A/N: Hey everyone! So, I'm SO sorry about my previous chapter. I had some issues and accidentally uploaded the unedited version. When I realized this I went back and uploaded the correct version and later noticed that it might have sent you an additional alert for the same chapter (i found out later that there's a "replace chapter" option I should have used). My mistake! Hope not many of you were annoyed, and if you were, I'm terribly sorry (still haven't learned to work this site). Anyway, here's the next chapter as promised. I've been trying to post for a few days but It wouldn't let me :( . Please please please tell me what you think! As I said before this is my first story and I'm not entirely sure how I'm doing so let me know.

JK owns it.

Chapter 10

Ginny woke up feeling renewed. As terrible as things had been the day before she felt today would be a little better. The only thing she was not looking forward to was facing her mother who she knew was going to give her a piece of her mind. Not only that but she would probably ask her plenty of questions and ask for reasoning that Ginny wasn't sure she could provide. She was just wishing that she wouldn't think it was her fault for not raising her properly, that was far from true, but she had a daunting feeling something like that had crossed her mother's mind.

With a soft groan Ginny got up from her bed and sleepily headed for the shower. A few moments later she finished getting ready and apparated straight into her mother's kitchen.

"Oh Merlin thank goodness you're alright" she heard as soon as she opened her eyes. A quick vision of Mrs. Weasley shuffling towards her followed. After a tight hug her mother pulled away and looked at her sternly.

"Don't you ever do that again -running off without so much as a note. I've had enough over the years dealing with your brothers I do not want to have to lose sleep over my only daughter understand?"

"I know mum I'm sorry. I didn't mean for you to worry I just needed some time alone."

"Yes dear I know but you need to understand we were worried." Mrs. Weasley said, her voice was tight with emotion and concern was evident in her eyes.

"Now come here let me make you some breakfast" she added as she moved towards the stove.

As she slowly sat down at the table Ginny's mind was racing trying to think of how to exactly initiate the upcoming conversation. Once her mother placed her plate in front of her and sat opposite at the table she took a deep breath and began recounting all the events, well most of them, she didn't mention the whole bit about being bullied for being poor –it wasn't necessary. Instead she had said she had befriended a muggle through some school friends and offered to help him out with an art project for his muggle university. The pictures weren't supposed to be published but somehow Rita found them and used them to expose her. That was mostly the truth. Molly just looked at her daughter tenderly with teary eyes. When Ginny finished she stood up and hugged her tightly again.

"It's going to be okay, our family has gone through plenty of worse things before. But Ginny-"

she narrowed her eyes at her vulnerable looking daughter, her resolve to stay upset wavering,

"you should know that it is not good for a young lady to be so trusting these days. Please be more careful when you chose to help out friends -I know you had good intentions but it's just risky and I don't want anyone to take advantage of you like that. Especially with people like Rita Skeeter wondering around, you can never be too careful"

Ginny nodded and kept her gaze down

Giving her daughter a tender smile Mrs. Weasley stood up and busied herself cleaning the kitchen.

"So what about this image woman? When do you meet her?" She said over her shoulder.

"This afternoon. Hermione said that it shouldn't be that bad- most famous people use them at some point in their career so that I shouldn't be worried." Ginny responded with a shrug.

Although she was trying to maintain calm inside she was inexplicably nervous. She was never the type to seek help from others; she always felt more than capable fixing her own issues, but given that this was a requirement to continue on the team sort to speak, she had to agree and be grateful. In any other circumstance, however, she would have thrown a fit before having someone "consult" her on anything.

"Ok well let me know how it goes." She paused. "So you went to Hermione's yesterday?" she added raising an eyebrow at the redhead.

"Not straight away but I stopped by later in the day to talk." Lie. She had waited in the staircase of Hermione's flat for most of the day, not really sure where to go, she found herself drawn to the brunette's.

"Oh I'm so glad you've become friends. It will be good for you to have more friends that are girls Gin- always so surrounded by men" she gave her a pointed look and Ginny couldn't help but grin cheekily back at her.

"Can't help it, now can I?" She winked disguising what she was really thinking. If you only knew mother...

Molly just gave her daughter an indignant look before rolling her eyes.

"Oh I almost forgot" She went towards the living room table and placed a letter in front of her.

"Harry wrote to you this morning" she gave her daughter an amused smile.

Ginny quickly grabbed the letter and threw it dismissively on the table with a soft sigh.

"He was worried you know" she said matter-of-factly.

"He's Harry Potter, when does he not worry" she retorted a little snappily.

Picking up on her daughter's annoyance she decided to drop the issue. Something told her it wasn't Harry who was the object of her daughter's affections this time around.

Ginny looked at the clock and decided to start getting ready for her appointment. After spending the day just relaxing in the room away from the prying eyes of the public and with her mother's comforting presence, she felt much better. She appeared in Diagon Alley and followed the directions her coach had given her. Looking up from her piece of parchment she found herself in a rather secluded and dodgy looking alley. She took a few cautious steps towards a brick three story building in front of her and as soon as she reached its entrance the entire building transformed itself. The abandoned looking edifice turned into a modern-looking building with wide windows covering its front. The door now was made out of opaque glass framed with silver and on it was the phrase "Image is Everything" in neat print.

Ginny stood in awe at the impressive transfiguration she just witnessed. Clever . She looked around to see if anyone else had just seen what had happened but remembered she was quite out of sight. She approached the door and felt a bit nervous again. You brought this upon yourself. Do you want to keep playing Quidditch or not? With a deep breath she opened the door slowly and came face to face with a lift that opened as soon as she stood before it. Noticing that there was no one there and that there was no other way to announce her presence she stepped in. She felt a bit of panic when she saw that there were no buttons on the lift but was relieved when it started moving on its own. When it opened again she came face to face with a blonde woman in very expensive looking outfit. She wore a light blue penciled skirt that came up to her waist and a white tucked in blouse. She adorned her outfit with a large silver necklace with a pale blue pendant on it and natural colored opened toed heals. She looked a bit older, Ginny guessed in her early 30s, and if it weren't for her British accent she would have definitely passed as a Veela.

"Ms. Wealsey I was expecting you. My name is Sandra." she said excitedly as she stretched out her hand.

"Nice to meet you. Please call me Ginny" she said politely trying to mask her lack of enthusiasm.

"Well Ginny please come in. I hope you didn't have too much trouble finding us" she said cheerfully as she led Ginny into her office. On the walls Ginny couldn't help but notice picture of Sandra with great icons of the Wizarding community. She stopped in surprise when she spotted a picture of her with Gwenog Jones.

"Oh yes, well as you see a lot of people have requested my service over the years" she said with a smug smile.

"I see" was all Ginny could respond. She wasn't sure why but she felt a little bit of the weight come off her shoulders; maybe this would actually blow over in no time.

Once they reached her office Ginny took a seat feeling a bit nervous and awkward. Sandra must have picked up on this because she quickly gave her a reassuring smile.

"Well, I've read and heard about what happened. And to tell you from experience this is not as catastrophic as it may seem to you right now. Merlin knows I've had tougher situations to work with before - everything from Death Eaters trying to reinstate themselves into society after the war, to cheating husbands, to rowdy athletes, I've even had a few goblins trickle in here from time to time. Now, I know you may feel overwhelmed and scared about the implications of what has happened but it was just a bit of bad publicity, nothing that can't be fixed."

Ginny nodded and gave her a small smile.

"Good. Now, I don't necessarily need to hear the whole story of what happened, I'm sure you've had to retell it enough already. That doesn't matter here, what's done is done. What we need to focus on is how to find something to take the spotlight off that incident and to make people forget about this nonsense and remember the old Ginny Weasley they adore."

Ginny smiled brightly now. That sounds perfect.

"Perfect. Now tell me, I already know a bit about your family, but what about any romantic interests?" She said with a wink.

Her first immediate thought went to Hermione. She debated herself on what was going on with the brunette. Nothing was really ever said between them and although she had that kiss to prove that perhaps they were on some path towards something great- Hermione could have just meant it as a sort of spontaneous thing that happened once at a party, a mistake between two slightly intoxicated people trying to have fun and nothing more. On top of the fact that it was all still undetermined, Hermione was still a girl, and the fact that she was attracted to her would definitely not be the sort of positive publicity Sandra was talking about. Deciding to go on what she knew was true, her passion for playing at the Harpies, Ginny shook her head slightly.

"Nothing really as of right now." She felt a Sandra's gaze locked on her and it made her slightly uncomfortable so she added rather nervously "Well, I just broke up with Dean Thomas a few weeks ago. Things weren't really working out. But nothing more than that really, unless you count Hurry's somewhat obvious attempts at flirting." She finished with a short laugh at the thought.

"So who's this Harry fellow?" Sandra asked sounding intrigued by the juicy gossip.

"Potter." she answered nonchalantly

Sandra's eyes widened and her jaw fell a bit. She looked at Ginny in disbelief.

"That's it!"

"What is?" Ginny asked in confusion

Sandra let out a disbelieving laugh, "Don't be silly! Harry Potter is the solution! The most wanted bachelor in the wizarding world fancies you, the most up and coming quidditch start of the decade! Oh that's fantastic!" She shrieked. "Oh Ginny darling this will be easier than I expected" she said bouncing on her chair from excitement.

"No" Ginny stated firmly.

"No what?"

"No, I'm not going to date Harry Potter"

"You must be joking! Every girl in the world would die to be in your place! For a while I was concerned he wasn't into girls, you know what I mean?" she gave the young witch a smirk "not much of a history with them, but then I thought that he might just be rather shy and just waiting for the right one. And you my dear are the lucky one!"

Oh Gods there is no way this is happening. I cannot do this. Not when I'm so close to - Close to what Ginny? Hermione hasn't admitted anything. You were the one that assaulted her with a kiss not the other way around. Yes, but she responded! And all those longing looks and yesterday at her flat… You were probably just misreading it all Gin. Honestly! How could anyone like Hermione Granger, such a proper level-headed woman, want to anything serious with you? It just doesn't make sense. You got lucky with that kiss but it would be foolish for you to honestly think that there was any future to it. You are just friends. The kiss was just a bit of fun; she didn't even mention it yesterday, she's clearly moved on so stop being so naive and stop fantasizing about something that just won't happen; it's time to grow up and be realistic. Do you want a professional quidditch career or not? You are so close to getting all you've dreamed about for years, is this unrequited crush on Hermione worth it?

She snapped back out of her internal debate when she found her answer. Taking a deep breath she looked at Sandra who was watching her somewhat impatiently, clearly waiting for some sort of response.

"Okay- I'll do it" Ginny said solemnly

"Merlin Ginny it's not like I'm asking you to date a death eater, be a little bit more enthusiastic!"

Ginny forced a smile that Sandra did not buy but she continued.

"Good, well. Now we just need to find a way to make this beautiful romance blossom. I know that he is good friends with your brother so you see him often?"

"Yes" Ginny said trying to mask the irritation she felt at the idea as a whole.

"Brilliant! Here" she pulled out a piece of parchment from her desk "tell him to meet you here on Thursday night. It's a great new restaurant that opened up- not many people know about it yet. It will be perfect."

She took in Ginny's defeated looking expression and realizing that the young witch actually didn't seem to want to go through with this added, "Look, you don't even actually have to date him - it just needs to appear as though you are. It's speculation that will start the whole "are they or aren't they" thing and that's really all you'll need for the other issue to erase itself from people's minds. Today's newspapers are in tomorrow's wastepaper bins."

Hearing their scheme in words made Ginny realize how manipulative and conniving it actually was. She was essentially going to toy with poor Harry's feelings to save her own arse. But maybe it wouldn't be like that. What if she actually gave Harry a chance? Sure it wasn't who she wanted to be with but he was convenient he was safe, and as Sandra said, he was what every girl dreamed of; maybe she could learn to like him as well.

Not entirely sure as to how exactly things were going to play out, Ginny decided it best to just take it day by day. Hopefully she would be able to figure out a way out of this without having too many people getting hurt. Looking up at Sandra, she gave the older witch a grateful smile. Despite the fact that she wasn't entirely confident about her plan and was sill very apprehensive about her tactics the older witch seemed to genuinely want to help her out of this mess and she appreciated it.

"Thank you. I'll owl him when I get home" she said standing up.

"Great I'll keep in touch. I'll owl you about next steps after your date... friendly date." She added proudly giving the redhead a wink and a smile.

Ginny shook her head good-naturedly still in disbelief. Guess it's time to see how well you can act Gin.

A/N: Hm... Harry Potter. Should she give him a fair chance? I dont want to say much except that im not a Ginny/Harry shipper, so while there might be some potential drama, at the end of the day this is a Ginny/Hermione story. ;) let me know what you think!