"Have you given any more thought to coming with me to this party?" Harry persisted the next morning at breakfast.
"No,"
"Please Ginny, maybe even just as friends,"
"No,"
"Ginny..." He threw her a very hurt look and walked off, his shoulders high and tense.
It was later on her way to Potions that Ginny was stopped by Ron.
"Come on, just go with him, he's beginning to bug all of us now,"
"Why should I?"
"Because you are my sister and I will owe you one?"
She tipped her head to one side, regarding him.
"How about, you have to do all my homework for a month?"
"Ginny, that's ridiculous; you know I would only get you really bad marks,"
"Not if Hermione helps you,"
"Fine," He sighed heavily.
"She said she'd go with you," Ron whispered to Harry in Charms, whilst trying to get a disobedient pillow to cartwheel.
"Really?" Harry's face lit up, he was delighted.
"Yeah, but just as friends, OK?"
"Uhuh, right, whatever,"
"Don't get any ideas,"
"Yeah, OK,"
"Seriously, I helped fix this up for you but don't try anything or I swear I will curse you mate,"
Harry turned to Ron and with the utmost solemnity stated, "I will not try anything,"
"Good, just checking,"
********
"What made you change your mind?" Hermione asked Ginny a few days later when they were getting ready for the party. She put down her hairbrush and stared at her curiously. Ginny ignored the stare, and continued applying her mascara.
"Ron persuaded me,"
"Right, not because you have any feelings for Harry?"
Ginny threw her such a look of horror she laughed.
"Maybe not then,"
"Who are you going with then?"
"Ron," Hermione made a face and Ginny giggled.
"Oh well, we can always leave early I suppose."
"Sounds like a plan to me,"
They went downstairs together and linked arms with their respective partners. Harry looked admiringly at Ginny.
"You look amazing," He said.
"Thanks," She said awkwardly, glancing down at her green dress.
They entered the room, one of the old classrooms, hung with lights and swathes of cloth so it appeared more like the inside of a tent. Ginny was admiring the decorations when she heard Malfoy's self satisfied laugh, and she hurried after Harry, not wanting another confrontation. He nodded towards a table of refreshments.
"Would you like a drink?"
"Um, yes actually, that would be lovely," She said, scouring the crowd for Malfoy. As Harry walked off, she spotted him, goblet in hand, standing with a group of his friends, a blond girl hanging off his arm.
She moved further away from him, trying to find Hermione when she walked straight into someone.
"Sorry," She mumbled distractedly. She looked up, smiling apologetically... and froze.
It was Blaise.