Ginny woke up from another very poor night's sleep filled with many bad dreams. Part of that was nerves for the Quidditch match that morning, but most of it was her still thinking about the incident behind the second-floor tapestry. She had been going over Harry's reaction to seeing her kissing Dean so many times this week in her mind, trying to think if it was possible — possible — that he was, in fact, jealous, or if she was just trying to will that reality into existence by sheer force of mind. She had not yet told Hermione about it, who had been in a bad mood all week because of Ron treating her so poorly, and Ginny figured she did not want to hear anything relationship-related regarding her, Dean, and Harry.

Ginny met Dean down in the common room and they began making their way down to breakfast, with Ginny trying to calm his pre-match jitters: this was his first-ever Quidditch match. She followed him out the portrait hole, rebuffing his attempts to help her climb through ("I'm not a child, Dean") and to their great displeasure, they encountered Draco Malfoy loitering in the seventh-floor corridor. He turned to look at them as they approached.

"Well, well, well," he drawled. "Weasley and Thomas."

"Why aren't you headed down to the match?" said Dean suspiciously. "Aren't you playing?"

"No, I'm out on illness. Harper's going instead. And Vaisey took a Bludger to the head during practice, he's out too. But who cares? It's not like we need our best players when Weasley's Keeping."

"Illness?" Dean sneered. "What, did you insult another hippogriff or something?"

It did seem that Malfoy was even paler than usual.

"Tell me, Thomas," said Malfoy with an awful smirk, "how does it feel being Weasley's backup plan?"

At first, Ginny thought he was talking about Quidditch and mistakenly thought that either she or Ron was the Captain, but then she quickly realized where he was going with this and turned brick red.

"What's that supposed to mean?" snapped Dean.

"Come on, Dean," Ginny muttered, trying to shove him along away from Malfoy.

"I mean," said Malfoy, his sickly-looking face perking up at the opportunity that had just been presented, "that it must be very, er — frustrating knowing that Weasley here only gives you the time of the day because Potter won't do the same for her."

Dean flushed. He lunged for his wand, but Ginny put an arm out to stop him.

"Dean, he's a prefect!" she whispered.

"I don't care!" he hissed back. "If he thinks I'm just going to —"

"Dean, please!" she moaned. "Quidditch! We can't lose a Chaser the morning of the match!"

Dean realized she was right and regretfully put his wand back.

"Wise decision, Thomas," said Malfoy. "Put on a front all you want, Weasley, we all know the truth."

Ginny gave him the filthiest look she could muster and then grabbed Dean by the arm and pulled him away from Malfoy. He was in a foul mood the entire way down to the Great Hall and made more noise than was necessary as he trudged down the stairs. Ginny muttered "Just ignore him!" and "Forget about him!" about twenty times along the way, but it just seemed to make him even angrier. Malfoy's words had more of an impact than probably even he imagined because it was likely that Dean had been insecure about the whole Harry thing ever since the beginning of their relationship.

For good reason, said a sly voice in her head. She ignored it.


Ginny and Demelza were first into the changing room, as Dean took an abnormally long time eating breakfast due to the encounter with Malfoy and seemed to have lost his appetite. The entire Slytherin table booing when they entered the Great Hall did not help. Harry and Ron arrived next, with Harry looking confident and Ron queasy.

"Conditions look ideal," said Ginny, addressing Harry, though he was not looking at her. "And guess what? That Slytherin Chaser Vaisey — he took a Bludger in the head yesterday during their practice, and he's too sore to play! And even better than that — Malfoy's gone off sick too!"

"What?" said Harry, wheeling around to stare at her. She thought the news about Malfoy would finally get his attention, and she was right. This was the first time they had made eye contact since the incident behind the tapestry. She felt a small lurch in her stomach. "He's ill? What's wrong with him?"

"No idea, but it's great for us," she said brightly. "They're playing Harper instead; he's in my year and he's an idiot."

Harry smiled at her, and she felt a little more excited than she should have about it; however, she kept her face impassive. Ritchie, Jimmy, and Dean were the last to arrive, looking nervous but also determined. Dean joined Ginny after hastily throwing on his Quidditch robes.

"We can get even with Malfoy by flattening them," Ginny told him fiercely.

"Hell yeah," said Dean.

A couple minutes later they were walking out on the pitch. Madam Hooch had Harry and Urquhart, the Slytherin Captain, shake hands. Ron was standing behind Ginny and Dean; Ginny considered giving Dean a lengthy kiss just to get under Ron's skin but decided it was best that he remained focused on the game. At any rate, Dean showed no desire to do anything physical, and Ginny knew it was because Ron's outburst was still fresh in his mind as well.

Madam Hooch blew the whistle and they all rose into the air, Harry above the rest as usual, for better chance of spotting the Snitch. Urquhart of Slytherin got the Quaffle first, and as Ginny started chasing after him, she heard a familiar and unpleasant voice from the commentator's podium.

"Well, there they go, and I think we're all surprised to see the team that Potter's put together this year. Many thought, given Ronald Weasley's patchy performance as Keeper last year, that he might be off the team, but of course, a close personal friendship with the Captain does help…"

It was Zacharias Smith, the boy she had used a Bat-Bogey Hex on during the train ride to Hogwarts. Scowling at the idea that anyone let this clown anywhere near the commentator's podium, Ginny chased after Urquhart as fast as she could, but his broom was faster than hers and she realized she'd never be able to catch him. All she could do was wait and hope Ron would be able to make a save…

…and he did.

"— Weasley saves it, well, he's bound to get lucky sometimes, I suppose…," came Smith's disappointed voice from the podium. Ginny felt a sense of smug satisfaction as a roar erupted from the Gryffindor end of the stands.

Demelza now had the Quaffle, she streaked up the field and passed it to Ginny, who dodged a Bludger and passed it to Dean, who passed it back to her —

The Quaffle was intercepted by Slytherin, they raced back down the pitch and Peakes hit a Bludger at Urquhart, who had the Quaffle again, but it missed, and Urquhart was lining up for another shot —

Ron saved it again. Whatever Harry had told him at the end of the disastrous practice yesterday must have worked, because Ron made the two saves look easy.

Ginny had the Quaffle now; she raced up the field once again, passing to Demelza, who flew across and dropped the Quaffle to Ginny again, who was now below her. She caught it and continued her pursuit of the hoops at the other end of the pitch; Dean blocked a Slytherin Chaser who was bearing down on her, and she deked the Slytherin Keeper to the left and threw the Quaffle through the center hoop. A roar of applause rang out from the Gryffindor stands, and Ginny heard Zacharias Smith say something about a "lucky shot" from the commentator's podium.

Twenty minutes later, Ginny had scored three more times and Dean twice, and Ron had saved every attempted goal by Slytherin. Zacharias Smith, finding it difficult to criticize Gryffindor for anything now, started going after the Beaters.

"Of course, Coote isn't really the usual build for a Beater, they've generally got a bit more muscle —"

"Hit a Bludger at him!" Ginny heard Harry yell. A minute later, Demelza had scored, making the score seventy-zero. Ron made another spectacular save a few moments later and began mock-conducting a chorus of "Weasley Is Our King" that erupted from the Gryffindor stands.

Ginny scored three more times, making the score one hundred to zero. Ron continued making save after save, but Zacharias Smith, who had been pretty quiet for the latter half of the match, said, "And I think Harper of Slytherin's seen the Snitch! Yes, he's certainly seen something Potter hasn't!"

Ginny turned around. The Slytherin Seeker was speeding upwards near the other end of the pitch, and Harry was well below him, looking up, trying to determine if Harper had really seen it…

To Ginny's horror, Harry suddenly took off after Harper, indicating that Harper had indeed seen it, and Harry was not going to be able to catch up in time. Ginny sped helplessly towards them, mainly to get a better look if nothing else, and she heard Harry yell something at Harper. Whatever he said must have worked because Harper did a double take and fumbled the Snitch, and Harry, who gained quickly on him with his Firebolt, caught it easily.

"YES!" she heard Harry yell. Blimey, Ginny thought with a little amusement. That boy can do anything…

A roar erupted from the Gryffindor side of the audience, and the team all flew towards Harry to mob him, but a wonderful idea popped into Ginny's head. Instead of joining in the mid-air powwow, she flew right past him and went into a dive towards the commentator's podium.

"Ginny, where are you going?" Harry yelled, and right before she was about to have a disastrous collision, she turned herself around so the back end of her broom rammed into the podium. She heard (and felt) an almighty crash and the sound of wood collapsing with McGonagall's angry voice nearby.

"MISS WEASLEY! Just what do you think you're doing?!"

"Forgot to brake, Professor, sorry," she said blithely.

The team landed by the wreckage and Harry, laughing, walked up to Ginny, hugged her awkwardly and let go quickly before turning to Ron, clapping him on the back.

Her jubilance faded fast as she stood rooted to the spot. What was that? Why did he seemingly not want to touch her? Was he still feeling uncomfortable from the "incident"? Did he just not want to show any sort of affection toward her with Dean standing right there? Did she smell bad? Or did she just repulse him in general?

Stop it, she told herself. You're being ridiculous… In fact, maybe it's because he actually fancies you…

But every time this thought crossed her mind, she shut it down. She would not let her heart get broken. Harry Potter, fancy her? It was laughable. She regained some of her swagger in the changing room, where the atmosphere was triumphant. "Party up in the common room, Seamus said!" yelled Dean exuberantly. "C'mon, Ginny, Demelza!"

They ran into Hermione outside the changing room. For some reason, she looked very unhappy, but Dean was too busy trashing Malfoy and reliving the match for Ginny to be able to talk to her.

"Man, I don't get Ron," said Dean. "How can he look so terrible during practice and then come out and perform like that… oh well, I guess we should just be glad he can play when it counts!"

"I'm sure Vaisey being out gave him a confidence boost," said Ginny. "His replacement was dreadful."

After climbing through the portrait hole to tumultuous applause, (Dean had the sense not to help her this time), they met up with Seamus in the corner, but she excused herself for a moment to go retrieve Arnold the Pygmy Puff from her dormitory. She returned a few minutes later with Arnold sitting on her shoulder and Hermione's cat, Crookshanks, who seemed to take a keen interest in the puffskein, following behind. Ginny grabbed a butterbeer before making her way back over to the corner as Ron clambered through the portrait hole, with Harry following suit a moment later. Harry was immediately mobbed by the usual group of girls that have gushed over him ever since the start of all the "Chosen One" hoopla.

At least I never acted like that, Ginny thought to herself, disgusted. She watched half-amused as Harry tried to free himself from his fan club before a chorus of "OOOOOOH"s rang out from the other side of the room that drew her attention away.

She gasped. Ron had entwined himself with Lavender Brown so tightly it was almost hard to tell who was who (though the red hair did give it away).

"I'm gonna need more alcohol…" she said to Dean and Seamus, who were guffawing heartily at the apparent new couple. Ginny drained the rest of her butterbeer quickly and got up to grab another. She couldn't believe that Ron had told her off for kissing Dean in a secret passageway less than a week ago and now apparently had no issue with snogging someone in full view of everyone in the common room. He had apparently taken her jabs very, very personally.

"OOMF!"

She had just walked into Harry, who evidently had just given his female fan club the slip. She felt herself go slightly red. Or maybe it was just the effects of the butterbeer. It was hard to tell.

"Looking for Ron?" she said to him with a smirk. "He's over there, the filthy hypocrite." She pointed in the direction of the unsightly scene. Harry looked over at them and gaped. "It looks like he's eating her face, doesn't it? But I suppose he's got to refine his technique somehow. Good game, Harry."

She patted him on the arm; she had the slight sensation of missing a step going down the stairs when her hand touched his warm skin. To her disappointment, Harry didn't laugh at her remark. Maybe I really do repulse him, she thought, with a weird mixture of amusement and sorrow. She kept walking to the drinks table, trying to forget about that miserable interaction, hoping Harry was just too shocked by Ron and Lavender to laugh. Worse, it was at this point she heard Malfoy's voice from earlier replaying in her head: "Weasley here only gives you the time of day because Potter won't do the same for her." She really hated it when that tosser was right.

"Excuse me," came an unfriendly voice. A dark-haired girl reached across her to grab a butterbeer. Ginny recognized her as one of the older members of Harry's "fan club", and she was always in the front of the pack when they were following him. The girl glared at Ginny, which told her that she had seen her "flirting" with Harry a moment ago, if that was indeed the term to use. Ginny preferred the term "semi-flirting". Either way, she was apparently very bad at it, given Harry's reaction, or lack thereof.

"Excuse you," Ginny responded coldly. The girl left without another word and went to sit over with her friends.

Ginny grabbed another butterbeer, not feeling in a party mood at all anymore, but before she started back towards Dean and Seamus, she saw something that made her heart sink even further: Hermione had seen Ron and Lavender and had just hurried out of the portrait hole looking quite distraught. Ginny whipped around to look at Harry, and he was looking in the same direction; he clearly had seen. Feeling that this was entirely her fault, she made her way back to the corner feeling considerably more miserable than when she had got up. Demelza had joined Dean and Seamus in her absence and noticed something was wrong immediately.

"What's the matter, Ginny?" she said, concerned.

She didn't know what to say. She didn't want to talk about the Ron-Hermione-Krum triangle, as she had already broken Hermione's trust once. She certainly couldn't say anything about her situation with Harry. She bit her lip and said, "Nothing, just some drama with my prat brother."

"Looked like he was having a good time to me," sniggered Dean, as Hermione's cat wondered over, his yellow eyes staring fixedly at Arnold, who was still sitting on Ginny's shoulder. She began scratching him on the back of his neck absentmindedly.

"And he had the nerve to tell us off," Ginny grumbled, keeping the subject away from Hermione and Harry.

"Yeah!" said Dean loudly, with a look of dawning realization. "Yeah, what's up with that?"

"I see you're finding out what a giant hypocrite he is," said Ginny smugly. "I guess I struck a nerve the other day."

"What do you mean?"

"After you ran up the stairs, I told him he was just mad at us because he had no experience at snogging."

Dean laughed.

"Well, I guess he's fixed that problem."

While that was true, there was now the teensy issue that Ron and Hermione may never speak to each other again. Not exactly what one would call a good trade-off.

"Demelza, who's that girl?" said Ginny, pointing at the dark-haired girl that she ran into at the butterbeer table.

"Romilda Vane," said Demelza. "She's in all my classes. Crazy bitch. Never shuts up about Harry, and she's asked me several times if I think he'll ask her to Slughorn's Christmas Party."

Ginny scoffed.

"And what did you say?"

"I usually just shrug," said Demelza. "I try to avoid her, she's so annoying. I did overhear her talking about mail-ordering love potions from your brothers' store, though," she added, smirking. "Three guesses as to who they're for."

Ginny said nothing, but merely sat, watching and listening to the rowdy party with her mind unfocused. It seemed she had a new enemy. Love potions were banned at Hogwarts, but she knew Fred and George had a multitude of ways of concealing them.

"Be right back," she said. "Bathroom."

She headed up to the girl's dormitories, Crookshanks following closely behind her. She did not return to the party.


Ginny was one of the first ones down in the common room the next morning. No evidence remained of the raucous party from the previous day; she figured the house elves must have cleaned it up overnight. She was sitting at one of the tables playing with her Pygmy Puff again when the door to the boys' dormitories opened and Harry walked in.

"Hi, Harry!" said Ginny, smiling. Harry looked startled but returned the greeting, blushing slightly, before making his way over to the portrait hole and clambering out. She was going to ask him about Ron and Hermione, but he moved so fast, she got the impression that he wasn't in the mood to talk to her. She went back to playing with Arnold, feeling dejected.

She soon gathered what happened through the grape vine, however: Hermione had attacked Ron with a bunch of canaries. The marks were clearly visible on his hands and arms. Many people correctly guessed this was out of jealousy, however few grasped just how hurt Hermione was.

Ginny decided to spend the morning in the library with Amber, trying to finish her homework while she still had the energy. Most unfortunately, she spotted Romilda Vane and her friends at one of the tables. Ginny nudged Amber to a table as far from them as possible. It wasn't long, however, before Romilda showed up at their table.

"Excuse me," she said, much more politely than last time. "Sorry about yesterday; I know I probably came off as kind of rude. I'm Romilda. Romilda Vane."

She stuck out her hand; Ginny shook it but let go quickly.

"Ginny," she said curtly.

"You were at the Ministry with Harry," said Romilda. It wasn't a question.

"I was."

"So did you hear the prophecy?"

Romilda was speaking in an obnoxiously polite tone, clearly having the intention of wheedling information from Ginny rather than this being a genuine effort to befriend her.

"No. I was knocked out. I don't even know if there was a prophecy."

The last part was not true, but she didn't want to give Romilda anything to cling to, and wanted her to go away as quickly as possible.

"So you don't know whether Harry really is the Chosen One?" whispered Romilda.

"I don't think anyone does," said Ginny. She suspected this was not true either, but had no proof. It was not something she wanted to think about anyway. Romilda changed tack quickly.

"I saw you talking to him yesterday at the party. Are you two good friends?"

"I don't know about 'good' friends, but yeah, we're friends."

Romilda could not hide the jealousy from her face.

"Has he talked about Slughorn's party at all? Do you know who he wants to invite?"

Ginny was waiting for this after what Demelza had told her yesterday.

"He hasn't mentioned it."

"Oh, I see." Romilda looked most disappointed. "Are you hoping he'll ask you?"

"I have a boyfriend," said Ginny promptly.

"Oh, who?" said Romilda, clearly pleased by this information.

"Dean Thomas," said Ginny, figuring Romilda probably wouldn't have a clue who that was.

"Oh," said Romilda, losing interest. "Well, it was nice to meet you, Ginny."

"You too," Ginny lied. Romilda returned to her table and began whispering to her friends. It took a few minutes for Ginny to refocus on her schoolwork, but once she did, she finished it quickly and then immediately left the library.


Ron and Lavender began dating, and in this case, "dating" meant snogging each other senseless at every free opportunity. Ginny did not see Hermione much over the next couple of weeks, but finally ran into her in a mercifully Romilda-free library on a Friday and wasted no time telling her what a huge prat Ron was.

"I really could not care less who he snogs," Hermione said, very unconvincingly, as she wrote an essay using a bit more force with her quill than was necessary.

Ginny, still feeling that she was the reason for Lavender and Ron being together, said nothing. She wanted to take the opportunity to talk about Harry while Dean wasn't around, but once again, she wasn't sure that Hermione would take kindly to being forced to discuss Ginny's relationships when her love life was in such a bad state.

"What are you working on?" Ginny asked finally, hoping to distract her and improve her mood a little.

"Transfiguration essay," Hermione said, without looking up. "Conjuring."

"We've been doing the Doubling Charm," said Ginny.

"I always enjoyed that one," said Hermione. "Very useful in the real world…"

They went back to working in silence, and after a couple minutes Ginny decided it was time to test the waters.

"So, uh, how's Harry been?" she said casually.

"You haven't talked to him lately?"

"No, it feels like he's been avoiding me."

"He's probably just stressed. You know he's got a lot on his plate. We have a lot of schoolwork, same as you, plus he's got the extra lessons with Dumbledore. Oh, and he's got Quidditch, and of course his fan club that won't leave him alone." Hermione scowled. "And since we're on the subject, how are you and Dean?"

"He's beginning to grate on me," Ginny said grumpily. "He's always trying to help me through the portrait hole and carry my books and such when I've told him repeatedly that I don't like that. I get treated like a child at home enough as it is, the last thing I want is my boyfriend doing it too. I know he's just trying to be a gentleman, but I find it irritating."

"Sure you're not just looking for an excuse to dump him?"

"I have no intention of 'dumping him'," said Ginny crossly. "Now, maybe if Harry wakes up one morning and suddenly decides that's he's desperately in love with me, then yeah, but…"

"Can't force it," Hermione said matter-of-factly, not looking up. "It's just something that has to happen naturally if it's going to happen…"

"Ever since he and Ron walked in on me and Dean snogging," said Ginny helplessly, "he's been really awkward and quiet around me. What if he's like Ron? What if he thinks I'm some sort of… some sort of…"

She couldn't bring herself to say it.

"Don't be stupid," Hermione said flatly. "Harry cares about you. A lot. He's just bad with emotions a lot of times. You'll have plenty of time to talk to him without worrying about Dean when you're at the Burrow over break."

Ginny couldn't lie, she had been really looking forward to this.

"Who's he taking to Slughorn's Party?" she asked curiously.

"Nobody yet. You'd think he'd get right on that so those girls would leave him alone, but he always seems to procrastinate these types of things. Same thing happened with the Yule Ball, remember?"

Ginny frowned. Yes, she remembered that ordeal way too well. She still got a little upset thinking about it.

"Who does he want to bring?" said Ginny, trying to push that bad memory out of her mind.

"He can't think of anyone, or so he says."

Ginny grunted.

"And what do you think?" she said. "Is that true?"

Hermione looked up from her paper and bit her lip.

"I haven't noticed him showing interest in anyone in particular, so as far as I can tell, it's true."

This cheered Ginny up slightly, though she still thought Hermione might have been holding something back. She honestly thought the best-case scenario was that he left it to the very last minute and then asked someone at random out of desperation; someone he had no feelings for whatsoever.

"Not even Romilda Vane?" said Ginny, trying to sound like she was cracking a joke, but a part of her still wanted reassurance that Harry would never go for her. She couldn't believe he would, but…

"I don't think you have anything to worry about with her," said Hermione with a rather strained smile. It was undoubtedly the first one she had had on her face in a long time. Ginny felt relieved.

"Good. Well, guess I better go see what Dean's up to," she said dully, as she packed up her things. "See you later."

The reality was she was souring on Dean considerably. While she told herself this had nothing to do with Harry, the fact was, Dean was not Harry, and that was always going to be something that challenged their relationship (at least for her). There were things she liked about Dean, but there were a lot of things that she didn't like as well, and as time went on, the things she didn't like started to stand out more and more. But seeing as Harry was as distant with her as ever, she didn't know what else to do but continue on, as Dean still seemed happy. She wasn't going to break up with him unless she was absolutely certain that Harry fancied her, and not only was that not the case, but it actually seemed more unlikely than it did a month ago, and it didn't seem very likely then either.

By coincidence, Ginny ran into Harry outside the portrait hole.

"Oh — hello, Ginny!" he said brightly.

"Hey, Harry. Looking forward to Christmas?"

"Definitely," he said. "It'll be nice spending it at your place for once, usually I'm forced to stay here, considering how my aunt and uncle are…"

"Mum always loves having you," said Ginny kindly, but with a note of exasperation in her voice. "In fact, I think she'd dye your hair red if she could."

Harry laughed. Ginny laughed too. It was such an exhilarating relief, after the past few weeks where she'd been obsessing over their last few awkward encounters. They looked at each other for the briefest of moments, before Harry said, "Well, I'd better get to class. I'll see you later, Ginny."

"Bye, Harry."

She watched him go.

"Baubles," she said to the Fat Lady, and the portrait swung open and she clambered through. She felt a bit lightheaded. There was a specific reason she had come to the common room, but she couldn't remember what it was.

"Hey, Ginny!" Dean called.

Oh, right.