A/N: Okay, so me and maths – not best friends. I know I've been saying all along that this is a story in eight parts. Turns out I've counted the chapters I had planned out wrong – they're just seven. I'm not sure if I'll try to make up one more or not, but if I don't, then just blame me not being able to count properly, okay?

Falling Together

Michael was looking around anxiously as he stepped into the familiar carriage that was dragging him, Terry, Anthony and Padma up to school. Still no sight of her. Ginny hadn't come to find him on the train, as she had implied in her letter that she would. He'd never gotten a response to his last letter, which he'd sent the day before yesterday. Going it over in his mind, he tried to find something that might've somehow offended her. He could find nothing. This did not help with the knot in his stomach. Not at all. Neither did Terry's mocking or Padma's sympathetic eyes.

"Just back off, guys," Anthony spoke up after a particularly insinuating comment from Terry.

Terry immediately looked ashamed of himself, scratching his head awkwardly. "Sorry, mate," he muttered. "Er – who d'you guys think's gonna be teaching DADA this year?"

Michael tuned out as the conversation went on, again picturing Ginny's pale, stricken face as Diggory and Harry had returned, the dark shadows under her eyes the day after, her vulnerability as she asked him to keep in touch. It'd been surprising, and fast.

After that, there had been letters. There had been banter, and a few serious questions about how she was doing that she had only partly dodged (which was more than he'd expected, really). And now, he had no idea where they stood. The fact that she hadn't come to find him somehow boded ill… He'd known he could never be sure with Ginny, but after she'd kept writing to him, if not very personally, he'd started to get his hopes up.

Then she surprised him by showing up at his table in the Great Hall, grinning broadly and slumping down next to him. "Hi," she said simply, first to him, then to Padma, Terry and Anthony.

"Hey," he said, trying to judge if there was anything wrong. Apparently not. Still, he had to ask. "I didn't see you on the train."

Cringing, she put her hand briefly on his. "I know. I got – caught up. With some friends. Sorry."

He shrugged. "It's fine. Just wanted to see you, s'all."

"Well, that makes two of us, Mikey," she grinned. "A hello kiss to make up for it?" she suggested, playfully wriggling her eyebrows as Terry gaped and Padma and Anthony pointedly started discussing the weather.

Without bothering to respond with words, he leaned in and gave her a long kiss.

"Mm. Better than I remembered," Ginny commented softly as they broke apart.

"Y-yeah," he agreed, still sort of blown away by the effect her lips had had on him.

"Guess that means we'll continue down this road of being a bit more than friends, doesn't it?" Ginny stated, as though this matter was simple, and not something he'd spent most of his summer trying to figure out how to bring up with her.

"O-kay. I guess it does," he chuckled at her matter-of-fact manners.

"Only if you want to, obviously, but I think you do, judging from that sort of dazed post-kiss expression on your face," she smirked, leaning in for another kiss and then getting up. "See you around, Mikey!"

"Woah. How did that happen? To you?" Terry questioned the air incredulously. "You didn't even – you just sit there like a bloody coward, and for that you get kissing and promises of more kissing? How in the effin' world of Merlin's arsehole is that fair?"

"I – I dunno," Michael replied, still not quite sure exactly what had happened, or how.

"Come on. Didn't you say you guys had written all summer? She likes you, it's obvious," Padma stated, rolling her eyes at the boys' still shocked expressions. "Why, though, can be questioned," she added lightly as Michael's grin broadened a little too much for her liking and Terry's scowl darkened.

A/N: If any of you didn't remember, the "friends" that Ginny got caught up with was Harry (and later Luna and Neville, but at first it was just Harry). Just thought that'd add a bit to the chapter, but I couldn't find a way to get it in the actual text, so… There we are.

Oh, and I should be updating some other stories soon!