyone except you..." he sighed...

"You've got a funny way of showing it," she muttered.

"Yeah, well, how about I say that I've learned my lesson?" he asked softly, the rivers of tears stopping. He walked briskly over to her, cupping her cheek in his hand. Draco stroked her tear-strained cheek with his thumb, before leaning in and kissing her softly upon her lips.

Outside, Ron finally said impatiently, "I can't stand it anymore. I'm going in there." Despite Harry's efforts to hold him back, he broke free and burst into the classroom, closely followed by Harry, protesting to give them privacy to sort things out.

Ginny was a bit surprised at first, but then responded, allowing herself to be swept away once more.

Ron roared, "MALFOY, I'M GONNA RIP YOUR BLOODY HEART OUT!"

Ginny paused, but did not break away from Draco. She groaned, partly apologizing for her brother's stupidity. "Ronald, please... we were just..."

Harry stood there flabbergasted, but he had a reason. Unlike Hermione. He was watching the woman he loved be snogged by his worst enemy... And she was enjoying it.

"Ginny," he managed to mumble out.

Ron turned crimson, and started to go after Malfoy but tripped on his way over.

"We were just talking!" Ginny protested.