Hey guys, long time no see. No worries. It's here. Finally. Go read it already. Hit the review button too if you have any comments, good or bad. :)

Thanks to all who have reviewed and everything else. I've felt guilty that I've been so inactive on this. :D So here's the result of my guilt. Couldn't bear it any longer.

*prepared for some hardcore spanking for this*

Do it. I deserve it.

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Hermione startled when she saw Ginny. This was exactly what she didn't want to happen right now. She'd rather gone straight to bed.

"Where have you been?" Ginny asked with strict tone in her voice that reminded Hermione of Mrs. Weasley when the twins had again done something inappropriate.

"I was out for a little walk," Hermione answered hesitatingly, not knowing for sure how long Ginny had been awake waiting for her.

"Little walk? Merlin knows how many hours you've been on this little walk of yours," she said, clearly a bit amused by this vague answer. "Any specific location or just wandering around?"

"Just out there, nowhere and everywhere, why does it concern you?" Hermione hoped the earlier tears hadn't left her eyes burning red and gave her away.

"Well I'm not as daft as my brothers, I know when something is wrong with you, and you've been acting quite strange for a while now. "

"That's just uh… well, there's a lot going on. With Harry and all I I've got some trouble getting sleep so I go out to clear my head a little bit," Hermione lied.

"Nonsense. You went out to meet someone, didn't you?"

"Why'd you think that?" Hermione felt a bit nervous.

"Well it's quite obvious, you look like a train wreck, which really makes no sense if you think you were only out for a little walk. And why'd you put on your favourite pair of jeans and that nice-looking t-shirt that you weren't wearing earlier today just for a little walk?" Ginny had clearly done her homework.

"Ok, Nancy Drew, you got me. I met someone, but still I'd rather not talk about it," Hermione said, giving up on making more lies that she hadn't quite thought through.

"Who's Nancy Drew?"

"Oh, never mind. I just want to get to sleep."

"Not before you tell me who'd you meet and why this late at night, makes me think it was someone special and something hmm… you-know-what happened. And then something went badly wrong and that's why you look like crap right now," redhead was clearly on to something. "And if you decide not to tell me, which wouldn't be such a wise thing to do, I'll just ask around if someone else knows something about this thing of yours."

Hermione could swear she saw a mischievous grin spread across Ginny's face.

"Fine. I give up. Just promise you won't freak out or anything."

"Why would I freak out, is he that infamous?"

"Uh, well, first of all, it's a she," Hermione said slightly cautious.

"A girl. I see," she said. There was a short silence and Ginny looked thoughtful for a moment and continued, " Well, isn't this going to be more interesting than I thought."

"So no freaking out about my sexuality and stuff like that? It's completely ok with you that I prefer the prettier gender? Not freaked out that I've been sleeping in the same room with you all these years? Though I have to say I have never thought about you that way, just so you know. You've been more like a sister I never had to me."

"Aren't you daft, Hermione? You really don't know me at all after all these years if you think I'd honestly freak out about something as trivial as this. Besides it's not that big of a deal in the wizarding world. Maybe with Malfoy and that sort, but they're so messed up anyways so you shouldn't care about what they think about it."

"Oh, wow. I had no idea. Well thanks for the support, wasn't really expecting anything like this," Hermione felt quite relieved. She was grateful now, and changed her pajamas back on. Quickly got under the covers and closed her eyes. She had to open them though when Ginny hopped on her bed and sat there arms crossed and pouting.

"And you think I'd let you off that easily? Well… Who is it?" she grinned again and had a curious look on her face.

"Well, it's really nothing. We're not even dating anymore or anything serious," Hermione muffled the words against the pillow.

"Anymore? So it used to be serious and something happened. Hmm… Do I know her?"

"Well, I suppose you've heard of her. "

"So, who is it? That girl from Ravenclaw, I heard someone talk about her and she seems to be pretty gay," Ginny started guessing.

"Uh, who? No. Not anyone from Ravenclaw."

"Oh come on, I'll keep guessing until I get it right, you could just tell me and save me the trouble," Ginny begged.

Hermione took a deep breath and whispered very quietly as if the walls had ears too. Which in that house wasn't such an absurd thing to worry about especially after the twins came up with the Extendable Ears, "Fleur Delacour."

Ginny's eyes popped out and jaw dropped on the floor. "YOU'RE GOING OUT WITH FLEUR?!"

Hermione sprung up on the bed and covered Ginny's mouth, " Oh for christ's sake keep it down, won't you?!" Ginny nodded and Hermione let go.

"But… That's like… not that bad at all. That's something to be envious about. I don't even like girls that way but Fleur's just… wow. Nice catch, Hermione."

"Just please don't talk about it like it's some sort of trophy or something, makes it even worse. And like I said, we're not going out anymore. Both of us are very single at the moment, but still…" Hermione's voice cracked and she couldn't hold back the tears anymore.

She let it all out, told Ginny the whole story and how it ended up as it had. They stayed up all night talking about it and Hermione felt a bit better now that it wasn't such a big secret anymore and she had someone to cover up on her so she could sneak out easier if she had to.

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Next morning they went down for breakfast and it was pretty empty, only the Weasleys and Sirius around. Bill also showed up for breakfast and Hermione tried her best not to even look at his direction.

"So dear brother of ours we happened to hear some wild rumours about you and some fine French girl we know," Fred teased his older brother. George demonstrated something unmistakably resembling serious mooching. Bill just grinned widely but said nothing. Hermione changed glances with Ginny who just shrugged her shoulders on it.

"Already took her on a ride, haven't you?" George said and winked at him.

Hermione stood up and headed upstairs.

"What's up with her?" Ron asked, perplexed.

"Just can't stand it when you talk down on women like they're all like some cheap…"

"Ok, enough you all," Mrs. Weasley interrupted before it got nastier. "I don't think Bill's personal life concerns anyone of you," she added with a kind smile on Bill's direction.

Ginny also got up and left the table, "I'm not really that hungry, thanks for the breakfast, mum."

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She found Hermione upstairs in their room, sitting on the bed lost in her thoughts.

"Hey, you ok?"

"Uh, yeah. Just didn't feel like staying to hear any more of that," she replied quietly.

"They were just fooling around like usual. I'm sure it's nothing."

"Well, I'd think so too if it wasn't for the conversation we had yesterday with her. I'm not so sure actually what's going on between those two."

"I'm sure there's nothing going on, and if you're so unsure about it why don't you just go ask her. I bet you're worrying about it for nothing." Ginny gave Hermione an encouraging smile.

"You're right, maybe I should. I'll go tonight, will you cover up for me if someone notices I'm not around?"

"Sure, I'll figure out something."

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Hermione stood outside the building where Fleur lived, nervous for some reason. She hesitated about the whole confronting Fleur with the issue thing, but shrugged the feeling off and went in the hallway. Feeling relatively better about it already, thinking she was worrying for nothing she knocked on her door. It had only been less than 24 hours since they saw each other but it felt like eternity already. Took Fleur a while to get the door, maybe she was already asleep, Hermione thought. She felt actually quite stupid bothering her about something like this, just when they had discussed about it earlier.

Fleur opened the door and looked slightly surprised to see Hermione standing there. There was a clear view to the couch from the doorway, Fleur realized it too and tried quickly to stand in front of the way. Too late, Hermione's smile had already faded and her expression turned to hurt and anger. Bill was there, sitting on the couch and there was a firewhiskey bottle half empty on the floor.

"It is not 'ow…" Fleur managed to start her sentence.

"Well, I see how it is," Hermione cut her off, anger rushing through her veins, "but as I think I made a bit too clear for you yesterday, you're free to fuck anyone you wish to. Just thought you'd be more subtle about it and not take it so… literally."

Fleur felt like her pride had been offended, accusing her of something she hadn't even thought about doing. "Well, for your information, we 'aven't…" but Hermione cut her off again.

"I don't care what you have to say for yourself. Should've known better how it is with you and men, why did I even bother coming up here? Of course you'd be here with him, I just thought you'd have some decency to wait a bit longer before you acted."

"Decency?! Excuse moi, 'Ermione, I don't know what is going through your deranged 'ead but zis 'as nothing to do of what you just said. You think I sleep wiz every man I meet?!"

"I don't care. I don't want to hear any excuses. I think I've seen enough. Do as you please, it's not really any of my business anymore, is it?"

"Zat's true, it is not."

"I'm clearly interrupting something, so I'd better get going then. I think you've played with my feelings long enough. Goodbye." Hermione turned and ran off, not stopping even when Fleur called after her. She kept running until her legs gave up and she crashed on the pavement.

She didn't have any idea where she had ended up to nor did she even care where she was. All she could focus on was the feeling inside of her. Like her heart was stabbed repeatedly , something trying to pull it off from her chest. Every inch of her body shaking with anger and disappointment she just experienced. She had no idea how long she'd been there kneeling on the ground, silent and unable to cry any more than she already had. As the sun rose from the horizon and turned everything in bright orange Hermione kept staring on the ground and swore in her mind a million times she would never ever fall in love again. There was no other kind of pain she had experienced in her life that would've felt anything close to what she was feeling right at that moment.

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Oh god, I'm sooooooo sorry for this superlate update. I'll blame it on life, I suddenly had for a moment. Back to no-life mode now, except for work but that's nothing to worry about. This is actually something I enjoy doing, writing. So I guess I'll get back to it now since it felt like something was missing from my life for some time now.

And it's not gonna get better for H/F for a while, following the books to certain extent. So much I can fit between the lines in the actual original story that it'd be stupid to change the tracks at this point. But the ending will differ from what happened in the books. I was quite unsatisfied with the ending after all. Gah. No offense but the last chapter "xx years after" almost made me puke my insides out. Otherwise the last book couldn't have been any better. I did really enjoy it as a whole and though there were some minor things that in my opinion didn't get the closure I was hoping for it was still amazing how JK had really thought about the plot from the very beginning.

I'm also quite pissed how they postponed the schedule for the next movie. Though I prefer books way over the movies, there are some scenes I'm dying to see on screen. With my luck they never put them in the movie but it's worth the wait anyways. :)

Let me know if I lost the touch on this story, or whatever thoughts you have on it. Reviews are my only reason to keep on going. Well, posting these out at least. I don't think I'd quit writing though…