The day after the Yule Ball, when Ron came down to the common room, still rubbing sleep from his eyes, he found Hermione sitting in a comfortable chair, reading.

"You've got to be kidding me," he said. "Already?"

Hermione glanced up, before returning her eyes to her book. "Good afternoon, Ron."

"You're doing homework on Boxing Day? After how late the Ball lasted?"

"No, just reading."

"For fun?"

"Yes, Ron. How many times do we have to go over this? I sometimes read purely for enjoyment."

"I'd get it if you were reading something fun, but that looks like a textbook."

Seeing the look she gave him, he raised his hands. "Okay, okay, whatever makes you happy. I don't know, it just feels like this term has already gone on forever." As he sat next to her, he glanced around the room to make sure no one was close enough to overhear. "Probably because of all the extra time."

"It's only been about a month extra, so far."

"Only a month? Of extra school?"

"Of extra magic."

"I thought spending full days in there was meant to make it feel normal."

"It's meant to keep our circadian rhythms from getting disrupted, which seems to be working. But each week is still two days longer, so the whole term is going to feel a lot longer."

Ron pondered this, while Hermione continued reading. "Then I'm a month older than I should be?"

"Yes, relative to the age the rest of the world expects you to be."

"I guess I have two birthdays for real now. Fred and George would be jealous. It didn't work out so well for them, when they tried it."

"Hmm?" Hermione murmured, not really listening.

"Nothing. An old custom of the Prewett side of the family."

Hermione looked up. "Oh? Tell me. You know I'm always interested in learning about different magical customs."

"Not much to tell. Britain didn't switch to the new calendar until after we split from the Muggles, and when wizarding Britain made the switch, my mum's side of the family didn't approve. They still record births and deaths using the old calendar."

"You're talking about the switch from Julian to Gregorian."

"Yeah."

"And what does that have to do with Fred and George?"

"They tried to get mum and dad to celebrate their birthday according to both calendars, to get extra presents and cake. To get them to stop, Mum had to threaten them with having zero birthdays per year."

"I don't think you or Ginny have ever mentioned this."

"This happened ages ago. I'm sure Ginny was too young to remember, and mum forbid us from ever bringing it up again. I'm actually not sure why I told you. Rambling from being up too late, I guess."

"No, that was quite interesting. Thank you for sharing it with me. It's easy to forget how much of a split there is between the two worlds. It's more than having magic or not, or the big cultural differences. I bet there are many more little differences like that which people never think about. I should write an essay about this for Muggle Studies."

He grinned. "Everything comes back to homework sooner or later."

"Oh, shut it."

"You have lunch yet?"

"No, I was going to finish this chapter, while I waited to see if anyone else came down."

"Harry's not in our room. He must have gotten up even earlier than you."

"I would have thought he'd sleep in. He and Ginny stayed behind in the common room when everyone else turned in."

"I fell asleep as soon as I hit the pillow. No idea how late the two of them stayed up talking."

"Ron… You do realize they might have been doing more than talking."

He made a face. "I don't even want to think about that. Though if it has to be someone, Harry's a good bloke."

"Yes, he is."

Her stomach picked that moment to growl, eliciting a raised eyebrow from Ron.

"All right," she said. "I wanted to finish this chapter, but I suppose we can go now."

"I didn't say anything."

"You were thinking it."

"You mean about how you get so deep into your books, you might actually starve to death if no one reminded you to stop and eat? I'd never think such a thing."

"Good. See that you don't."

When Hermione and Ron got to the Great Hall, they found Ginny and Harry at the Gryffindor table, empty plates in front of them showing they'd already finished eating. They both looked exhausted, and were leaning against each other.

"Merlin," Ron exclaimed. "What happened to the two of you?"

"Moody happened," Harry replied.

Hermione gasped. "He attacked you?"

"No more than usual," Ginny said.

"Training," Harry explained. "He sent house-elves to wake us first thing this morning."

"Apparently," Ginny began, then switched to a gruff voice in imitation of the Defense teacher, "you can't count on Death Eaters being considerate enough to let you get your beauty sleep before an attack."

"He didn't even let us get breakfast first," added Harry.

"That's awful!" Hermione said. "You have to complain to Professor McGonagall."

"We can handle it."

"We asked him to train us," Ginny said. "He's a mean bastard, but like I said last night, that's why we're lucky he agreed. Besides," she added with a smirk, "I didn't go easy on him either."

"What did you do?" Hermione asked.

"So, I told you how Moody sometimes has the two of us take him on together."

"Yes, because he thought you were holding back too much against each other. Like that's a bad thing! I'm not sure I approve of the new arrangement either, but go on."

"Harry and I have been getting better, but even working together, we've never been able to give him much of a challenge. But then Tonks gave us some pointers on how to get the drop on him. This was our first chance to try them out. Let's just say, with the state he was in when we left, he might have one or two new scars to add to his collection."

"Ginny!" Hermione gasped. "He's a teacher!"

"Mum's going to freak," Ron said.

"He was asking for it," Ginny said. "Literally."

"It's true," Harry confirmed. "He's always complaining I don't go at him hard enough. Less so with Ginny. I think he actually likes her, not that he'd ever admit it."

"No surprise there," she said. "I'm used to being the favorite. It's the same way at home."

"As if," Ron snorted, as he began loading his plate with food. "Being the youngest doesn't make you special."

Hermione said, "I wouldn't be so sure. There's a Muggle belief that the seventh son or seventh daughter in a family receives special magical powers. Probably superstition, though I wonder if there's anything to the notion when it comes to families who actually do have magic."

Ginny said, "Ha! Knew it."

Ron groaned, "Great. I'm never going to hear the end of this one. Hold on, though. She's the seventh child, but not the seventh son or the seventh daughter."

"No matter," Hermione said dismissively. "I can't believe magic would discriminate based on gender."

Ginny said, "Let me know if you find any special seventh child magic I can use against Moody. I doubt the tricks Tonks gave us will work twice."

"Is it always this bad?"

Ginny and Harry exchanged a look.

"Well… He was in a right mood today," Ginny admitted.

Harry said, "He kept ranting about the Death Eaters who went free after the war. Having to spend so much time around Karkaroff and Snape at the Ball last night must have set him off."

Ginny said. "He was more paranoid than usual, too. He's holding a bug prisoner for interrogation."

"Wait, what's this now?" Ron asked.

"When we got to his office, he was sitting at his desk staring at an insect he had trapped in a glass jar. He said he caught it last night, and his first instinct was to squash it, but he hoped things wouldn't have to come to that."

"And he's been wrestling with the decision since last night?"

Harry shrugged. "It almost seemed like he was trying to intimidate it, which would be pretty out there, even for him. He must have meant it as some sort of lesson for us, like with the spiders and the Unforgivable Curses in class."

Ginny added, "When he gets all cryptic like that, it's best to just agree and move on."

Hermione said, "It's still not okay for a teacher to terrorize students."

"You've met Snape, right?" Ron asked.

"Professor Snape," Hermione corrected automatically, but at least Ginny and Harry appreciated Ron's comment.

After lunch, Ginny and Harry both needed a nap. The group split up in the common room, Ginny and Hermione taking the stairs to the girls' side, while Harry and Ron went the other way up to their room.

Once the boys were out of earshot, Hermione said, "You and Harry sure enjoyed each other's company last night."

Ginny sighed. "Do we have to do this now? I'm tired."

"It's just a little girl talk, not an interrogation. Last night showed more than ever how Harry feels about you, so I wondered if you finally made it official."

They stopped at the next landing, and Ginny turned to face her. "No, and I explained to you months ago why I doubt we ever will."

"And your explanation was nonsense then, and still is now. You're not 'poisoned'."

"You still don't get it. You didn't grow up learning about the dangers of Dark magic."

"Or maybe I just didn't grow up with the sort of ridiculous prejudices that would lead people to blame the victim of a Dark magic attack. And neither did Harry."

Ginny shook her head. "It's not the same with him. You're not considering dating me." She paused, and put her hands on Hermione's waist. "Or are you?"

"Don't bother with that. A little flirting won't make me run away blushing. I'm trying to help you here. Both of you."

Ginny let her hands drop. "I did everything but stick my tongue in his mouth, and he didn't go for it."

"Everything? Does that include actually telling him how you feel?"

"I can't. What we have is too precious to risk losing, and there are things you can't take back once you've said them out loud. At least I got one perfect night with him. Well, almost perfect. I had to settle for giving him a kiss on the cheek, but I'm not going to mess up everything over a kiss that was only off by an inch or so. It's not like we would be doing much more than kissing anyway. I'm pretty sure none of my roommates have with anyone yet."

"This doesn't sound like a lasting solution."

"My long-term plan is to be irresistible in his presence as much as possible, until one day he can't help but give in and ravish me. If that day never comes, it will show I was right all along, but without humiliating myself and wrecking everything between us."

"Whatever the two of you have, it's not nearly as fragile as you're making it out to be. Anyone can see that."

"Either way, something is obviously holding him back, so this is how things are, for now at least. And don't forget you promised not to interfere. Girl talk only works if I can trust you not to repeat it."

"I won't. I just hope Harry has someone to talk to. Do you think he'd open up to Ron?"

Ginny gave her an incredulous look. "My brother, Ron Weasley? The guy whose idea of talking about feelings goes as far as saying, 'Blokes don't talk about that stuff'?"

"I suppose you're right. It's hard to even imagine how that conversation would go. Maybe Sirius or Tonks, then."

"Maybe. Opening up isn't Harry's favorite thing in general."

Hermione sighed and shook her head. "Boys."

Meanwhile, when Ron and Harry got back to their room, Ron said, "So… you and Ginny were dancing pretty close last night."

"I'm no expert, but I understand dancing is rather common at formal dances."

"Uh-huh. Without getting into details of the sort I never want to know, did anything happen with the two of you after?"

"No. She gets why that would be a terrible idea."

"Does she? Why's that?"

Harry stared at him. "I obviously can't start something with her while Riddle is still out there."

"Huh."

"Are you saying you want me to date your sister?"

"Of course not. Though for the record, my not-wanting of that is less in your case than with anyone else I can think of."

"Thanks. I think."

"Don't mention it. Besides being a solid bloke, you've never treated her differently because of the Dark magic thing. I hate to say it, but I might have had trouble seeing past it myself, if she wasn't family, and just some random girl at school. Which is pretty much all she was to you, considering how shy she was around you, back before everything."

"Hold on. What Dark magic thing?"

"You know, the way a lot of people wouldn't want to get too close to anyone who's been too close to Dark magic. Having Voldemort possess you is as close to Dark magic as you can get, short of casting a whole mess of it yourself."

"She didn't choose any of that!"

"You and I know that. But if more people knew the whole story, there'd be those who thought part of her must have been bad to begin with, and stay away from her because of it."

"That makes no sense at all. After going through what she did, you need friends more than ever, to help pull you back from it. If anything, pushing away someone who got hurt like that could drive them further into darkness."

"You don't have to convince me. She's my sister. Abandoning her was never an option."

"Never an option for me either, because it's stupid."

"Alright. Sorry I brought it up. She never talked to you about this?"

"Sort of, but I always thought it came mostly from her feeling guilty for letting the Basilisk out, given how much worse things could have gone. And I thought she'd gotten over that part, and accepted Riddle is to blame, not her."

"I don't know if she has or not, but I know the way you were with her right afterwards helped a lot. That's all I was saying. I didn't mean to make a whole big thing of it."

"No, it's good you said something. It explains some things she's said that never made sense, about how she sees herself. After last night, I was thinking it might be better if I cooled things off and pulled back a little, so I don't give her the wrong idea. But now I'm thinking if I did, it might give her the wrong idea in a different way, if she thought it had anything to do with the crap you're talking about."

"It might. Aside from that, you sure you could even go through with it?"

"I like to think I could, for her sake. Looking back, I guess I shouldn't have let us get so close in the first place, but it's not something I ever sat down and decided. It all seemed so natural, day by day. But now here we are, and going on like we have been seems like the best way to screw things up the least. Though that might just be what I want. I can't imagine giving her up completely, even if I can't take the next step right now."

"I won't pretend I'm not relieved to hear my little sister won't be taking any more 'steps' anytime soon. I'm just surprised you got her to accept your reasons."

"Well… she stopped me from saying it in those exact words, but it was clear where the conversation was going. I get why she didn't want to spoil a perfect night by dwelling on the harsh reality that would still be waiting for us the next day–first thing in the morning as it turned out, thanks to Moody. But we couldn't just not talk about us at all. Not after the way the rest of the night went."

Harry heaved a sigh and flopped onto his bed. "The whole thing sucks. It wouldn't be fair to ask her to wait for some future I might never be able to give her, so I didn't. But it wouldn't be fair to try to start something right now either. Anyway, we said as much as we needed to, which is good. I'm sure neither of us wants another conversation like that."

"Huh."

"I wish you'd stop saying that. And don't mention any of this to her, alright? You know how hard it is for her to be reminded of everything, like when it came up last night."

"I won't. None of this is the sort of chat I want to have with my sister anyway. I didn't really want to have it with you, but I kind of had to."

"Yeah. I get it."

"I take it you're not planning to talk to her about this any more either?"

"Like I said, it's best not to stir up bad memories. And she's never happy hearing about the role I'm going to have to play in stopping Riddle."

"I'm not too happy myself, about what you think your role is going to be, but you've heard my opinion of that."

"Right, so let's stay focused on Ginny. I think if I just keep trying my best to be there for her, that'll say more than anything else could. It'll have to do, for now. For the record, I swear I'm not leading her on. I wish I could be everything she deserves, and I hope one day I can be."

"Alright, then. Enough said."

The rest of the holiday went by too fast, as holidays tended to do, but the new year started peacefully enough. Hagrid kicked off the new term with unicorns, by far the least dangerous creatures they'd ever dealt with in his class.

The trip to Hogsmeade in mid-January was likewise free of drama, which let Harry and Ginny relax and enjoy what still felt like a new privilege for them.

The following week, thanks to Neville's new wand–or the new-found confidence it gave him–he actually managed to earn points from Professor Flitwick for a well-cast Banishing Charm.

The second task of the Triwizard Tournament took place the last week of February. Harry and his friends made sure to arrive early enough to get seats that would let them reach the lake quickly if they needed to.

"You have the Gillyweed, right?" Harry asked Neville.

"I gave it to Hermione."

"I've got it," she confirmed.

"Good." Addressing Neville again, Harry asked, "You sure that stuff is going to work?"

"I've never used it, but I checked several Herbology books."

Hermione asked, "Do we know for sure who the hostages are?"

Harry said, "Cho and Fleur's sister were both missing this morning."

"And we know Alicia was missing from Gryffindor."

"Right. Not sure about Crouch, but maybe Pettigrew's mother. Besides him taking her to the Yule Ball, Tonks found out he got her in to visit her son in Azkaban. He even went with her, which couldn't have been easy, after sending his son there to die. If he's just pretending to have a connection with her, he's sure committed to playing the part."

Ginny said, "What matters is whether the Tournament organizers believe the connection–not that they have a lot of other choices. Dad didn't think Crouch has any close family left, or even any really close friends."

They fell silent and looked out over the calm surface of the lake.

"This is going to be pretty dull if nothing goes wrong," Ron remarked.

"Ron!" Hermione scolded.

"I'm not saying I want something bad to happen. It's probably fine. The sabotage of the first task happened well ahead of time, not the day of."

The sound of cheering prevented further discussion, as the four champions stepped up to the edge of the lake. At the signal to start, they dove in and disappeared under the waters.

The cheering soon died down. As time passed, the crowd grew restless, and attention drifted away from the lake. Idle conversations started up among clusters of friends.

Ginny said, "I never thought I'd say this, but Ron made a good point. Do we have to stay and stare at the lake for this whole thing?"

Harry asked, "Where's your school spirit?"

"Right. Which ripple are you rooting for?"

Harry pointed. "That one. Cedric caused that one."

"Sure. And you know because…"

He nodded sagely and mimed stroking an imaginary beard. "For those in touch with the ways of magic, there are many paths to knowledge, my young apprentice."

She bumped him with her shoulder. "You're awfully young yourself, to try to pull off the mysterious old wizard routine."

Everyone's attention snapped back to the lake when Cedric broke the surface and started pulling the unconscious Cho towards the shore.

"Well, that's one hostage rescued," Harry said.

As Cedric lifted Cho onto the bank, Madam Pomfrey and Dumbledore both hurried over to meet them. Pomfrey knelt and started waving her wand over Cho.

"Maybe I spoke too soon. Shouldn't they be reviving her by now?"

"It looks like they're trying," Ginny said.

"Should we do something?"

"Only if you've been studying to be a Healer in your spare time without telling me."

"Maybe I can help retrieve the rest of the hostages. Hermione, you better pass me the packet."

Receiving no response, he turned around. "Where did she go? Damn it, she has the Gillyweed."

"Fleur's back," Ron said.

Harry turned back to see the French champion swimming towards shore, struggling to keep the head of a younger girl above the surface. "Her hostage isn't waking up either."

"That doesn't have to mean anything bad, does it? We expected the organizers to put them in a suspended state temporarily, to survive underwater."

"This might be more than temporary," Ginny said grimly.

Harry clenched his hands as he looked around again for Hermione, or any other way to help. "This can't be happening. I should have been there, down in the lake with them, in case anything went wrong."

Two more pairs emerged from the water.

"Viktor and Alicia," Neville noted.

"And there's Crouch," Ginny said. "Looks like they did go with Pettigrew's mother for him."

Viktor had partially Transfigured himself into a shark, but Crouch had once again shown his even greater skill at human-to-animal Transfiguration, and performed a nearly complete transformation of himself into a river dolphin.

Their hostages appeared as lifeless as the others.

"At least they all made it back," Harry said. "There must be a way to revive them once they're on dry land, right? Magic can re-grow entire bones overnight. There must be a spell to get a little water out of their lungs?"

Ginny and Ron exchanged a bleak look.

"Harry," Ron said, "The organizers guaranteed the hostages would be safe. If something goes wrong, that's on them, not you."

Harry shook his head. "I promised Cedric. They were all counting on me."

"I'm sure it will all work out," Hermione said from behind them.

Harry whirled around. "How can you know that? Where were you?"

"And why is your hair wet?" Ginny asked.

Hermione said, "Everyone can relax. Draught of Living Death can look a lot like drowning."

"Drowning can look a lot like drowning!" Harry said, turning back to watch the scene at the lakeside. "Madam Pomfrey and the judges are getting frantic. This isn't how they expected things to go."

"Clearly not, though we shouldn't lose hope. Who can say? Perhaps some unknown party took extra precautions, like what happened with the Goblet of Fire. I'm sure Madam Pomfrey will figure it out soon."

Pomfrey drew a potion from her medical bag and poured it between Cho's lips. The young witch came to with a gasp. Madam Pomfrey nodded to herself, then rose and started towards Fleur's sister, already reaching into her bag for another vial.

"Ah, there we go," Hermione said with satisfaction.

Ginny eyed her friend. "Clever how you figured that out, even quicker than Madam Pomfrey."

"Some people say I'm a clever girl."

"A clever girl with wet hair."

"The air is rather damp, down here by the lake."

Ginny shook her head as she gave up on getting any real answers for the moment. "Do you want me to dry it for you?"

"No, thanks. It gets all frizzy when you do it."

"At least let me warm you up."

"Okay, but with the heat evenly distributed everywhere, not just… certain areas, like last time."

Ginny grinned. "I told you I was just making sure I got your important bits. But alright, we can do it your way."

She put her hand on Hermione's shoulder and pushed heat into her.

"Mmmm," Hermione murmured. "That does feel better. Thanks."

"Don't mention it." Ginny looked back to the hostages, and confirmed Pomfrey had revived all four. She turned to Harry, to find him standing with his arms wrapped around himself and eyes closed, head bowed.

"Hey," she said, as she wrapped her arms around him, just below his own. "It all worked out."

"No thanks to me."

"Maybe you don't always have to be the hero," Hermione told him.

Ginny gave her a look. "I have questions. For later."

Hermione smiled to herself as she looked out across the lake.