Greetings, Mates! This is a great shock, I think- three chapters in a week. It's just that we're nearing the end of Ginny's journey, and...well, I'd like it to end quickly so I can work on the alternate ending. That, I'm afraid, will take a bit longer than the rest, as it isn't written yet. Um...that's about it.

S'lata!

luv Gnomes :o)


Ryan was speeding.

Ginny wasn't afraid of getting hurt, but she saw how set his jaw was, noted the perturbed look in his eyes.

"Reckon I shouldn't have said that in front of Les," Ginny said smiling, trying to cheer him up.

"I'm an idiot."

Ginny sighed.

"You are not; she had it coming to her, you know that better than I do."

Ryan shook his head.

"No, 'ts not what I mean. I'm an idiot for having gone out with her. She gave me every bloody sign," he said, more to himself than to Ginny, "then I ask her out, and it's like, I'm pulling teeth to get her to say yes. She was playing me, like she plays everybody."

His last words were punctuated by the Phoenix coming to a sharp halt. They were no longer surrounded by large numbers of people, but parked on a small, residential street with a great many sleeping witches and wizards but no one, as far as Ginny could see, waked and walking. Ryan shut off the engine, leaned his head against the headrest and closed his eyes.

"Yes, well, that's her," Ginny said, awkwardly. "Pretty...powerful...pretty powerful. It can't be helped, I think. I'll bet Malfoy would go for her, though Pansy's quite possessive over him."

Ryan opened his eyes and smiled ruefully at her.

"You're one of a kind, y'know that?"

Ginny eyed him warily.

"Has Ren been talking to you lately?"

"I mean it," he said, turning to face her completely. "You're nothing like Nikki. You don't flatter, or say anything unless you mean it. You never use family connections to get what you want. You're genuine, you're smart, you're beautiful...you're the most amazing sheila I've ever met." The words spilled out so rapidly that even he seemed shocked by the artlessness in his little speech.

If Ryan was looking for reassurance in Ginny's face, he was doing so in vain. His words whirled around in her mind but did not sink in. She stared at him blankly. He tried again, this time his tone vehemently resolute.

"Stay," he said. "Our school isn't Hogwarts, but it's ace in its own way. The professors don't go mental about grades but they make you want to be your best. And the students- you already know some of them, and everyone there is as passionate about Quid as we are. You're already on the team. And...we'll be together," he said, his eyes sparkling with warmth and excitement. "We're meant to be, I know we are, I feel it." He put his hands on her shoulders, the way he did when he was giving her a pep talk during practices. "Don't go. I need you, a'right? I need you."

If there's one thing Ginny hated, it was crying in front of others; never did unless all her tactics of keeping it in failed. She didn't mean to cry now. But what is a girl to do, when a practically perfect boy confesses his love, and she is suddenly aware that her heart belongs to someone else?

Harry. That slice of her heart she had numbed for her own protection was raw again. She did love him, was fully conscious of it now. She loved him more that she thought was possible; her entire heart, body, mind were engulfed by this unmerited devotion. Freedom of choice was not an option for her; she would love Harry whether she wished to or not.

"Ry," she said softly, her head down, ignoring the tears rolling down her pale cheeks. "I'm sorry." But when she found the courage to look him in the eye, he searched her look, and his facial expression changed.

" 'Just like to know ," he said quietly, "aside from lending you his Firebolt, what has that bludger ever done for you to make you love him so much?"

Ginny's eyes widened in astonishment. She opened her mouth to argue, but changed her mind.

"He saved my life two years ago," she said in a small voice. "But even before then...at first I just admired him, then loved him...and I never stopped."

"Why didn't you say you two were going out? I asked you fifty times, you always denied it! You lied!"

"I did not! We're not going out, Ryan! He doesn't know I'm alive!" Ginny shouted. Her voice reverberated across the deserted street. In a nearby tree, and owl hooted in annoyance.

"He lent you his bloody Firebolt," Ryan replied, his voice sounding strangled with suppressed fury.

"I'm like a little sister to him, he's my brother Ron's best friend! Of course he lent it to me! And I'm sick of explaining this to everyone I meet," she snapped in frustration. "He doesn't share my feelings, even though I'm sure he's aware of them." Her heart was beating rapidly, and she stopped for breath. Composing herself, she went on, her tone softened, " I- it wouldn't be fair to you to, you know, commit to anything here unless I...until I know for sure. Until I know for certain he'll never see me differently."

She took another deep breath to keep herself from sobbing. The first person she had ever told, and it had to be Ryan. Ryan; who liked her, and wanted her near him. And here she was, shattering his vision with her stupid and inconceivable hopes.

"I'm the idiot," she stated firmly. "You deserve loads better than me."

Ryan resumed his normal position in his chair and looked straight ahead.

"No," he told her, his tone subdued and no longer angry, "If the bloke can't see what he's got, he doesn't deserve you."

There seemed nothing else to say. Ryan started the car and drove Ginny home in an oppressive silence.

They were almost there when Ginny blurted,

"I don't want to leave like this. You mean more to me than any of my friends back home."

"Not more than Harry Potter."

It was the first time that night his name had been uttered. He glanced at her and gave her a wry smile. "S'pose I've gotta live with it. I know you're stubborn enough to do what you said. Just do me a favour, will ya? Don't wait for him too long. I'm graduating next year and I might wanna travel a bit, say to the UK or whatever. If he hasn't spotted you by then, you'll give him up?"

"I'll give him up forever," Ginny vowed, the weights on her heart vanishing.

The Phoenix stopped right in front of Bill's house, and Ryan got out and opened Ginny's door.

"Thanks," she said meaningfully.

"S'lata," he responded cordially. "Don't forget we're getting up soon, to take advantage of your last few hours in Aus, remember?"

"Sounds ace." She smiled gratefully at him. "See you soon, then."

---

Ginny was blissfully unaware that Ryan watched her walk into the house feeling a kind of helplessness which he rarely felt, since he always got what he made his mind up to get. This time he had failed, and wasn't sure what to make of it. He therefore went home, parked the Phoenix in an immaculate garage, apparated into his bedroom at his desk, and began to furiously scribble out new Quidditch plans. He engaged in this activity for the remaining hours of the night, till the sun crept into his room. He got up, changed his shirt, and went to wash his face. Moments later he was standing in front of Ginny's front door. Strangely, he felt the same way he had that first morning he'd come to see her, to discover whether or not she'd join the Airbornes. Nearly two months ago. And now she was leaving.