A/N So the last chapter ended on a pretty dark note, but the good thing about that is that it can only go up from here...Also this is the biggest time jump that will ever take place for this story (this time jump has been planned since the beginning stages of this story, its not because I'm lazy) and you will figure out why that is fairly quickly into the chapter...Also, there's not a lot of action in this chapter, it is more introspective and a look at how our characters are looking at life at this point in their lives.

"So then I thought that we could have low center pieces that are under lit with tea lights so that they are elegant, but people can still talk to each other over them," Hermione told Ginny as she flipped through bridal magazines. "But I still haven't decided if I want a sweetheart table for just the two of us or if I want a banquet table for the whole bridal party. What do you think?" Hermione asked the redhead. After a moment of getting no response she looked up to see that Ginny was staring intently at her own ring finger on her left hand and the extraordinary rock that was perched there. "And then I thought after the stripper jumps out of the wedding cake, we could turn on the strobe lights and all do the hokey pokey."

"Wait...what?" Ginny asked snapping out of her day dreams.

"Ginny, I know that ring is beautiful and believe me, if I was wearing that thing I wouldn't be able to take my eyes off of it either, but I'm getting married first and I really need my maid of honor's help to plan this thing," Hermione told her gently.

"I'm sorry Hermione, you're right. I think I'm just tired and having trouble concentrating."

Hermione glanced at the clock and was surprised at how late it was, "Well no wonder you're tired, it's almost one in the morning. Go home Ginny and apologize to your fiancé for me for keeping you out so late. Fiancé, I still can't believe that we are both so lucky to be engaged to such great guys "

"I know, and will do," Ginny replied with a half hearted smile as she started to gather up her things. She wasn't really that tired, but she didn't want to stay here listening to Hermione debate between off white, cream or eggshell as the color for the linens either. "Tell Ron bye for me, I would tell him myself but he is probably already asleep."

"I sure will," Hermione told her, as she gave her soon to be sister in law a hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Come by tomorrow and we can start looking at flowers."

Ginny just smiled and Disapparated away. When she reappeared in the hallway in front of her front door, she took great care to be quiet, hoping that she wouldn't rouse the sleeping occupant, if he was in fact asleep. When she walked into the entry she saw the light was on in the living room, but she new that meant nothing since he always left the light on for her on nights she came home late.

The penthouse was quiet so she wandered into the kitchen to make her customary cup of tea before she went to sleep. She couldn't help but smile to herself when she saw the kettle full of water, her favorite mug, and a note sitting on the kitchen counter waiting for her. She read the note as she turned on the stove and placed the already full kettle on the burner.

Hey You!

I was going to wait up for you, but I have an early practice tomorrow, so I'm going to bed now since I don't know how long Hermione is going to hold you captive going over all that wedding stuff. But on the bight side of things, at least you will be an expert when it comes time to plan our wedding right? As you probably already figured out (since you always have been the smart one in this relationship), I got all your tea stuff ready for you. So hurry up and drink it and come to bed because I don't dream as sweet when you're not here beside me.

Love you lots and lots,

Me

Ginny was staring at the ring that she was still not used to wearing when the kettle whistled signaling its completion. Hermione was right, she realized as she poured the boiling water into her mug, she was staring it a lot, but not for the reasons she assumed. She was still trying to convince herself that she was engaged, here she was, twenty years old, with still another year at the Healer Academy to finish, engaged to one of the best Seekers in not only the league, but the world. She knew she shouldn't be surprised, after all, where was she expecting this relationship to be going? They had been together for over three years and living together for almost a year and a half. And it had all led her to this, here she was wearing the ring that had earned itself its own two page spread in Witch Weekly getting itself the title of engagement ring of the year.

To be perfectly honest with herself she didn't even really like it that much, she mused as she sipped her tea. It was a six and a half caret emerald cut canary diamond, flanked by a three caret emerald cut diamonds which were then flanked by smaller baguets. In other words it couldn't be more wrong for her. If someone had asked, her least favorite cut was the emerald cut and she hated baguets, she preferred a classic stone to the colored even though they are more rare and expensive and the thing was just to darn big. The ring was so big it was almost vulgar and it completely weighed down her petite hand.

She stopped staring at her hand when she felt some excited wiggling at her feet. A genuine smile spread across her face as she bent under the table in order to pet an excited Jack, who had obviously just realized she was home.

"Hey there baby," Ginny said scratching his favorite spot just behind his right ear. "What are you sitting on?" Ginny asked the Crup who had the corner of a magazine poking out from under him.

Gently pushing him aside she pulled the latest copy of Witch Weekly out from under his bum. She wasn't surprised to see the cover dedicated to Harry and his latest wench of week, as she secretly called his long lost of girlfriends, and her engagement to Mauricio. It seemed to her that all the big steps in her relationship with him coincided with one of Harry's new girlfriends.

She met Mauricio after Serephim Von Burr, they made it official after Lizette Monaghan, she brought him home to meet her parents after Alexia Davis, she agreed to spend the holidays with his family after Brigetta Bergouin, she told him that she loved him a day after Harry started dating Ella Lorena, she slept with him shortly after the arrival of Kelley Tran, she didn't agree to move in with him until Melanie Hampton, and it wasn't until almost two weeks after the initial proposal, that Ginny gave Mauricio a definitive answer, just mere hours after the announcement of this new girls arrival. And those were just the girls Harry had been exclusive with.

If she had bothered to stop and examine this pattern of behavior on her part, several things would be exceedingly clear. Perhaps she was simply pretending, or perhaps she was in real denial, but Ginny never thought about the connection that their love lives seemed to have. Every time Harry, who seemed to be terrified of commitment, changed girls, she just held onto her relationship tighter.

She continued to sip on her tea as she flipped through the magazine to find the cover story. When she found it, she had to admit that this new girl, Amber Hess, an up and coming singer who promised to be bigger than the Weird Sisters, was beautiful, but that wasn't a surprise, all of them were.

As she read the article she suddenly became aware that she was pulling on the chain that always resided around her neck. She pulled the charm out from under her shirt and rubbed the lighting bolt between her fingers contemplating what it meant and why she still wore it.

"Oh Harry," she sighed to herself, "what happened to us?"

Ever since that fight they had over three years ago, their friendship had never been quite the same, it seemed as if an invisible wall had been placed between them. One manifestation of that had been in their traditional birthday outings. Three years ago had seen them awkwardly going through the motions, each of them playing their part as the best friend but without any real heart in it, two years ago they didn't even attempt to spend the whole day together and just met for lunch, which was the last time that either of them had seen each other and talked to each other outside of Weasley functions as last year it had deteriorated to an owl expressing his apologies for canceling saying that he had practice and they would get together soon, a meeting of course, that never happened.

Even now, when they ended up at the same parties, which happened a lot since they both ran in the same Quidditch circles, both of them made a point to avoid the other and it seemed that one of them would always end up leaving early before they were forced into some kind of interaction.

But still Ginny found herself unable to take the charm off, it was as if she physically couldn't and on top of that she didn't really want to. Seeming able to sense something amiss, Mauricio often asked her about it and even bought her other necklaces in hope that she would replace it, but she simply told him that she liked the one she had and refused to satisfy his curiosity any further.

A part of her felt bad for refusing to tell Mauricio about the charm and the meaning she attached to it. After all they were getting married and he loved her and she him...she did love him right? Thoughts like these had been plaguing her more frequently of late and she couldn't really explain them.

By all accounts she should love Mauricio, he most certainly did love her. In fact he worshiped her, adoring her to the point that Ginny sometimes didn't know what she did to deserve such a loving and attentive boyfriend and now fiancé. She certainly was fond of him and enjoyed spending time with him, but she knew deep down in her heart that she didn't and could probably never love him with the same depth and passion that he bestowed upon her.

She had been perfectly happy and content in the relationship this far and was not sure where all these doubts that had suddenly begun plaguing her, came from. She did love him in her own way and she had always known that Mauricio loved her more that she loved him. In fact if she was going to be completely honest with herself, she liked it that way because it was safe. If he loved her more, than she was in the power position and there was a smaller risk of her getting hurt.

She knew that there was a thousand girls on the planet that would love to be her, that would die to be her. She was a lucky girl, everyone told her so, from people who stopped her on the street, to the writers in all the magazines and papers, to even her mother and best friend. It was the general consensus that she was a lucky, lucky girl.

Ginny took one last large swallow of her tea, draining the cup and stood up to place it in the sink before heading to her bedroom. She watched Mauricio sleep as she undressed quietly to avoid waking him as she got ready for bed.

But now the stakes had been raised, marriage was now on the table. Was a marriage with someone that she knew she didn't love with all her heart, worth playing it safe?

And on top of everything else Ron and Hermione's wedding was approaching and she had all her maid of honor duties to fulfill, which meant that soon she was going to have to start interacting with best man on a regular basis. This best man being the one and only Harry James Potter, and this interaction took the form of dance lessons.

Hermione, perfectionist and control freak as always, wanted to control every aspect of her wedding and this included dancing and she insisted that she and Ron take dance lessons. Ron however, was not too keen on this and the only way that he was persuaded to do it was if he had someone to suffer with. This translated into Hermione forcing Harry into taking the lessons too and since as the best man he would be dancing with the maid of honor, Ginny had somehow been recruited as well.

Ginny didn't know quite how this happened but all she knew was that for the next three months she would be taking dance lessons twice a week with a man she used to consider her best friend, but hadn't even seen since Christmas at the Burrow.

She slipped between the covers and nestled into her pillow her mind still racing when Mauricio, who was still asleep, unconsciously reached out for her and pulled her close, as if even in sleep he wanted to be close to her and protect her.

And lessons began on Monday.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Harry sat back and set his feet up on the coffee table at his new girlfriend, Amber's, flat. Having just finished dinner they were sitting in the living room, he was watching a movie on TV (Amber was muggleborn) and she was flipping through an old copy of Witch Weekly.

"That is one amazing ring," Amber mentioned, stopping to read a particular article.

"What ring?" Harry asked not taking his eyes off the TV as he grabbed a handful of popcorn despite the fact that they had just finished eating.

"Ginny Weasley's engagement ring from Mauricio Giona," she told him, causing Harry to choke on a popcorn kernel making him scramble for his glass of water. Not realizing what caused Harry to have this reaction, Amber continued to speak, "She is one lucky girl. I don't think that there is a woman on the planet who wouldn't want a ring like that."

Once Harry started breathing again, he took another sip of water and behind his glass, and asked as nonchalantly as he could, "So Ginny got engaged?"

"Yup, two weeks ago. According to this article, he was really romantic about it too. He brought her to his hometown in Italy and took her out on his yacht for the night and when she woke up in the morning he had filled the entire room, from wall to wall, with white lilies which are her favorite flowers and he was in the middle of flowers with the ring. What a lucky lucky girl."

"Blue hydrangeas," he muttered under his breath.

"What?" Amber asked looking up from the magazine for the first time.

"What?" Harry said back, unaware that she had heard him.

"What about blue hydrangeas?"

"They're her favorite flower, the article is wrong. Ginny's favorite flowers are blue hydrangeas not white lilies. She liked white lilies until she turned twelve and found out they were the symbol of death and she didn't like that, so she searched through horticulture and herbology books for weeks until she picked a new favorite flower that she felt was pretty and had a meaning that she liked and hydrangeas mean perseverance," Harry said, looking not at her but through her.

Amber looked at her boyfriend as if seeing him for the first time. She had known him for months even though she had only been his girlfriend for a few weeks and she had never seen him look like this before. The Harry she had known was always light hearted and never seemed to take anything seriously. He loved life and always wanted to have fun and never worried about anything. Nothing ever seemed to worry or bother him and he seemed impenetrable. Everything and anything negative simply rolled off his back. He was eternally self assured and confident and nothing seemed to affect him.

But now looking at him, she couldn't see anything of the Harry she had thought she knew so well. Suddenly she realized she didn't know this Harry at all. He was a little bit pale, but besides that he looked so serious and pensive. He was completely lost in thought and looked as if he was in another world. He seemed so vulnerable and contemplative and she didn't know what to say, a part of her almost felt like she was intruding on something.

"How do you know that?" Amber asked.

"She told me once," Harry replied simply.

"I know that she is Ron's sister, but I didn't know that you know her so well. You hang out with him all the time, but I've never even heard you talk about her," Amber mentioned, curious about his sudden shift of mood.

"Yes, I knew her very well. In fact she used to be my best friend, but that was a long time ago," he said softly.

"Knew her...used to be...what happened?"

"I ruined everything."

"What so you mean," she continued to pry. Harry had never opened up to her before and she didn't want him to stop now.

"I was an ass and said things and did things that I never should have and was to much of a git to admit I was wrong and then missed every opportunity I had to set things right. I missed a lot of opportunities to do a lot of things."

"You loved her didn't you? And you still do."

"What?" Harry asked her snapping out of his trance, looking at her like he just realized she was still in the room. "Why would you say that?"

"Well you are talking about missed opportunities and you aren't taking the news that she is engaged very well and for heavens sake you know the girl's favorite flower and the story of how and why the picked it."

Harry didn't say anything.

"So do you love her?"

"No," Harry said determinedly, setting his glass back on the coffee table.

"I don't believe you," Amber challenged.

"I said I don't love her!" Harry snapped. "Now would you just drop it."

Amber was shocked into silence by his outburst as she had rarely seen him irritated let alone angry and never directed at her. He hadn't even raised his voice but the look in his eyes was something she never wanted to see again. It was the first time that she realized that this was the man who had defeated Voldemort.

Harry closed his eyes for a few moments while Amber watched him and when he opened them she saw the Harry she knew was back. He didn't speak on his out burst so she didn't either and they went back to watching TV. It was another half an hour before Harry broke the silence.

"Hey Amber?" Harry said as he stood, "I think I'm going to head home now."

"I thought you were going to spend the night," she said, as she too stood.

"Yeah, well I'm tired and I have a lot to do tomorrow," he lied.

"Okay," Amber said, knowing he was leaving because of her, "so will I see you tomorrow?"

"Umm, I don't know, I'll give you a call tomorrow," he told her as he gave her a distracted kiss on the cheek and was out the door before she could respond.

He opted to walk home to his flat instead of Apparating or Flooing as he normally would, needing the time and fresh air to think.

ENGAGED his mind was screaming at him over and over again. He knew they were together for the past three years and they were serious, but marriage? It just seemed so permanent, so final, so forever. He just couldn't believe it, and to him of all people.

If there was one person that Harry despised, it was Mauricio Giona. The whole wizarding world knew of the professional rivalry considering that Harry was considered the number one seeker in the league and Mauricio was considered number two. In fact in his three years as seeker for Puddlemere he had only failed to catch the snitch once and that was to Giona. The memory of it still burned as did the memory of watching Ginny give him a congratulatory kiss afterwards and seeing them walk away hand in hand.

Ginny, that was the other reason that he hated him, the reason the world didn't know. In his mind the deterioration of his relationship of directly linked to her relationship with Mauricio. If he was going to be honest with himself, he knew that the only person he could blame was himself but it was easier to hate Giona for his problems.

But as much as he hated Giona, he hated himself because he knew that he was the reason that they even met and he was the one that drove her to him and that was something he couldn't forget. Every time he saw them in the papers together as they were so often, probably only second to him and his relationships, he was reminded of that fact.

And the thing that made him hate Giona the most was the fact that he didn't really have a reason to hate him at all. By all accounts Mauricio was wonderful to Ginny, even Hermione and Ron, who he often tried to get information about their relationship from, had to reluctantly admit that he was a great boyfriend to her and that they genuinely liked the guy.

So while he was alone in his flat, wanting nothing more than to talk to Ginny, all he could think about was how happy she was without him in her life and how easily she moved on. It was usually when these thoughts plagued him more than normal that he went out to find a new girlfriend. A relationship brought her happiness, why couldn't it do the same for him?

So the more unhappy he became, the happier he acted and the more he went out and partied and the more he went out with different girls. He had become a great actor and no one, not even Ron and Hermione, could tell something was amiss. He had a feeling that Ginny might have been able to see through it, so he just avoided speaking to her when ever they did end up in the parties, that she often accompanied Giona too, or at Weasley functions.

But now, she was engaged and by some twist of fate he wasn't going to be able to avoid her any more. No, he was going to be forced into contact verbal and physical, because somehow, he still didn't know exactly how it happened, he had agreed to dance lessons for Ron and Hermione's wedding, and his partner was to be the one and only Ginny Weasley.

When he had finally reached his building he gave a cursory nod to the doorman and his hand went to the charm that lay under his shirt.

And lessons began next week.

A/N So what do you think? This chapter is written in a bit of a different style then what I usually write so let me know...I promise this is the last sad chapter...at least for a while because they can only go up from here...This chapter was our favorite couple miserable apart, but what will happen when they get together...the next chapter is already written so give me lots of incentive to update soon...