A/N: I must confess I finished this days ago but have been too chicken to post it up. Why? Because I'm scared of your reaction and also I've been trying to figure out a way to write this story without the events of this chapter happening...but there doesn't seem anyway around this.

I feel physically sick after writing this, a combination of nerves, at what you guys will think, and well...why don't you guys read the chapter and find out...the other reason.

Chapter 30 - The Resolution

Ginny stood staring down at the crowds below Allan's store.

People walked together in pairs and in groups, all happily going about their day.

She narrowed her eyes.

'This is wrong.'

She had been standing in the same position, arms crossed and body tense, for the last half hour. She could hear her friends, Lavender and Hermione discuss their plan with Allan behind her. She could tell Allan was uncomfortable with the situation but it seemed Lavender had finally convinced him.

The plan was basically to have Allan treat her badly in front of Harry and Ron. Even though Ron knew about her date with Allan he didn't know the specifics and as Lavender pointed out Ron's reaction would be easier to distinguish from Harry's.

'Harry.'

Ginny felt her eyes sting with the threat of tears.

Just as her thoughts turned once more the dark haired boy she was so obsessed with she saw his figure appear below her. He was walking, hands in his pockets, his face stern as he and Ron made their way to the store. She saw them stop just outside the store and she stepped back when she saw him look up at the window where she stood.

She bumped into Lavender behind her.

"What's wrong?" Lavender asked her.

When Ginny didn't reply, Lavender leant over and peered below.

"Oh, they're here!" she said excitedly spinning around to look at the others.

Ginny remained motionless as Lavender repeated the words Allan was to say to her to trigger Harry's jealousy.

"I'm not really interested in her, I'm just doing Lavender a favour," Allan recited before sighing, "I really don't like this."

"Oh don't get cold feet now," Lavender urged him.

"But…"

"Please," Hermione added, "It's not going to be a real date anyway, as soon as Harry hears you say those words he'll probably…"

"Punch you," Lavender giggled.

"Err…" Allan trailed off staring at Lavender.

"I'm kidding," she said when she saw the alarm on his face.

Ginny slowly moved over to the window again and looked at the boys below.

Ron was talking about something as he dug through his pockets, handing Harry odd little bits and pieces. Harry stood with a smile on his face as he appeared to question Ron on every little item.

"Ginny?"

Hermione stood beside her now.

"Are you ready?" her friend asked her.

She didn't say anything but simply followed the group downstairs.

They now stood behind the counter, but Harry and Ron still hadn't noticed them yet.

"Let's do this," Lavender said grabbing Hermione's arm and walking towards the door.

"No."

Lavender and Hermione stopped instantly. They both turned to stare at her in confusion.

"What?" they both said simultaneously.

"I said – no."

"No? No what?" Lavender asked as she and Hermione stepped towards her.

"I can't - I don't want to do this," she replied.

"Ginny, are you sure?" Hermione asked.

"Yes I'm sure."

"Don't you want to know how he feels about you?" Lavender questioned in disbelief.

"Yes."

Lavender looked at her in confusion.

"Then I don't see the problem."

"The problem is – I don't want to do this," Ginny replied, her arms which were still folded, clenched tightly around her chest.

"Okay," Hermione said slowly.

"But I don't understand," Lavender continued.

Ginny looked past Lavender and saw Harry's smiling face.

"He still sees me as a little kid –"

"But –"

"Let her finish," Hermione said grabbing Lavender's arm.

"He sees me as a little kid, and if I do this then I will be. Playing tricks on him to make him act a certain way…that's something a child would do," Ginny sighed before looking at her friends, "If we ever do get together I want us to be both adults about it, if he cares for me in the same way I care for him then he will tell me…someday."

"And you can wait?" Hermione questioned.

"No," she smiled at her friends, "No one meets their soul mate at sixteen. It's time to move on…and if we really are 'meant to be together', then it will happen. But maybe we're not supposed to be together right now…maybe at this moment I'm not ready and he's not ready…either way I don't want to do this."

"Are you sure?" Lavender questioned her.

"Yes."

"But you'll never know for sure," Lavender continued.

Ginny smiled as she finally realised something.

"I'm okay with that."

Without another word Ginny walked past them and out the doors.

"Ginny!" Harry said in surprise.

"Where's Allan?" Ron questioned.

"Inside," Ginny replied, "We're not going out."

"You're not? What happened?" Harry looked at her in confusion.

"I think I'm just going to be alone for a while," she said before walking away.

She was pretty certain that Harry didn't understand the double meaning in her words but she didn't care. For the first time in a long time she felt free.

"Well…that was unexpected," Ron said.

"Yeah," Harry replied with a thoughtful expression on his face.

"Hello."

Ron turned to see Hermione walk towards him. He leant down to kiss her but she pulled back.

She was blushing as she looked around.

"Not here," she whispered.

Ron rolled his eyes and sighed dramatically.

"As you wish."

Harry laughed and Hermione punched him.

He grabbed her hand and before she could stop him gave her a quick peck on the cheek.

She turned away embarrassed but he saw a smile on her face, at least at first.

"What's wrong?" he asked concerned.

"Huh? Oh…nothing, just thinking about something Ginny said."

"Is she okay?" Harry questioned as the three of them headed down the street.

"I think so," Hermione replied.

"Wasn't Lavender with you?" Harry questioned looking around.

"She's applying for a part time job with Allan," Hermione explained as they stopped to look at some sweets in a shop window.

"Allan has jobs available?" Ron questioned.

"Uh-huh."

'That would solve my money problems,' Ron thought to himself.

He had forgotten how much money he made tutoring and without that constant supply of money he found the funds his parents gave him was hardly enough to buy essentials let alone to take Hermione on a decent date.

"Do you mind if we go back?" Ron questioned.

"You go ahead, I'll be in here," Harry said waving to them before he entered the store.

"Why do you want a job?" Hermione looked at him in confusion.

"I…," he began but couldn't bring himself to explain to her the real reason.

'I hate being poor,' he sighed internally.

He saw Hermione looking at him expectantly.

"Told my parents I'd get a job, and this is convenient as its close to school."

Hermione raised an eyebrow at him.

"How long have we lived together?"

"Umm…almost a whole year now," he answered.

"And do you honestly think that after all that time that I don't know when you are lying to me."

'Yikes. She never noticed before. I guess this is the bad side to being a couple…though the snogging definitely makes up for it.'

"Well?" Hermione interrupted his train of thought.

"Uhh…"

"Forget it," Hermione sighed dropping his hand as they entered the store.

"Don't be mad," he whispered to her as the customers in the store turned to look at them.

"I'm not," she replied, "You go ahead, I'm going to talk to Harry."

Before he could stop her she had walked out the store.

'Bugger, what'd I do now?'

"Ron?"

Ron turned around to see Lavender dressed in her casual clothes but she had one of the blue employee aprons on.

"You look nice," he said chuckling.

She rolled her eyes at him.

"Thanks, that's what Allan said."

"But I'm sure he actually meant it," Ron continued.

"Okay, are you here to torture me with your wit or did you want something?"

"Actually, I wanted to apply for a job."

She stared at him.

"And you're okay with wearing this?"

He shrugged.

"Whatever it takes I guess," he sighed, "I need money to get Hermione a gift."

"Why are you getting her a gift?"

"Our one year anniversary," he blushed.

"Awwww," Lavender batted her eyes at him, "You wuv her."

"Shut it," he grumbled causing Lavender to laugh.

"Okay, come on, I'll take you to Allan."

Hermione watched Lavender and Ron interacting. She knew that they were only friends but seeing them together made her wonder.

'You don't meet your soulmate at sixteen.'

She felt the uneasiness rise from within her.

'Why do I feel this way?'

"Hey," Hermione said when she found Harry in the sweets store.

"Hey, aren't you supposed to be with Ron?"

She shrugged and Harry knew enough to stop asking questions and turned instead on pointing out all the various sweets in the store. Since Hermione was also raised by muggles he was sure she would be as amused as he was by the variety of names and products.

"I'm surprised Allan gave Lavender the job," Harry said thoughtfully as they walked outside to sit on a bench near the sweets store.

"Why's that?" she questioned chewing on some liquorices.

"Well you know…" he trailed off.

"No I don't," she replied.

"I thought girls didn't work," he explained.

Hermione simply stared at him.

"Don't look at me like that, I was raised with muggles, I know about women's rights and stuff like that…it's just from what I've heard from you I though women weren't allowed to work in the wizarding world."

"I guess jobs like shop assistants are okay but just not being the business owner. The real problem is that we don't have a choice to choose top ranking jobs like in politics," Hermione sighed.

"What?"

"I've been so wrapt up in personal rubbish that I forgot who it was I was here for."

"Personal rubbish?"

They both started when they saw Ron standing beside them.

Silence descended on the group. Harry looked at Hermione and waited for her to explain but she didn't. She just sat there looking at Ron.

Harry felt the tension but when he looked up at Ron he saw sadness in his eyes.

"I got the job," Ron replied unenthusiastically.

"That's great!" Harry said happily trying to inject some life into the group.

Another moment of silence enveloped them.

"What'd you buy?" Ron questioned back to his normal tone now.

He sat down beside them and patted Hermione on the head.

"I got you sugar quills," Hermione said looking down at the bag rather than at Ron.

"Thanks," Ron smiled at her taking one from her bag, he gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before placed the sweet into his mouth.

"So where shall we go?" Ron questioned.

'That was weird,' Harry thought to himself as they all decided to go to the Hogshead.

He watched his friends holding hands and walking in front of him.

'What's going on?'

Hermione woke late that morning. Actually she intentionally slept in. She had heard Ron wake her up several times but she simply ignored him. She couldn't face him right now - in fact she found it increasingly uncomfortable to be around him when they were alone.

It wasn't the intimacy she disliked but she felt awkward around him now. As she was musing over what the strange feeling she felt was she heard Ron's voice calling her.

"Good morning," Ron greeted as he walked towards her.

He hugged her and spun her around.

"Stop it," Hermione said in embarrassment as the boys around them laughed, "I'm a guy right now."

"So?"

"So, people will know."

"So?" he repeated a crooked smile on his face.

"It's…embarrassing."

Ron looked at her for a moment before shrugging.

"Come one we're gonna be late for class."

She tried to write down notes from the lecture Professor Binns was giving but she just wasn't in the mood today, instead she chewed absent mindly on a sugar quill Ron had saved for her and simply listened to the Professor talk.

She jolted when she felt Ron's fingers squeeze her own.

She glanced at him and saw him smiling though he wasn't looking at her.

She shook his fingers off moved away from him.

She took up her quill and began writing to ensure that Ron couldn't distract her any further.

When she happened to glance back over at him she saw he had a defeated expression on his face. She would have asked him what was wrong but class had ended and everyone was walking out of the room.

"Ron," she said as she followed Ron out the room.

"Yeah?" he said smiling down at her.

She stared at him.

"As much as I love looking at you too, if we don't move we're really are going to be late," Ron said before ruffling her hair.

'I must have imagined it,' she thought to herself as she followed him down the hall.

Ron loosened his tie and threw it onto his bed. He heard Hermione moving around behind him.

"Packing?" he questioned.

"Yes," she replied softly.

In a few weeks time they would be returning home. And he and Hermione would have to part – for how long he didn't know. He hadn't had a chance to ask her if she was coming back to school with him next year.

He unbuttoned his shirt and let it hang loose.

He turned around and looked at Hermione.

She had just gotten back from Hogwarts Girls so she was still wearing her girls uniform. He watched her arranging her books and clothes into piles.

"I love you."

He saw her drop the books in her hands. They tumbled to the floor noisily.

He closed his eyes and rubbed his face tiredly.

"I'm going to have a shower," he said before walking into the bathroom.

He closed the door behind him and took a moment to regain his composure.

Slowly he walked over to the mirror. He stood staring at his reflection.

"I hate you."

Hermione knelt down to pick up the books but she ended up simply laying down on the floor.

Her whole body was trembling.

"I'm scared," she whispered to herself as she lay on the floor.

'Why do I feel this way?' she wondered to herself.

Over the past few weeks as much as she has loved being with Ron, a part of her was afraid. She didn't understand it at first but she had begun to realise that her feeling of unease was increased every time Ron told her he loved her.

'How do I feel about him? Love seems such a foreign word for me.'

Her parents loved her, and she loved her friends but she didn't understand the kind of love Ron was talking about. It's not something you can just learn from books, so how was she supposed to know that she loved him?

She had asked Lavender how you could tell that you loved someone but that didn't help her at all.

'It's when you know, in your blood, in your bones, that you can't live without that person,' Lavender had said.

'Have you ever loved someone?' Hermione asked.

'I love someone now,' Lavender had smiled.

When she had asked who, Lavender simply shrugged and walked ahead of her into class.

'I don't know what love is…so how can I say those words back to Ron?'

But what's worse is that Ron hasn't pressured her for an answer. When he says those words she knows that he is just telling her how he feels but sometimes when he looks at her, when they are simply doing nothing but reading together or cuddled together on the bed she feels his eyes on her. It unnerves her. She knows that he wants her to say it back – say anything, rather than just stay silent.

'But I can't…"

"Are you alright?"

Hermione gasped in surprise when she looked up to see Ron standing beside her.

He watched her for a moment. She looked away from his stare, from his sad thoughtful eyes.

"Fine," she replied.

He didn't say anything but she saw him stack her books back into a pile before returning to his side of the room.

'I'm sorry, but I can't…not until I know for sure.'

Ron suddenly turned around to look at her, almost as though he had heard her speak those words aloud. She quickly looked away and absentmindedly looked through the books beside her.

"Goodnight," she heard him say before the curtains around his bed closed.

"Night," she replied.

Ron lay awake for hours staring at the canopy above his bed.

He could feel it inside of him. He should be scared of it but he wasn't. He welcomed it. It was uncontrollable, all consuming and powerful.

He lay in bed that night relishing in the darkness.

"This is yours."

Hermione looked up just in time to see Ron throw something at her, she caught it in time and looked down at the object in her hand.

"You finished it?" she said in surprise as she looked at the new watch in her hands, "When?"

"Last night," Ron replied.

She looked up at him. She had heard him tossing and turning in his bed last night and she saw the dark bags under his eyes but she didn't say anything.

"You got Girls classes first?" he asked her as he fixed his tie.

"Yep," she replied putting the watch on her wrist.

"Okay, then I'll see you in DADA," he said kissing her quickly before walking out the door.

She touched her fingers to her lips.

She felt a jolt on her arm. She looked down and saw that she was about to be late for class.

She grabbed her bag and ran down the secret passageway.

Neville ran down the hall to class. He was late for DADA but luckily Professor Sprout had written him a note to give to their new teacher. He threw the bag of seeds in his school bag and caught his breath just as he approached the classroom. He was just walking down the stairs to the classroom when he heard a noise. He turned just in time to see Draco dragging John off into a room. There was no one else in the hallway except for him and he didn't like the look on Draco's eyes.

He began to make his way towards the room when he was suddenly pushed aside. He hit his head against the stone wall but he did make out Ron's figure running ahead of him.

He must have blacked out for a moment because the next thing he knew a piercing scream echoed down the halls.

When he was able to stand he saw a bloody and unconscious Draco being levitated past him by Professor McGonnagal. There were now students walking out their classrooms to look but a few them ran back into their classrooms and he didn't wonder at their fear.

Neville felt a shiver run up his spine when Ron walked past him.

Ron was covered in blood, his white school shirt now a deep red colour. Ron's face however was completely emotionless.

Neville watched his friend pass him in shock.

The students around them whispered amongst themselves and he heard words like 'Auror' and 'Azkaban', but that didn't make any sense.

"Neville?"

Neville looked away from Ron to find Harry standing beside him.

"Come with me."

Without a word Neville followed Harry. When they reached the door Harry stopped and turned to look at him.

"Wait here a moment."

Neville nodded and waited patiently outside the room.

"Okay, come in…but don't talk too loud or make any sudden movements."

Neville looked at his friend in confusion before he stepped inside.

What he found shocked him.

There on the floor was John rocking back and forth.

He had a large cloak on covering him but he could see that John was holding his torn clothes together. He was also shaking violently and tears streamed down his face.

"Are you okay?" he questioned knelling beside him.

He shrunk away from him and instead huddled into a ball as he began to sob.

"We're going to move you now," Harry said to John before turning to look at Neville.

"Help me," Harry said and without a word Neville grabbed one of John's arms and helped the sobbing boy up.

After Harry checked the halls were empty of students, he and Neville helped John towards Dumbledore's office.

They walked in silence until they stopped outside Dumbledore's office where they met Professor McGonnagal.

"Help Mr Granger in here then you can go," McGonnagal said as the boys walked into Dumbledore's office.

Neville and Harry did as they were told and after placing John down in a seat in front of Dumbledore's table, he noticed Ron standing nearby. Dumbledore was talking to Ron with the strangest expression on the his face. Neville felt Harry nudge him and he realised that he was staring at Ron's face. His friend had bruishes on his face and neck, but his hands - they were caked with blood but Neville could see the numerous cuts on them.

"Thank you boys."

Neville glanced once more at Ron before he and Harry left the room. The two of them walked in silence until they had almost reached the Gryffindor Tower.

"What happened?" Neville finally asked his friend.

Harry was silent for a moment and Neville saw that he was rubbing the dry blood off his hands.

"Harry?"

"I...don't...know..."

A/N: In case anyone didn't know already, most of my chapters are named after songs, usually the songs I listen to while I write the chapters. This depressing chapter was inspired by Jack's Mannequin's 'The Resolution'. Here's the lyrics:

There's a lot that I don't know
There's a lot that I'm still learning
But I think I'm letting go
To find my body is still burning
And you hold me down
And you got me living in the past
Come on and pick me up
Somebody clear the wreckage from the blast

And I'm alive
And I don't need a witness
To know that I survived
I'm not looking for forgiveness
I just need light
I need light in the dark as I search for the resolution

And the bars are finally closed
So I try living in the moment
'Til the moment it just froze
And I felt sick and so alone
I can hear the sound
Of your voice still ringing in my ear
I'm going underground
But you'll find me anywhere I feel

That I'm alive
And I don't need a witness
To know that I survived
I'm not looking for forgiveness
I just need light
I need light in the dark as I search for the resolution
I need light in the dark as I search for the resolution

You hold me down
You hold me down
I'm alive
And I don't need a witness
To know that I survived
I'm not looking for forgiveness

I'm alive
And I don't need a witness
To know that I survived
I'm not looking for forgiveness
I just need light
I need light in the dark as I search for the resolution
I need light in the dark as I search for the resolution
I need light, I need light

And the link if you wanna listen (replace the _ with fullstops for the link to work): youtube_com/watch?v=qMsSKKsLak8

But anyway about this chapter. I fear that a lot of you will be upset that there's no snogging and that Ron/Hermione's romance appears to be seriously messed up right now but as much as it pains me to see our beloved couple in pain this really is necessary. For me at least I think that this is important for both the characters development, especially Hermione's. And I'm sorry for those expecting fluff any time soon but that is quite a few chapters away, all I can say is that you won't be sorry for sticking with me until the end (only a few more chapters to go). As always I appreaciate all your words of encouragement and love. I will work hard on the next chapter so you won't be in suspense too long cause I'm sure alot of you are thinking 'WTF woman?! Tell me what happened in that room!'.