Disclaimer: I still do not own Harry Potter.

Author's Note: Okay, so I feel absolutely awful about how long it took me to write this chapter. I'm really sorry. But I hope you find it worth the wait!

Chapter Four, The Other Girl

Ginny and Hermione sat together in the empty girls' dormitories one Saturday afternoon, others were outside enjoying the sunny day, but Hermione had entered the fifth year girls dormitory and found Ginny sitting there alone, looking out the window absently.

"I thought I might find you here." Hermione said as she entered the room.

Ginny jumped slightly, startled out of her thoughts as Hermione spoke, "Oh, hi, Hermione." She said, her voice rather toneless.

"You can't do this to yourself, Ginny." Hermione sighed, sitting down next to the red-headed girl.

"Do what to myself, exactly?" Ginny asked her, raising her eyebrows. "Sit alone and give myself some time to think?"

"Think about Harry?" Hermione asked, with a knowing look on her face.

"I wasn't even thinking about Harry, Hermione!" Ginny said, annoyed. That was a lie. She had been. But it wasn't like she spent every day crying over him. Sure, she'd been rather miserable lately, but most of that had nothing to do with Harry. Most of it had to do with the fact that being in the castle kept reminding her of the battle that had taken place there the year before, and all the loved ones she'd lost to it. But even with that, it wasn't like she was never happy. It was just that sometimes she preferred to be alone,

Hermione shook her head, "Ginny, you can't push everyone away. Things will never get better if you push everyone away."

"I'm not pushing everyone away! Is it so much to ask to want to be alone every once and a while?"

"I think you should talk to Harry." Hermione noted,

Ginny ran a hand down her tangled red hair, as if to calm her obvious frustration, "Are you just going to keep bringing Harry up? Because, for the record, that just kind of makes it worse!"

"He's been miserable, Ginny, cut him some slack. I think he needs you. And for the record," She copied Ginny's word choice, "I think you need him just as much."

Ginny didn't respond right away, instead she looked out the open window where she could see the lake and the surrounding areas. Ironically, Harry was sitting and talking cheerfully to a girl Ginny had seen him speaking to many times since they had arrived. She felt sick, suddenly, and she pulled the curtains closed quickly.

"He certainly doesn't seem miserable. I think you might be wrong about him needing me, Hermione." The anger had vanished from her voice, and instead what was left was just a sadness.

Hermione moved the curtain just enough to look out it and see what had caught Ginny's attention, she sighed and looked at the red head. "Listen, Ginny, he doesn't love Helen."

"Oh, her name is Helen? That's a pretty name."

"They're just friends, I promise he doesn't have feelings for her." Hermione told Ginny gently.

"And how can you be sure? He's spent an awful lot of time around her, lately, And he won't even speak to me!" Her voice shook slightly, and she took a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself. "I don't want to talk about him, Hermione. I waited forever for him to notice me, and honestly, I understand why he dumped me before. But I deserve some kind of explanation now..." She broke off.

Hermione looked on the verge of saying something, but she held her tongue, and instead of speaking, she put a sympathetic arm around her friend's shoulders, and didn't say a thing.

Ginny was walking down a crowded corridor later that evening, so she probably should have been watching where she was going. But instead, she just watched the ground in front of her and suddenly ran right into someone walking the other way. Ginny's homework fell to the ground along with several things that had been in the hands of the person she had run into.

Startled, she looked up to see two equally surprised people in front of her. The one she had run into was that girl, Helen, and the other was Harry.

"Sorry," Ginny mumbled, as she got on her knees to help the other two pick up the fallen books. She took her homework and then picked up one of the girl's books and handed it to her. She noticed the cover of it said simply journal.

"Diaries can be bad for you, you know?" Ginny said, as her own private joke, though the memories that went along with it weren't exactly funny.

She glanced at Harry, who seemed to be avoiding her gaze.

The blond-haired girl just smiled, though she looked a little confused by Ginny's comment, "Oh! You're Ginny Weasley, right? The twins' sister? Your brothers were hilarious when they still came to school."

Ginny knew the girl was just trying to be friendly, but that didn't stop the color from draining from Ginny's face.

And suddenly, even though the girl meant no harm, Ginny couldn't stand her. "Yeah. They were funny, weren't they?" Anger dripped from her voice, and all her buried emotions seemed to explode from her. "Fred and George were hilarious, weren't they Harry?"

"Ginny, she didn't know-" Harry said, uncomfortably. Ginny couldn't clearly read his expression though, as she usually could, because her thoughts were too clouded by her own feelings.

"Oh, you're speaking to me now?" She spat angrily.

People in the hallway were staring now.

Poor Helen seemed completely confused, and rather nervous, "What? I-"

"Fred died in the battle last year. Along with a lot of other people." Ginny glared at the girl.

The girl's eyes widened and her jaw dropped. "I'm- I'm so sorry. I had no idea- I'm so, so sorry." She stuttered.

"Next time pay a little bit more attention!" Ginny yelled, she didn't mean to treat the girl horribly. But everything had seemed so wrong lately, and she'd tried to keep it hidden, but now everything was just coming apart.

Helen's eyes filled with tears, and Harry actually glared at her, "What's wrong with you? She didn't know Ginny!"

The words felt like daggers.

"Well, I'm sorry Harry! It's just a little hard having to deal with your brother's death! And being abandoned by someone you used to think was your friend. Someone you used to think loved-" She broke off, and her voice quieted as she looked at Helen.

"Sorry, er, Helen. It wasn't your fault." Ginny managed to mumble in a much quieter voice then she had used before.

Then she brushed past Harry, her eyes brimming with tears.

If she had had any chance of making up with Harry before, she was sure that it was all over now.

Author's Note: Okay, the last thing I want is for this chapter to make you hate Ginny. Just cut her some slack, she's having a hard time! Also, I hope this chapter doesn't make you hate me. I'm sorry that it took me forever to update this story, and I hope this chapter was worth waiting for. The thing is that in December I was busy with celebrating the holidays (Christmas, New Year), and when I wasn't doing that I was, well, putting off writing this story. So yeah, there really is no excuse because I could have written it, and I should have, especially due to the Harry Potter movie and all that jazz, it would have been good for me to write earlier. But I didn't. And I'm sorry, please forgive me!

IMPORTANT (PLEAE READ): So, you have two options. Option number one, is that this could be a pretty short story, end in a couple chapters and be resolved much more quickly then otherwise. Option two is that the story goes on much longer, but takes longer to be resolved. I'm happy either way, so just let me know your opinion! Please Review and tell me!