A/N: I am so, so sorry about how long it took to get this chapter out. There were several complications with the site that made me and my beta, the amazing Reverse Lucky Girl, unable to send files back and forth. But we have triumphed at last, and here's chapter 12! The next chapter is in progress, but coming along slowly. I'll have it done as soon as my muse is permitting.
A GIGANTIC thank you to Reverse Lucky Girl for beta-ing!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. JKR does, as far as I know.

"He's not really yours yet," Ginny told Eleanor, and smiled convincingly. "Trust me, just give him this. He'll be captured for just enough time for him to fall in love with you, enough that you won't need any more of the potion. I made it myself to help you, you know, and I can assure you that there's nothing wrong with it at all."

Ginny had been so furious at Parkinson and Zabini when they'd given her the bad love potion, but she could see now how it would have been so convenient for them to do so. You tell the person that the love potion's for their beloved and is keyed to the person, they administer the potion, and poof! All your work is done for you. It wasn't as though the damage Zabini and Parkinson had done was irreparable, either. While Ginny had meant to make and administer that lust potion to Zabini herself, whoever had stolen her notes had apparently done that themselves. That had broken up Malfoy and Harry's friendship.

Now, the only thing left was to administer her own potion that she had brewed herself, through Eleanor Bradshaw.

Eleanor hesitated, wrapping her scarf more tightly around her neck as she shivered in the wind gusting through their alleyway. "I don't know..." she murmured, and eyed the potion.

Ginny remembered eying Parksinson and Zabini's potion in just the same fashion.

"Come on," Ginny smiled more sweetly. "I'm a seventh year, do you really think I could screw up something as simple as a love potion?"

"Those Slytherins, uh, Parkinson and Zabini, they're eighth years, and they poisoned Harry with theirs." The big eyes behind the monster glasses blinked up at her.

"That's only a rumor. Besides, they're Slytherins," Ginny let her disgust for them show through. "They're stupid anyway, no matter how experienced they claim to be."

"Well..." Eleanor watched the bottle as Ginny shifted it in her fingers. "I suppose that as long as you're sure you didn't mess anything up at all, it could hardly hurt."

"Exactly," Ginny crooned softly, and plopped the bottle into Eleanor's gloved hand. "Just pour a few drops into his drink, and he'll fall in love in seconds."

Eleanor nodded nervously, and quickly shoved the bottle into a coat pocket. She lifted her left arm, pulling back her coat to glance at the small watch.

"I've got to go meet Harry now. So..." She smiled innocently up at Ginny. "Thank you, Ginny. Thanks for the potion, and the help, and everything. I'll-I'll try to make it up to you, I promise."

Ginny flapped a hand. "Oh, don't worry about it, Eleanor, there's really no need. It'll be enough for me to just see that you and Harry are happy together."

Ginny smiled again, and fluttered a hand towards the Three Broomsticks. "Go have fun on your date now! Don't forget my directions."

Eleanor happily nodded to Ginny, and scrambled off towards the pub, no doubt hoping that Harry wouldn't have been kept waiting for her.

Ginny giggled, and watched as Harry and Eleanor arrived outside the Three Broomsticks at the same moment.

Harry graciously opened the door for Eleanor, and slipped inside afterward.

Ginny waited a few minutes in the alley, then slowly began to inch towards the Three Broomsticks, lest she miss the moment Harry took a drink of the love potion and rid himself of that little mouse. The expression on Eleanor's face would surely be of most extraordinary hilarious shock as she realized her gullibility and the common trickery she had so easily fallen prey to.

"Ginny!"

Ginny spun towards the other end of Hogsmeade, setting a humble and confused expression upon her face. "Ron?"

Ron bent down and supported his weight on his knees as he caught his breath for a few seconds. He looked up at her, and Ginny silently appraised his expression. He was angry, most certainly, perhaps a bit surprised and shocked, and maybe even a dash of disgust mixed in there. Definitely worried and tired, having run all the way here for something.

Ginny cursed a bit in her head, and prayed that her idea of what he may have run here for, and called her name for, was something like him wanting to save him from the evil grasp of Zabini.

"Ginny," Ron breathed again, and stared desperately at her. "You- Harry- Zabini- What- What were you doing a second ago?"

Ginny raised an eyebrow, pretending she had no idea what he was trying to ask. "What are you talking about, Ron? Harry's with his new girlfriend, I was going to get some butterbeer in the Three Broomsticks, and you were supposedly with Zabini, weren't you? Where'd he go?"

"He's still at the Shrieking Shack, I think. Gin, he said that you were working on giving Harry another love potion, and that you were the one that gave him the potion Hermione and Parkinson are looking for."

Ginny laughed. "Oh, come on, Ron. He's a Slytherin; you can't honestly say you trusted a Slytherin, can you?"

"He sounded..." Ron considered for a second. "Okay, he didn't sound serious. That bloke seldom does. But I don't think he was lying. What were you doing a second ago?"

"I was giving Harry's new girlfriend, Eleanor, tips for dealing with him," Ginny shrugged. "That's it, Ron. She just left to meet up with Harry." Ginny paused, and her brow furrowed a little as she stared up at Ron. "Wait, did you say I gave Zabini the potion or whatever that Hermione and Parkinson are looking for? I didn't do that."

Ron blinked. "I thought your argument was that you hadn't done either of them."

Ginny flushed. "Of course I didn't. But I meant to make a potion exactly like the one Zabini was given. My notes disappeared the day before I was going to begin making it, along with all of my sources. I thought I'd lost them, but then the same effect as the potion I'd been researching took place. I decided that it would be too much work to redo all of that work."

Ron rocked on his heels. "So you made the love potion for Harry instead?"

"No." Ginny bit the inside of her lip the tiniest fraction. "I didn't do either. But I would have given Zabini that potion." She frowned. "And it was administered anyway."

"Mr. and Miss Weasel! How's your little chat going?"

Ginny and Ron both turned towards the road in the direction of the Shrieking Shack, and Zabini bounded towards them.

Ron stomped forward angrily. "You said that Ginny was the person administering a love potion right now, and who gave you the potion. She says that her notes were stolen before she could make the potion to give you."

Zabini sighed. "I thought we might be able to talk normally before jumping into our potion talk. But see, Weasel, while she probably, and correct me if I'm wrong in my assumption, while she probably denied both actions, she obviously denied giving me the potion most adamantly. Therefore, we can conclude that she did that one less than she did the other. That she focused solely on proving her innocence on one matter makes it probable that she has little proof against the other, and takes little offense at being implicated in committing it."

He paused and drew a deep breath before continuing. "So she has administered the love potion, as we can tell from her being so adamant about not having given me the potion. Because of her stronger denial on that matter, we can guess that she participated not at all, or at least less, in giving me the other potion."

"Or maybe your accusation was wrong."

"Or maybe you just don't want to admit that your sister is a criminal."

"Why did you say that she did both things, when you knew she only did the love potion?"

"I knew?" Zabini threw back his head dramatically and placed his right hand over his heart. "Then why, pray tell, would I have told you she did both? Obviously I believed she did both, or I would have told you otherwise."

Ron squinted at him. "You didn't seem to be surprised when I told you that she did only one of the things."

"My dear Gryffindor, I am a Slytherin. Of course I did not seem to be surprised. Slytherins are often surprised, it is just impossible to tell when."

"You stupid Slythe-"

"Ginny! I love you!"

Zabini suddenly looked slightly amused, and Ron spun angrily towards the Three Broomsticks. Ginny turned as well, with a sly smile that gave Ron a sinking, disappointed feeling. He would have much preferred to prove Zabini completely wrong.

Ginny smiled at Harry as he raced out from the bar, a tearful Eleanor trudging behind.

"Thank you, Harry," Ginny simpered.

Ron felt a heavy gaze on him, and he turned back to Zabini with a sigh.

Zabini smiled cheerfully. "What do you say, Weasel? Proof enough that she's a manipulative little girl?"

Ron looked away. "I don't see any proof saying she's guilty of anything, Zabini."

"Come on, Weasel. Potter's trailing after her like you trail after Granger when she's holding steak. Your two vices, right there."

Ron glanced back at Zabini, furrowing his eyebrows. "What?"

"Longing for no logical reason. Obviously, the love potion was for her, not brewed by Eleanor for Eleanor. And I doubt that it was brewed by Eleanor for Ginny, as that would make little sense." Zabini's gaze popped over Ron's shoulder, and at the store behind him. "Oh, look, Pansy and Granger have heard the ruckus and are wondering what it happens to be about. Pansy dear! Hello."

Parkinson strode up to Zabini, each Mary Jane shoe flatly stomping on the ground. "Up to the castle. Now. I don't know what you did."

"Why, Pansy, I didn't do anything! The Weaselette got Potter trippy with a love potion."

"Oh, I'm sure that's what happened." Parkinson yanked Zabini's arm upwards, and began pulling him roughly away.

Ron was glad that he had Hermione, who ventured to physical force less often than Parkinson seemingly did.

"Draco Malfoy!" Parkinson screamed, and several alarmed faces began to peer out through the dust-shadowed store windows. "Draco, come up to the castle! Blaise did something bad! I don't know what yet, but Potter's in love with the Weaslette all the sudden."

Hermione stalked past Ron, nudging him as she passed, and put a hand on Parkinson's shoulder. "Pansy, shush up. We do not want the entire school running out here to see Harry!" She whispered.

Parkinson dryly glanced over her shoulder. "I need to get Draco. He should know what's going on."

"I heard, Pansy." Malfoy slouched up to her, raising an eyebrow at Zabini. "Your date with Weasley."

"It ended quickly."

Malfoy nodded slightly. "I can imagine. Did it start with him pushing you off a cliff, or end with him pushing you off a cliff?"

"I never, believe it or not, was pushed off a cliff, stunning as it may be. Though, speaking of stunning, there were a few nasty threats about curses thrown in there somewhere."

Malfoy shrugged, and turned to Parkinson, tired eyes regarding her quietly. "Are we going to the castle to figure out what he did, then? Or elsewhere?"

Parkinson replied something quietly, as Hermione backed up until she was even with Ron. "Ron, what happened?" She muttered quietly.

Ron shrugged. "Well, Zabini told me that Ginny did everything, and so I asked her, and then Harry came out and started proclaiming his love for Ginny."

"Do you know the love potion Ginny used?"

"Hermione..." Ron growled. "I don't think Ginny did it. I-no, I don't know. Merlin, Zabini's confusing. All this stuff about her denying both, but denying one more than the other, and how that means she did the other thing she didn't deny as much, and yet he told me about them."

Hermione sighed. "Ronald, learn to at least remember the conversation clearly, if you cannot understand the conversation."

"No, I remember it! It was just like that, I swear, Hermione! Zabini's insane!"

Hermione stepped forward a few paces, and tapped Parkinson's shoulder as the Slytherins began their departure. "Pansy, let me know the results of your inquiries with Blaise, okay? Ron can't tell me what he said, let alone interpret it."

"Of course." With a slightly amused glance sent towards Hermione and Ron, Pansy continued toward the castle, her hand still holding Zabini's tightly.

"But Ginny! You don't understand! I love you! I will write poems about moonlight and stars and similes and comparisons all night long, just for you!"

Ginny looked slightly disconcerted.