Disclaimer: Unfortunately, my name isn't J. K. Rowling...which means that I own nothing. While you guys read, I'll go cry in a corner about the fact that I didn't create this marvelous world and these amazing characters.

I only returned to my dormitory that night at midnight. The Fat Lady was already asleep and needless to say, she was very cranky at being woken up. I was lucky that no one was up late doing homework as I entered the common room.

I skipped a shower, thinking I would just take one tomorrow morning as I slipped on some comfy pajamas. I closed my curtains around my bed and snuggled deep into my crimson blankets.

I was in the Room of Hidden Things again. I was kneeling on the cold stone floor beside Draco and I knew without looking that the dead body of Astoria was tossed carelessly on the floor behind us.

Voldemort, as pale and snake-like as ever, stood in front of us holding a small glass bottle filled with what looked like mead. Suddenly, he swooped down with his thin fingered hand and grasped a handful of Draco's blonde hair.

I tried to move or to scream but I found that I couldn't move anything. I was stuck—immobilized—as Voldemort yanked back Draco's head and poured the contents of the bottle into his protesting mouth.

Immediately, Draco slumped to the floor and started convulsing. He was foaming at the mouth as his body shook and shuddered against the stone floor. I was suddenly able to move and I threw myself down at Draco's side.

"No!" I yelled. I shook his already trembling body. "Don't die! No, you can't die!"

His body stilled in my arms as I muffled my screams in his shirt. His body was suddenly wrenched from me by Voldemort who proceeded to throw his limp body next to Astoria.

"Your turn to join him," Voldemort said, his voice as smooth as silk.

"No, no, no, no," I chanted, scrambling away from him as fast as I could. I felt my back hit something and I knew I was a goner as soon as he raised his wand.

I woke up gasping for breath. My blankets were thrown off my body and tangled in my legs. I could feel a cold sweat trickling over my skin and down my neck. With shaking hands, I pulled back my hangings to make sure I hadn't woken anyone this time around.

Everyone was sleeping soundly to my relief.

I slid from my bed and padded to the window. Pink streaks could be found in the rapidly lightening blue sky. I had only been sleeping for a couple of hours at the most if it was only dawn. I sighed and decided to take a shower. I knew I wasn't going back to sleep and I was scared that if I did, I would have another Voldemort related nightmare.

"You look like hell," commented Astoria at breakfast.

I wearily rubbed my eyes. "I just didn't sleep well."

Astoria, Draco, Blaise and I were seated at the far end of the Slytherin table, far away from the others. I had no problem sitting at the Slytherin table since Ron was only going to be released from the Hospital Wing in three days time.

"You haven't even worked on the Vanishing Cabinet that long and you already resemble the rest of us," mused Draco.

I shot him a dirty look. I knew I looked like crap this morning. My lack of sleep coupled with my nightmare gave me shadowed eyes and a peaky complexion. "I haven't been sleeping well, that's all."

"You know, if you're having nightmares, you can always crawl into bed with me. I'm sure I can find a way to comfort you," purred Draco.

Blaise elbowed Draco. "Why would she want to crawl into bed with you? Everyone knows that I'm the guy to climb into bed with at this school."

I rolled my eyes. "As flattering as those offers are, I think I'm okay in my own bed."

"Well my offer still stands," drawled Draco.

"Mine as well," said Blaise. "Let the Weasley climb into the best man's bed."

"You two are pigs," I scoffed, pushing away from the table.

"Where are you going?" asked Astoria. She was trying to stifle her giggles at the boys.

"To visit Ron," I said. "I'll meet you outside the Room of Requirement same time tonight."

The next day dawned the Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff Quidditch game. I left Evanna and Florence still sleeping and made my way down to breakfast with Hermione.

"Where's Harry?" I asked, pulling a bowl of cereal towards me.

"He went to visit Ron," said Hermione.

I noticed that when Ron started a relationship with Lavender Brown, Hermione became very frosty towards him. After he was poisoned and as he slowly healed in the Hospital Wing, I observed a renewal in their friendship. The only thing I could attribute it to was that Hermione had feelings for Ron that she wasn't ready to examine just yet.

"I think if we win this match, it'll be a miracle," I mused.

"Why's that?"

"Have you seen McLaggen!? It's like he thinks he's Captain or something."

Hermione smiled sheepishly down at her plate of eggs. "I can't believe I went to Slughorn's Christmas Party with him! He didn't ask me one question about myself. Instead, he treated me to A Hundred Great Saves Made by Cormac McLaggen."

"You should have just taken a guy friend," I pointed out, pushing away my empty bowl.

Hermione eyed me pointedly. "My only two guy friends are Harry and Ron. Ron was probably busy was Lavender and Harry was going with Luna."

"I'm glad he took her," I said. "She was really excited."

Hermione pushed away her plate and grabbed her scarf. "Let's go. C'mon, I'll walk down to the pitch with you."

I grabbed my broom from the seat beside me and Hermione and I joined the throng of students heading for the pitch. When we neared the changing rooms, Hermione wished me good luck and continued up to the stands with the crowd.

Everyone was in the change room already—dressed in their scarlet Quidditch robes—except for Harry. Since Katie wasn't back from St. Mungo's yet, Dean was still playing Chaser while McLaggen replaced Ron as Keeper.

I still hadn't broken up with Dean despite my promise to Draco that I would do it soon. I made excuses for why I hadn't done it yet, like how Ron had been poisoned or I didn't want to mess up the Quidditch team. I knew I was quickly running out of excuses but I figured I still had time since Draco hadn't asked me about Dean yet. I didn't know why I was hesitating to break it off.

So it was uncomfortably that I sat down beside Dean and let him put his arm around me. If he felt that my body was rigid, he never let on. He just continued on with his hushed conversation with Peakes while I tried to tune out McLaggen.

"This looks like it will be a good game, team," announced McLaggen bracingly. "With my Keeping abilities, we should be able to sweep the pitch with those Hufflepuffs…."

"Have you seen Harry?" I asked Demelza under my breath as McLaggen continued giving a speech no one was listening to. I now knew why Peakes and Dean were whispering to each other.

She shook her head. "No but if he isn't here fast, he'll be late for the match."

"I wonder what could be holding him up?"

"I think he said he was going to stop in and visit Ron before the match," said Coote from the other side of Demelza.

Five minutes later, Harry came dashing into the change room.

"Where have you been?" I demanded as he grabbed his Quidditch robes and yanked them over his head.

The rest of the team immediately lined up at the doors that led to pitch but I stayed back to question Harry.

"I met Malfoy," he replied.

"So?"

"So I wanted to know how come he's up at the castle with a couple of girlfriends while everyone else is down here…"

I stomach plummeted. Did Harry know about the Vanishing Cabinet? And what did he mean girlfriends? I had no right to be angry since I was the one with a boyfriend but it still stung a bit. I knew Draco had insinuated that he saw other girls but I always thought he was joking. I shook my head and tried to focus on this Quidditch game.

"Does it matter right now?"

"Well, I'm not likely to find out, am I?" Harry said irritably. He seized his Firebolt and pushed his glasses higher on his nose. "Come on then!"

Without another word, he marched out onto to the pitch with the rest of us behind him to deafening cheers and boos.

There was little wind; the clouds were patchy; every now and then there were flashes of bright sunlight.

"Tricky conditions!" McLaggen said bracingly to us. "Coote, Peakes, you'll want to fly out of the sun, so they don't see you coming—"

"I'm the Captain, McLaggen, shut up giving them instructions," said Harry, anger coloring his voice. "Just get up by the goal posts!"

Once McLaggen had marched off, Harry turned to the rest of us and gestured to Coote and Peakes.

"Make sure you do fly out of the sun," he said, sounding rather grudgingly.

We all moved into formation as Harry stepped forward to shake hands with the Hufflepuff Captain. Then, on Madam Hooch's whistle, we all rose in the air—Harry higher than the rest of us—and I completely forgot how annoyed I was with Harry for being late as I concentrated on the game.

The prat Zacharias Smith from Hufflepuff immediately took possession of the Quaffle and I flew right alongside him, just waiting for the moment to snatch the Quaffle.

"And that's Smith of Hufflepuff with the Quaffle," said a dreamy voice, echoing over the ground. "He did the commentary last time, of course, and Ginny Weasley flew into him, I think probably on purpose—looked like it. Smith was being quite rude about Gryffindor, I expect he regrets that now he's playing them—oh look, he's lost the Quaffle, Ginny took it from him, I do like her, she's a very nice person…"

I had indeed managed to seize the Quaffle from Smith during Luna's commentary. I quickly wheeled around and passed to Demelza. I kept even with her across the pitch as we both flew towards the Hufflepuff goal posts.

She tossed the Quaffle to me over a Hufflepuff Chaser's head; I caught it, and rolled in midair on my broom to avoid a Bludger. I was distracted by the Bludger and Cadwallader from Hufflepuff was able to knock me hard enough that I lost my grip and he grabbed the Quaffle.

"But now that big Hufflepuff player's got the Quaffle from her, I can't remember his name, it's something like Bibble—no, Buggins—"

"It's Cadwallader!" yelled Professor McGonagall from beside Luna. The crowd laughed.

Moments later, Cadwallader scored. McLaggen had been too busy shouting at me for allowing the Quaffle out of my possession, with the result that he had not noticed the large red ball soaring past his right ear.

I took possession of the Quaffle again and as I zoomed away from our goal posts, I heard Harry yelling at McLaggen.

"McLaggen, will you pay attention to what you're supposed to be doing and leave everyone else alone!"

"You're not setting a great example!" McLaggen shouted back.

"And Harry Potter's now having an argument with his Keeper," announced Luna serenely, while both Hufflepuffs and Slytherins below in the crowd cheered and jeered. "I don't think that'll help him find the Snitch, but maybe it's a clever ruse…"

The game was fast paced and I had to admit that the Hufflepuff players were good. Demelza and I both managed to score a goal apiece but Cadwallader scored again, making things even. Unfortunately, Luna did not seem to have noticed. She appeared singularly uninterested in such mundane things as the score, and kept attempting to draw the crowd's attention to such things as interestingly shaped clouds and the possibility that Zacharias Smith, who had so far failed to maintain possession of the Quaffle for longer than a minutes, was suffering from something called 'Loser's Lurgy.'

Finally, Professor McGonagall had enough and she grabbed Luna's megaphone. "Seventy-forty to Hufflepuff!"

"Is it, already?" said Luna vaguely. "Oh, look! The Gryffindor Keeper's got hold of the Beater's bats."

I was tailing Cadwallader but I spared myself a glance forward to see what Luna meant. Sure enough, McLaggen had pulled Peake's bat from him and appeared to be demonstrating how to hit a Bludger towards the oncoming Cadwallader.

"Will you give him back his bat and get back to the goalposts!" Harry roared, pelting towards McLaggen just as McLaggen took a ferocious swipe at a Bludger and mishit it.

With horror, I watched as McLaggen's stolen Beater's bat made contact with Harry's head. With a sickening crack, Harry slid off his broom. Luckily, Coote and Peakes quickly flew forward and grasped Harry's unconscious body. They flew to the ground, laid Harry down, and zoomed back up. Despite Harry being out of commission, we still had to play.

I quickly grabbed the Quaffle after Cadwallader scored again and tossed to Demelza. I had no notion that we would win this game without our Seeker but I knew Harry would be angry with us if we didn't try.

Demelza and I both managed to score two more times giving us a score of sixty but McLaggen was the worst Keeper I had ever seen. Every shot that the Hufflepuffs made, McLaggen let in.

I was kind of happy when the Hufflepuff Seeker finally caught the Snitch after avoiding it so Hufflepuffs had a high score. Madam Hooch rushed forward to take care of Harry while I stomped into the change room with my broom on my shoulder, ready to give McLaggen hell.

"Well team, that was our worst game yet!" said McLaggen, striding into the change room. "None of you were trying your hardest."

Demelza's voice was eerie calm. "What?"

"Well look at Ginny at the beginning of the game. You could have easily kept Cadwallader from taking the Quaffle from you!"

I lurched forward—murder on my mind—but both Demelza and Dean grabbed my arms to hold me back. McLaggen took a nervous step back.

"I suggest you get out of here before I manage to shake these two off," I growled.

McLaggen eyed me shrewdly before turning to Peakes. "If you knew how to actually hit a Bludger, I wouldn't have had to show you and Potter could have caught the Snitch before we lost too badly!"

I didn't see it coming. One second, McLaggen was bellowing until he was red in the face and the next, he was on all flours clutching his now bleeding nose. I looked up at Peakes to see him shaking out his hand.

Dean and Demelza let go of me and the entire team proceeded to change out of our Quidditch robes as we pretended that McLaggen wasn't there. As we were leaving as a team, McLaggen got up.

"Wait until Potter hears about this! You, Peakes, will be off the team faster than you can say Flobberworm!"

I was madder at McLaggen that I had ever been. For my own vindictive pleasure and for his punishment, I launched forward and punched McLaggen in his already bleeding nose. "Have fun with that McLaggen. I'm sure Harry can't wait to hear you trying to get Peakes kicked off."

The team must have been as mad as I was because we all left McLaggen on the floor in the change room.

"Good hit," commented Peakes, gesturing to the hand I was now shaking out.

I grinned. "Thanks. With six older brothers, I learned to fight the muggle way."

As we entered the Entrance Hall, I veered off towards the Hospital Wing.

"Where you going Ginny?" asked Demelza.

"I'm going to see Ron and tell him how the game went. If Harry's awake, I guess I'll give him the bad news."

Demelza smiled. "Good luck."

Harry and Ron both left the Hospital Wing first thing on Monday, restored to full healthy by the ministrations of Madam Pomfrey. While the Golden Trio was happily back together, I was spending more and more time in the Room of Hidden Things.

So far Draco and I had no luck and he was starting to get frustrated. Astoria joined us most of the time but she was getting a lot of detentions since she spent her study time now looking up any information about Vanishing Cabinets. Draco had to serve a few detentions from an assortment of teachers while I also was getting a lot more detentions than I was used too.

My homework started to pile higher and higher until Florence and Hermione took pity on me. Florence thought my now always tired appearance was because of my constant nightmares. I would sometimes wake screaming which would wake the whole dormitory. Hermione probably knew about my nightmares from Florence so she grudgingly helped Florence help me do my homework the little time I was in the Common Room.

I pondered the idea of asking Hermione what she knew about Vanishing Cabinets but I figured it wasn't safe since she would most likely tell Harry I asked. Draco told me that he had a feeling he was being followed all time and he swore that Harry seemed to have gained some weird obsession with him. I had a feeling that Harry—nosy as he was—knew that Draco was up to something and he wanted to figure out what it was.

"Look, let's just step away from the Vanishing Cabinet for a night and take a break," I said, resting my palm on Draco's tensed arm. At my touch, he relaxed into the lumpy cushions of the couch we always sat at in the Room of Hidden Things.

"And what do you have in mind?" he asked, gaining back some of his usually swagger and quirking his eyebrows suggestively at me.

I hit him on the shoulder. "Not that. I meant that maybe we should both go do homework or something. Take our mind off the cabinet for a while, you know."

Draco suddenly straightened up with a grin. "Let's go to the Slytherin common room."

I eyed him with a smirk. "Are you an idiot? I'm a Gryffindor. I'm not allowed in there."

Draco grabbed my hand and pulled me up. "C'mon. Blaise and Astoria are there. I'm with you so there won't be a problem."

I pulled my hand back. "I don't think this is a good idea."

"Is the lion too scared to enter the nest of serpents?" he taunted.

"I'm not scared."

"Good. Let's go then."

Draco led me through the corridors, down into the dungeons and only stopped at a blank stretch of wall.

"Facta, non verba," he stated confidently to the wall.

The wall suddenly slid open, revealing the door to the Slytherin common room. Draco eyed me with a smirk so I shot him an evil glare and marched into the den of serpents with Draco at my back.

The Slytherin common room was a long, low underground room with rough stone walls and ceiling from which round, greenish lamps were hanging on chains. A fire was crackling merrily under an elaborately carved mantelpiece ahead of me, and several Slytherins were silhouetted around it in high-backed chairs and plush couches.

"What's she doing here!?" screeched Pansy from the cluster of Slytherins.

"She's a guest," drawled Draco, ushering me into a seat next to Blaise and then taking up the empty seat on the other side of me. "Do you have a problem with that?"

"Of course I have a problem with it! She's a Gryffindor!"

"No one said you have to sit here with her," said Blaise. He threw his arm around my shoulders and pulled me against his side.

I shoved him away with a giggle. "Stop doing that."

"Why?" purred Blaise. "It's how I show my affection."

Pansy made gagging noises and only stopped when Astoria threw her an extremely evil glare. "No one asked you to sit with us."

"I was here before her! And she shouldn't even be in here!"

"We just want to have a nice evening Parkinson," drawled Draco. "If you're going to make it otherwise, you should leave."

Pansy opened her mouth to retort but a sharp jab in the ribs from Daphne shut her up.

"So guess what happened to me today," said Zane, breaking the silence.

"No one wants to hear what girl you shagged," yawned Astoria.

"It's not who I shagged. It's who I caught shagging."

Astoria leaned forward in interest, a smile playing at her lips. "Who?"

"I caught Terence Higgs with Viola Richmond in that always empty classroom on fourth floor this afternoon."

"Where they snogging or shagging?" asked Daphne.

"Defintiely shagging."

I turned to Draco. "Terence Higgs was Seeker on the Slytherin Quidditch team before you joined, right?" I asked, trying to put a face to a name.

"Yeah, that's him. Why?"

I tried to hide my blush. "He's kind of cute."

"Ginny!" laughed Astoria.

"Shut up," I said, grinning. "At least I didn't think Adrian Pucey was good looking!"

"You said you wouldn't tell anyone!" yelled Astoria over roars of laughter.

It was definitely one of my most fun evenings this school year. We talked and bantered with one another—often insulting each other—but I learned that insulting each other was what Slytherins often did and it was always in jest. I was actually reluctant to leave when curfew came around since I had enjoyed the Slytherins company more than I was enjoying most Gryffindors at the moment.

I knew I was changing but I had yet to figure out if it was for the better or not yet.

Review! Review! Review!

My goal is to have 35 reviews on my story before the end of the month. It's up to you guys to make my dream come true. Anyways, here's another chapter and I really hope you like it. I know it's slow going but if you stick with it, I promise it will get good soon. Make sure you review and tell me what you think.

I have to ask...does anyone watch Criminal Minds? If you don't, you should because Spencer Reid is amazingly awesome. Sorry, I just had to get that out there :P