A/N Hey people...I know the last chapter brought about unwanted developments but what can I say I need a plot...I just wanted to thank everyone who saw the need for this development and see the possible future value in it...and even if you didn't like it or appreciate it I'm thankful that you are sticking with the story unlike a few people who after the last chapter said they now hate this story and were going to stop reading it...and if it helps I promise that once we get through all the bad stuff the very very good stuff follows...it always gets worse before it gets better right?

Ginny eagerly stepped off the Hogwarts Express excited to be home for the next two weeks for the winter holidays. Being Head Girl and Quidditch Captain on top of studying for her NEWTs had taken its toll on her, and even though it was way easier for her to study for her NEWTs than it was for everyone else since she had learned so much from helping Harry before the final battle, she was excited to have a vacation from all the responsibility. On top of all of that, this was also the first year that she didn't have at least Ron at school with her, and she was surprised to see that how much more she missed her family without him.

She looked around quickly, searching for someone with red hair since she wasn't exactly sure who was meeting her. She spun around quickly when she heard someone call her name and was a little surprised that it wasn't a redhead that had called her but someone with very dark, and very messy hair.

"Harry!" she called back, a little surprised that he was the one who had come, considering the note they had left on back in October, but was pleased to see him nonetheless.

Harry made his way through the crowd towards her with a big smile on his face.

"Hey there, Peanut. Hey there, Jack. Wow, you've gotten big," he said referring to the wiggling Crup that was struggling to get out of Ginny's arms.

"Yes he has," Ginny said in a baby voice, turning Jack around so she could kiss the seven month old puppy on the nose affectionately. "Where are we going?" she asked him when he took her trunk from her, then placed his free arm lazily around her shoulders and started leading her down the platform.

"To the parking lot, so we can go," he told her.

"You drove? Why didn't you just Aparate? It's not like you weren't with me when I got my license," she asked, genuinely confused.

"But then I wouldn't have the fun of showing off my new car and plus I get more time with you to myself before everyone else steals you away."

"Speaking of everyone, where are they? And how did you get stuck with the task of meeting me?" she asked as they strolled down the station platform towards the parking lot.

"Well, I actually volunteered to come get you, although only Merlin knows why," Harry teased her, earning him an elbow to his ribs. "And as far as everyone else, your Mum is cooking, Bill and Fleur are still at work, Charlie doesn't get in until tonight, Percy is watching baby Parker while Penelope does some last minute Christmas shopping, the twins are inventing, and I shudder to think what Ron and Hermione are doing. They have been disappearing a lot since Ron got back from the Auror academy last week." At this thought both of them paused, made identical grimaces, shook their heads in a futile attempt to rid themselves of an unpleasant mental picture, and then continued walking.

When they reached the parking lot, Ginny stopped and let out a low whistle. "This is your new car?"

"Yup," Harry said beaming as he rubbed the hood tenderly, "It's a 1956 Jaguar Roadster. When you come home this summer, I'll have to take you for a ride with the top down," he told her as he loaded up her trunk

"Sounds like a plan to me," Ginny agreed as she sank into the soft leather passenger seat.

"So, how is Quidditch going?" Harry asked as he started up the car.

"Good," Ginny told him. "Although I'm having trouble with my Beaters."

"If you want I can go over some drills that we with you later," Harry offered. "You might be able to use some of it.

"That would be great Harry, thanks."

They continued with easy small talk for a while and as they left the city and drove towards the Burrow, they fell into a comfortable silence.

As Ginny watched the passing countryside, which was blanketed in a field of white, she was thankful that neither of them was acknowledging what had happened the last time they saw each other. She wasn't sure what she was going to do if the topic came up, which she figured it was bound to at one point or another, since according to Witch Weekly, they were still together and the hottest couple of the year. But for now, she was content to put it off and enjoy the ride back to the Burrow.

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The first week of winter holidays went all too quickly for Ginny's taste. Ron was staying at the Burrow while he was home from the Auror Academy, and as a result, Hermione was over so much, she may as well have just been staying there. Harry too spent most of his days at the Burrow, spending time with his three closest friends.

Their days were filled with frolicking in the snow or spending time inside drinking hot cocoa and playing wizards chess or exploding snap by the fire. They all remarked at one point or another that it felt like they had gone back in time. Nobody said anything, but it seemed like all four of them sensed that this was going to be the last winter holiday that they would have like this. It was going to be the last time all four of them were going to be able to act like kids, the last time any of them were going to be able to be this carefree..

Everything went smoothly until the day before Christmas Eve, when Harry announced that he wasn't going to be at Christmas dinner because Phimie, who had just gotten back from vacationing in Mykonos, had invited him to eat with her family, and he had agreed. So, of course, Molly told him to invite her over to the Burrow for Christmas Eve

The next morning, Ginny watched her mother fly around the house like she was even more of a mad woman than she really was, trying to get it ready for the Floo heiress, refusing to have any part in it. She was irritable all day, having no patience for anyone but her little nephew Parker, who at nine months old didn't care who was coming to dinner, and it didn't take long for everyone else in the house to catch on and leave her alone. .

The hours seemed to drag all day and Ginny was constantly checking clocks in different rooms thinking her watch had stopped. She wanted it to be 4:30 already, figuring the sooner this evening started the sooner it would be over. Yet, somehow she was still surprised when she heard the front door open, and heard her mother greeting Harry and his girlfriend downstairs.

She didn't go downstairs right away to greet their guests as she normally would, but instead sat alone in her room, finishing up wrapping Christmas presents. She hoped that maybe if she didn't go downstairs, nobody would notice she was missing and she could go to bed early and pretend this day never happened. Unfortunately, she did not get her wish and someone knocked on her door a few minutes later.

"Come in," Ginny called as she tried to keep the wrapping paper closed with her right foot and left elbow while she ripped off a piece of sellotape so she could tape it down.

Hermione opened the door and stuck her head through. "Your mother asked me to come up and tell you that Harry and Seraphim have arrived, and that she would like you to come down and say hello."

Ginny jerked unconsciously at the heiress's name, causing the tape to spin and wrap around itself, and then around her hair. She growled in frustration, kicking the present across the room (which thankfully wasn't breakable) and started clawing at her hair, trying to get the tape out, but only succeeding in tangling it up further

Hermione rushed into the room when she saw the desperate look on Ginny's face, and gently pulled her hands away from her hair before she could do herself permanent damage.

"Let me do it okay?" Hermione told the redhead softly, who simply nodded in submissive agreement.

"So," Hermione said lightly as she worked on the sellotape, "How much do you wanna bet that Ms. Von Bitch downstairs is going to get everyone's name wrong at least twice tonight?"

Ginny gave a shocked laugh as she looked up at the brunette disbelievingly, "Hermione, I don't think I have ever heard you call someone that before."

Hermione rolled her eyes then raised her voice three octaves, "Oh Harold, have you seen my new purse? It was 500 Galleons and Daddy will be ever so mad at me if I lost it after he bought it for me last week. Heather, have you and Rob really known each other since you were eleven? That's so cute! I can't wear those shoes, they clash with my pedicure! Merlin!" Hermione said, returning to her own voice. "That girl is dumber that a box of rocks!"

By this time Hermione had successfully removed the tape from Ginny's hair, who was laughing so hard that she was clutching her stomach. "Thank goodness I'm not the only one who feels that way," Ginny said as she started to calm down. "I just don't know what Harry sees in her."

"I'll give you a hint," Hermione said sarcastically. "She has two of them and they're between her shoulders and her hips. But what can I say…every guy is entitled to one of those. How else will he appreciate the right girl once he gets her?" Hermione told Ginny as if this wasn't of any great interest to her.

"Well, it's not as if it matters to me who Harry dates," Ginny said defensively, seeing what Hermione was telling her regardless of her breezy attitude towards the situation.

"Of course it doesn't," Hermione readily agreed, "But that doesn't mean we have to like her or that we can't stay up late tonight and make fun of every stupid thing she says and does tonight, right?"

Ginny smiled, "Right."

Ginny managed to play nice for most of the evening, mainly thanks to Hermione, who was almost constantly at her side making snide comment s under her breath and them keeping a running score of how many times she got someone's name wrong. She even managed to not get mad when darling Phimie called her Gina not once, not twice, but three times. And she even managed to smile when she asked her where she got her blouse because, "It is so hard to find good vintage these days." It wasn't until dessert that she finally lost her cool.

It was when they were all sitting in the living room eating pecan pie while Seraphim was sitting on Harry's lap feeding him her pie (since she obviously didn't eat anything that wasn't diet, low fat, low cal, or no sugar) and she started ranting on about how excited her family was to actually meet one of her boyfriends, since she usually didn't bring them around unless she was really serious about them. Ginny watched, silently seething as she fed him another fork full and kissed him lightly and tweaked his nose as he chewed. It was too much for her to take and she loudly spit out her own mouthful of pie back onto the plate, causing everyone to look at her.

"Ginevra Weasley!" Molly admonished, shocked at her behavior.

"Excuse me," Ginny said emotionlessly as she dropped the plate onto the coffee table in front of her. "I'm suddenly not feeling too well, I'm going to bed."

Without another word she walked calmly to the stairs, sprinting once she knew she was out of sight, but not before hearing Phimie mutter, "Well that wasn't very polite."

Once she had reached the sanctuary of her room, she threw herself onto the bed and started crying frustrated tears. She was still sobbing fifteen minutes later when she heard someone come into the room and sit down next to her on her bed. Without looking up she knew it was Hermione.

"I don't care that he is going out with her," she cried into her pillow.

"I know you don't," Hermione said as she ran her hands comfortingly through Ginny's hair.

"I'm not in love with him," she said in between sobs.

"I know you're not."

"I'm a terrible liar," she hiccupped after a moment.

"I know you are," Hermione told her gently as she continued to comfort her until she cried herself to sleep.

A/N Okay...so this is really only the first half of this chapter but it got so long over 6000 words that I decided to cut it into two... I dont think that this is the best chapter I have written but its necessary to drive the plot forward so if this chapter seems a bit transitive that's why, so don't worry there is more to this that you can expect soon...and if it helps the next chapter is the last chapter that we will see darling Phimie...lol...

B/N: Okay, I am soooooooooo sorry. This is completely my fault. ColorOfAngels had this and the next few installments to me ages ago, but I've been inundated with coursework, meetings, twenty page research papers, ignorant people who know nothing more than what the newest display in Chanel is, and mice breeding under the floor in my dorm room. I know none of them really absolve me from the guilt of not having this done before the posting, but I bow down to all of you and ask for forgiveness.