A/N Here's Chapter 9! I already have warned you now that we are back at school we're going to start moving at super speed and we're going to start skipping some major periods of time…..But I promise I'll slow back down when it is necessary… I hope you enjoy!

I extended the ending for those of you who already read it...I thought it needed a little bit more...

Harry sat up and stretched as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. The amount of light pouring in through the window told him he had slept in much later than he was used to. A quick glance at the clock that resided on his nightstand confirmed that thought as he saw it was already 10:30. A part of him felt guilty for not getting up early to study or train, but it was Halloween and Dumbledore had insisted that he take the day off.

Since his arrival at Hogwarts, Harry had thrown himself into his studies with a fervor and ferocity that made Hermione look lazy. Every waking moment that he wasn't in class, having a session with the Headmaster, at Quidditch practice, grabbing a quick bite to eat, or sleeping, he was either in the library absorbing as much information as he could or in the Room of Requirement training.

Since Voldemort and his cronies were purposely staying off the radar until Harry could be 'eliminated' as a threat, the Order was able to breath easy, for the time being at least. So when they had time off from their day jobs, both Tonks and Lupin would come and help train Harry in various disciplines, everything from martial arts to meditation, anything and everything that could possibly be useful.

Harry had meant what he said when he told Dumbledore that he wanted to learn everything about everything. He didn't know how he was supposed to defeat Voldemort, but he knew that anything could be of help when the day finally came. So until that day, no jinx, no curse, no counter curse, no charm, no potion, so skill would be considered unimportant.

At the beginning of term, his teachers almost didn't know what to make of him. He had always been a fairly good student, mainly because he had Hermione to bail him out when he needed, but he had never shown such utter focus and concentration. Snape had even gone so far as to accuse him of cheating after he completed two perfect potions in a row and gave him detention so he could remake them by himself. But after Harry had done this three times and managed to brew perfect potions even with him hovering over him watching his every move, Snape had finally given up and resorted to just ignoring his existence.

He never told Ron and Hermione exactly what he was dreaming when they had woken him up him on the train, but they were able to make an educated guess and supported him the best they could. Harry was grateful that they volunteered much of their own free time to help him train which unfortunately meant lots of bumps and bruises for them. However, Harry would only let them help for so long before he kicked them out as he was determined that they live their lives too. And although the pair always protested when he did this, he didn't fail to notice that they were happy to go. But Harry didn't hold a grudge against them for this, he was truly happy that they were happy.

Ginny however, was a different story. As hard as it was for him to do it, he pushed Ginny away. He didn't just stop talking to her completely, because he knew that she would never put up with that. Instead he only had casual conversations with her and only if she started them first and even then, he treated her only with polite indifference resulting in that they never had the meaningful or fun conversations that they had shared over the summer.

For the first month or so she had attempted talking to him a lot, she had even apologized for ditching him on the train but he just said that he didn't care about that and continued to push him away. Lately she had been reaching out to him less and less and was instead spending her time with Dean. It killed him to watch her drift away, but he stayed stubborn and kept to his decision that this was for the best.

There were many times that he would learn something new that was really cool and he would love to show it to her or he would doubt himself and wanted to go to her for comfort and reassurance. He almost did a couple of time, but every time he walked into the common room and saw her surrounded by people and laughing (it seemed like she was always laughing) he changed his mind, convinced she was better off without him.

"Shoes," he commanded. His trainers flew from the foot of his bed and into his hand where he was sitting. He smiled to himself, he was really starting to get the hang of this wandless magic thing. He had already learned how to move objects with his mind making it possible to levitate, summon or banish objects with a wave of his hand and soon Dumbledore was going to teach him the even more difficult task of creating fire.

As he tied his shoes and pulled a jumper over his head, his stomach protested its emptiness. Breakfast was long since over and lunch was still a few hours away so he decided to head down to the kitchens, confident that the house elves would take care of him.

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"It's called a macchiato, it's coffee, well actually it's a latte, it has espresso and caramel and foam on top with some more caramel drizzled over that…" Ginny explained desperately to Dobby for the third time. She stopped when she saw the elf jump up excitedly.

"Harry Potter!"

Ginny turned and saw a slightly panicked Harry standing in the entrance.

"Hello Dobby," he grimaced.

"Hey Harry, what are you doing down here?"

"Hey Ginny, I was actually going to get a bite to eat, but you know I'm not really that hungry anymore so I think I might just wait until lunch, I will see you later."

That was it for her, she didn't know why he was acting so weird for the past two months but she was going to find out. "Don't even think about leaving this kitchen Harry James Potter. I don't know what your issue has been for the past two months but I am sick of it. What ever it is, you need to get over it and pull your head out, because I'm not having it anymore!"

Harry was a little taken aback. "I don't know what you are talking about," he denied.

"Bull shit Harry, you have been completely blowing me off since we got to school and it's pissing me off. I don't think I have done anything to deserve this and I want to know why you have been treating me so badly."

Harry sat down at one of the tables and put his face in his hands. He didn't really think that this might be hurting her as much as it was hurting him. "I don't know Gin, I had my reasons in the beginning, but I don't know anymore," he told her.

Her anger waned a little bit after seeing him look so weary. She sat down next to him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"I don't know what I'm doing , I just kind of flipped out. I guess that over the summer I kinda forgot that you had other friends and a whole life that had nothing to do with me and my issues and maybe I was a little jealous. Then after I dreamt the final battle, I saw you and all your friends and you looked so happy and I didn't want to take that happiness away from you. My future is so unpredictable, I have no guarantees that I will be able to be as good of a friend to you as you were to me, I just felt like you deserved more. I thought that by pushing you away that I was giving you an opportunity at a happy, normal life instead of getting mixed up in mine. You sacrificed so much of your time for me this summer, I just wanted to give you a good year, I didn't mean to hurt you."

"Do you still want to be my friend?" Ginny asked.

"Of course I do. This has been killing me, you don't know how many times I have wanted to come talk to you the way we did over the summer."

Ginny considered all of this for a moment before taking off her necklace and slipping her hand beneath his collar and fishing his out from under his shirt. "Harry these mean something," she fit them together so they interlocked. "These mean that we are connected. I don't know what you thought, but I wasn't sacrificing anything by hanging out with you this summer, I wanted to hang out with you last summer and I still do. Harry, I'm not stupid, I realized what I was getting myself into when I reached out to you in that first letter and I also know that you are going through a particularly difficult period in your life, but I want to be there for it, I want to help you through it and be there when you come out from the other side. And I also expect you to be there for me when I need you. Harry, I want to be your friend and don't ever think otherwise. I'm getting something out of this friendship too. Trust me I'm no martyr, actually I'm quite selfish, I wouldn't be here if I didn't want to be."

Harry rubbed the interlocking charms between his fingers. "You may be many things Ginny, but selfish is not one of them."

Ginny didn't reply, but reached her arms around his neck and pulled him into a hug. Harry was only too thrilled to hug her back. After a minute they pulled apart slightly so they still had their arms around each other but they could look at each other. They gazed at each other intently for a moment moving closer and closer as if they were being drawn together magnetically until-

"Didn't you come down here for breakfast?" Ginny whispered. Breathing a little quicker than she had been before.

Harry cleared his throat, "Yeah, I did." He released her from his grip. "And I think you were trying to get a macchiato."

Ginny laughed, "Yeah I have been dreaming about having one for weeks. Dobby how is my coffee coming?"

Dobby brought over a plate of food for Harry and a mug for Ginny which gave them the perfect excuse to pretend what almost happened, never happened.

Ginny took a hesitant sip, "A little sweet, but not too off. Thank you Dobby."

"You is most welcome youngest Weezey."

Ginny sipped her coffee while Harry ate and told her all about the new skills he was learning from Dumbledore. i I can't believe that he would actually think that I would want to ditch him just because I was around my boyfriend again. I mean I want to spend time with Dean too, but my friends will always come first. It's like he was afraid I would lose interest so he pushed me away first. Well I'll just have to show him that I am in it for the long haul/i she thought as she listened to him.

"It's just like moving larger objects but on a much smaller scale. You see it's all about the manipulation of the molecules. You just have concentrate and focus on moving the individual molecules fast enough until they generate heat and then fire," he explained excitedly.

"Wow, I'm totally impressed. How did you learn to do all of this in two months?"

"Well I actually can't create fire yet. I can't control quite enough molecules at once yet. And I've really only learned as much as I have because, well I haven't really done much else but eat, sleep, Quidditch and study. This is actually the first day I have given myself off all term and that's only because Dumbledore is making me," he chuckled self deprecatingly, "to be honest I don't really know what to do with myself."

"Then hang out with me, I don't have any plans for today and even if I did I would cancel them."

"Are you sure you wouldn't rather hand out with Dean?" Harry asked carefully not meeting her gaze.

Ginny sighed loudly, "Harry, since you deemed it necessary to blow me off for two months, I have been hanging out with him almost constantly. To be honest, I could use a break from him. Trust me I would much rather hang out with you."

Ginny was thrilled to see a genuine smile spread across Harry's face. "Alright, sounds good."

Ginny smiled in return, "Great."

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It was almost time for the Halloween feast by the time Harry and Ginny crawled through the portrait hole flushed and windblown but very happy, having spent a better part of the afternoon flying.

"Okay lets go change and meet back here in ten and then we'll go down to the Great Hall together," Ginny planned.

Harry agreed and they both headed up to their respective dorms to freshen up. Somehow Ginny had finished first and was waiting at the base of the stairs. She turned when she heard someone descending expecting it to be Harry, instead it was Dean.

"Hey Ginny, where have you been all day? I was looking for you earlier," he questioned curiously as he gave her a quick peck.

"I was hanging out with Harry today," she answered truthfully.

"Oh…okay, well are you ready to head down to the feast?"

"Actually, I'm going to wait for Harry, were not done hanging out yet, but you don't have to wait, you go ahead and I'll see you done there."

"Are you sure you don't want to come now or want me to wait with you?" Ginny nodded. "Okay, I'll see you down there then," Dean said a little confused as he walked out of the portrait hole.

Harry appeared the second Dean left, "You didn't have to do that, you could have gone ahead."

"Were you eavesdropping on the stairs?" she asked sternly. He nodded sheepishly. "Good Merlin's mother, when are you going to acknowledge the fact that I want to spend time with you. Because frankly I'm getting tired of saying it."

"Sorry."

"As you should be," she teased. "Now come on, I'm starving."

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Harry climbed into bed at the end of the night, his thoughts occupied with his day with Ginny.

I am such a git…I can't believe that I underestimated her again. She's not the kind of person who just abandons a friend. I'm just glad she forgave me, he thought to himself.

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Ginny pulled her covers up to her chin and nestled into her pillows.

Wow Harry can be dense sometimes, I can't believe he really thought I would be happy to be dumped like that. When will he ever realize that he isn't a burden just because that's what his awful Muggles told him his while life. But what was that down in the kitchen?"

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For a second there I thought we were going to kiss or something…

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But that's ridiculous, why would we kiss? Maybe I just imagined it, after all he didn't act like he noticed anything. Maybe I'm just overreacting, I bet it was nothing. Ginny thought turning on her side.

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She didn't seem like she thought we were about to kiss. Besides she has a boyfriend.

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Besides I have a boyfriend…who didn't seem thrilled that I chose to sit next to Harry at the feast tonight. But whatever, he is just going to have to deal with it. Besides you're just a friend to him nothing more so get over it Ginny and go to sleep!

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Jezz Harry get a hold of yourself, he told himself. She is your friend and nothing else and she will never think of you as anything else so just get over it and go to sleep!

A/N Well there it is….I hope you enjoyed it……let me know what you think!