Disclaimer: I own nothing from the world of Harry Potter, they belong to a certain Ms. Rowling.
Thanks to my betas ReadingRobyn and No_Hugs_Peach!

Ginny Weasley pulled her light red hair through an elastic ponytail. She sighed and leaned back in her seat on the train. She yawned and stretched her arms, worried about how her appearance would be after her nap. She grabbed her bag, opening the pocket that held her compact and her tube of mascara. She quickly powered her nose and cheeks and swiped the black liquid over her eyelashes. She hadn't always worn makeup, but recently she'd started obsessing over her appearance. Recently, a lot of things had changed about Ginny Weasley.

"Ginny? Oh good, you're awake," Luna whispered, sliding in the compartment and plopping down on the seat across from her.

Ginny nodded, forcing a smile. "Hi Luna."

"Hi." Luna grabbed her issue of The Quibbler and furiously paged through it. As much and Ginny had tried coaxing her otherwise, Luna still insisted on reading it upside-down. Even though she attempted to get Luna to conform, she quietly admired her friend's strength to do things just the way she wanted.

"Here, look at this." Luna thrust the magazine in Ginny's face. Ginny sighed and took the magazine from Luna's hands, flipping it upright and trying not to laugh.

"Horoscopes? Since when does your father publish this kind of stuff?" Ginny giggled and handed the magazine back to Luna.

"No!" Luna rolled her eyes and flipped the magazine back upside-down. "I'm a Capricorn and I'm going to encounter a wizard suffering from amnesia near the end of the month. He will most likely be lonely and want some sort of a friendship, be open," she read with a confirmative nod. She placed it on her lap and folded her hands in a very matter of fact way.

Ginny nodded and rested her head on the wall. "That's great Luna. What's mine?"

"You will…" Luna started and her gaze grew sympathetic. Ginny felt her heartbeat quicken as she saw Luna's sad face. She thought for a second that it might be about Harry, as stupid as that was.

"Oh dear you're going to get a bad case of the chicken pox and mix it in with some sort of creature bite. You poor thing! I'll be sure to make you soup. My father always makes me soup when that happens."

Ginny smiled at Luna, she had grown used to her saying outlandish things like that. Luna tucked the magazine in her bag and pulled her legs up onto the seat. She grinned at Ginny and cocked her bright blonde head to one side.

"Why are you wearing makeup?"

Ginny instinctively touched her face and glanced at her bag. "I don't know…does it look that bad?"

Luna shook her head. "No, it doesn't look bad. But makeup is what girls with no faces wear. Or mermaid's who've suddenly sprouted legs but need to cover the scales." She glanced suspiciously at Ginny's bare legs.

"I'm not a mermaid, and I have a face. I just want to look…"

"Powdered?"

"Perfect." Ginny pulled her hair out of the elastic, only to put it up once more. She twisted a strand of hair that hung in front of her eyes, not looking at the always inquisitive Luna.

"Why perfect? You've always been pretty, perfect seems boring. Not to mention completely unobtainable." Luna tossed her almost white hair over her shoulder, still smiling. "But I'm going to go find Neville; he said something about Trevor that I found curious."

Ginny shrugged and waved to her, smiling at Hermione as she entered the compartment just as Luna slipped out. "All right, I'll talk to you later."

Hermione tucked several locks of loosely curled hair behind her ears. Ginny couldn't help but remember the bush her hair used to be. As Hermione grew older her hair became tamable and her overbearing ways become more compliant. Ginny thought of Hermione as being her closet friend, the one person she could actually talk to and confide in. Growing up in a house full of boys, it was nice to finally have someone she could almost consider a sister.

"Hey Gin," Hermione plopped herself down next to Ginny. 'Gin' was the nickname Harry and Ron had come up for her after they first tried the muggle drink. Ginny hated it and refused to drink anymore of the stuff that tasted like a pine tree after taking a tiny sip, instantly coining the name.

Ginny groaned, closing her eyes. "You know I hate that stuff."

"Good, you hate you. Always healthy."

"Hermione," Ginny opened one eye, glaring at her. "I cannot believe you'd actually call me something my brother created."

Hermione shrugged. "It's clever really, I like it."

"You like calling me a name that's the same name as an alcoholic beverage which caused my brother, Ronald, to attempt to stick his tongue down your throat. You actually think that's clever? It's the first three letters of my name, it's unoriginal," Ginny furrowed her brow, frowning at Hermione who grinned.

"Yes, I do think it's clever," She rested her head on the wall of the compartment. "And you'll have to remember that I kissed Ron too."

"Yeah, I was trying to forget about that." Ginny pulled her knees up to her chest, placing her chin on top of them. "What do you see in my brother anyway?"

Hermione shrugged, her small smile not faltering. "Probably the same thing you see in Harry."

Ginny instantly sucked in her breath and closed her eyes, hearing Hermione do the same.

"Gin…" But Ginny shook her head to keep her quiet.

After Dumbledore's funeral when Harry had broken their relationship off Ginny had pretended that things were all right. She kept on going, never addressing the ache that lingered in her heart and never allowing herself to be sad. That summer, when Hermione was visiting and Harry came along unexpectedly, Ginny had experienced her first panic attack. Hermione was the only one who knew about Ginny's unfaltering feelings for Harry and how the way he ended the relationship had damaged her.

She couldn't help it. She wanted to be able to control herself and put a constraint on things and not feel like she was going to choke on her thoughts at each moment of each day. She wanted to be able to be normal around him and might even be friends with him, but the way she felt about him made that impossible in any way shape or form.

After closing her eyes and breathing deep for a few moments she opened them again and smiled weakly at Hermione. "I'm all right."

Hermione pursed her lips skeptically. "Are you sure?"

Ginny nodded reassuringly. "Yeah, I am. Let's talk about something else."

"Ginny…you know you can't avoid him. You do sort of attend the same school."

"Thanks, I got that," Ginny snapped.

Hermione blinked, only the look in her big doe eyes showed the flinch she felt at Ginny's harsh tone, but she brushed it aside and shook her head. "All right, I think we've stopped. Share a carriage with me?"

Ginny nodded and followed Hermione off the train, looking at her shoes and no one else. She breathed in sharply as the cold night air rushed over her warm face. She hadn't realized how hot she had been inside the train. She was suddenly glad for the thick material her mother had used to make her new robes. Only Hermione and Mrs. Weasley had noticed the few pounds she had shed over the summer, though a few pounds on her already tiny frame looked like a lot more.

"This one, come on Gin!" Hermione called as she pulled herself into one of the carriages.

Ginny nodded and followed Hermione to the carriage and plopped into the cushy carriage seat. She smiled at Hermione and her brother until she noticed the green eyes next to Ron. She stared into them for a few moments of shock, she couldn't help it.

"Hey," Harry said quietly.

"I didn't think you'd be back," she whispered, her brown eyes instantly shooting to the carriage floor.

She saw his foot scuff the carpet. She instantly withdrew her feet underneath the carriage seat. She didn't want to accidently touch him, she wasn't sure if she'd be able to contain the tears if she did.

"I figured a diploma of some sort would be good," He laughed and brushed it aside, clearly wanting to leave the matter at that.

She nodded weakly, leaning her head against the cool window. "I think I'm just going to sleep."

"Gin, it's only a half hour ride to the castle," Ron said laughing.

Ginny quickly glared at Ron. "That's a half hour more than I have now then, isn't it."

She shut her eyes tight, knowing there was no way she could possibly sleep when green eyes were across the way from her watching her intently.

He hadn't spoken to her at all when he had come to visit. She still felt the tug at her heart when she thought about how she would pass him on the staircase and he would just look at the wall, as if it was the most interesting piece of architecture he'd ever seen.

"Harry's not good with words," Hermione had said, trying to comfort her. "There are a million things he'd want to say to you, he just can't figure out how. When he's ready and knows exactly how to say everything he's feeling he will, I'm sure of it. He's hurting too Ginny, just know that."

Ginny knew Hermione had just been trying to help, but the fact was it didn't. It made her feel worse somehow, like if she hadn't kissed him after the Quidditch match none of this would have happened.

So instead of addressing the problem Ginny pretended to sleep. She pretended to sleep so that she could turn their conversations, no matter how trivial, into white noise. She repeated spells over in her head and thought about the horoscopes Luna had read her. But every time he spoke all she could hear, all she could see, were those green eyes staring at her. Certain things were impossible to ignore or forget.