RON

"Happy Valentine's Day, Won-Won!" Lavender said, standing on tiptoes to kiss him. "This is for you," she said sweetly, handing him a hand made card with extravagantly ornate writing depicting their names inside two intertwined hearts.

"I'm sorry, I didn't - erm - get you anything."

"Oh," she said, looking tragically disappointed. However she recovered quickly and began bouncing up and down hopefully. "Does that mean you're taking me somewhere instead? I heard Dean took Ginny to the Bell Tower tonight. How romantic is that?"

"He did? Won't that be noisy?" Ron replied.

She ignored this and continued bouncing, clutching onto the front of his shirt. "So?"

"So what?"

"Where're you taking me?"

"The Great Hall. They organized a dinner, didn't they?"

"What?! We can't go there. All the teachers will be there!"

"Oh, er, right," he said, not quite seeing the problem with this, as the professors were always present at meal times.

"I want you all to myself," she said, making a pouty face and long, slow blinks as if she were an owl.

"That's great, but where would we eat?"

After several minutes of this back and forth, Lavender finally agreed that the night could not proceed without Ron getting food. Whether they stayed the whole time in the Great Hall or not didn't much matter to Ron. Neither did where they might go afterwards. All he could think of at the moment was the simplest, quickest path to his next good meal.

Ron and Lavender set out to attend the staff sanctioned Valentine's Day dinner. But before they could reach the Great Hall, Lavender pulled him to a small alcove on a less trafficked section of the courtyard. It contained a small window with a single wrought iron post acting as a window pane. A small stone bench was affixed to the floor beside it. Which, by the amount of dust gathered on top, looked as if it hadn't been used in years.

Suddenly, Lavender took him by the collar and began kissing him full on the mouth. Next thing he knew, she was sitting sideways across his lap, pushing herself into him and guiding his arms to encircle her waist. She started planting kisses and nipping at his earlobe, traveling down his neck and across to the other side. Her hands roved over his torso and she started undoing the buttons on his shirt.

"Lavender -" he tried to get her to slow down, but she seemed to be hastily executing a well thought-out procedure. Now she was straddling him and was back kissing his mouth. He responded automatically, mentally unable to keep up with what was happening.

She reached down for his belt, but he grabbed her hand quickly before she could go any further.

"Still?" she said in an obvious tone of disappointment. "I thought - but it's Valentine's Day, Won-Won."

"You aren't hungry? Can't we just go down to dinner?"

"No, I ate a really big meal at lunch," she replied. "Is this still about what happened at the end of last term?"

"Well, that didn't help, yeah -"

"Won-Won!" her voice pierced through the air, causing him to wince. "How many times do I need to say I'm sorry?"

"I dunno, but let's just go down to the Great Hall, alright?" he said, attempting to gently push her off him. But she clutched to his neck and held on.

"Maybe if we try again? I promise I won't -"

"Yeah? But we've got nowhere to do it, have we?" he said, grasping wildly for an excuse.

"Well, I'm sure if I talked to Dean and Seamus, they could stay out of your dorm. And you could talk to Harry. And Neville will be easy enough to get rid of, he'd fall for anything."

"I told you, don't talk about him like that," he said. Now firmly pushing her to the side.

"I feel like you're not attracted to me anymore. What have I got to do to make it up to you?" she said miserably, slumping exaggeratedly on the bench. She began clutching his arm, running her hand along his bicep up to his chest and back down. "You're so strong, and tall. I love that you're so funny, cute and sweet. Remember when we first got together? The night you won the match? You're so good at Quidditch. The team wouldn't be half as good without you…"

This used to work on him, but he'd heard it enough times now that it didn't make much of an impact. She'd always bring it back to the match against Slytherin, like it was the most impressive thing he'd ever done. She should see what he did every day now in practice, Ginny had barely scored on him in weeks.

He'd done plenty of other impressive stuff too. She just didn't know about it.

"Thanks," he said automatically.

"Well?"

"Well, what?"

"What do you like about me?"

"Er - you've got nice -" he forced himself not to look down at her chest " - hair."

Her face melted into an adoring smile and she began touching her long curls framing her face. "Oh, you noticed! I did it special for tonight." She was kissing him again, her tongue now exploring his mouth and her hands were securing his face to hers. After several long moments he pulled away, his stomach growling.

"C'mon, I've got to eat. I'm starving."

Lavender made a great huffing sigh and leaned onto his shoulder as he beelined for the Great Hall for dinner.

Although Ron was enjoying a particularly good streak of impressive saves during the last few practices, it was difficult to fully appreciate due to the inexplicable rising tension between his best friend and his sister. He didn't understand it, but he supposed it may be due to the pressure of the upcoming match.

"GINNY! PASS THE DAMN QUAFFLE!"

Ginny had just attempted an over the shoulder shot at Ron, who blocked it easily. He watched as she landed hard on the ground and began thundering towards where Harry stood to judge the practice. Despite being a blustery day, their voices carried to Ron where he hovered near the goal posts. But, registering the dangerous looks on Harry and Ginny's faces, he sped in their direction.

"Are you calling me a ball hog?!"

"I'm saying that Demelza was there for the pass! But your words, not mine!"

"I don't remember you having such a problem with that in the match against Slytherin! Or don't you remember - I scored eight out of the ten goals!"

"There are OTHER Chasers on this team too!"

"THAT'S RICH! Getting a lesson in TEAMWORK from Harry Potter, the Chosen Seeker!"

"WHY CAN'T YOU JUST DO THE PLANS AS I'VE WRITTEN THEM?!"

"BECAUSE I DON'T NEED THEM!"

"CLEARLY YOU DO! BECAUSE YOU'VE MISSED THE LAST FIVE SHOTS!"

Ron and the rest of the Gryffindor team landed in a ring around Harry and Ginny. The heads of each team member moving side to side, as if they were watching Pigwidegeon flit across a room.

"What's going on with you two?" Ron asked.

"NOTHING!" Harry and Ginny screamed in unison.

Ron exchanged a concerned look with Jimmy, who was still glancing around for stray Bludgers. Dean's face had contorted into a mixture of anger and concern. But no one looked more disturbed than Ritchie, who's eyes bounced between Harry and Ginny as if he were a child watching his parents in an argument.

Ron saw that Harry and Ginny were both breathing deeply, not breaking eye contact with each other. Ginny clutched the handle of her broomstick and had drawn herself up to her full, not so considerable height.

"We're trying that again," said Harry, first looking at Demelza and then slowly scanning the rest of the team. "This time, Demelza, you take Ginny's spot."

"WHAT?!" Ginny hollered.

"Take her spot, or sit on the bench! Your choice," Harry spat.

Ginny flung the Quaffle at Demelza, who caught it with an "oof!" and kicked off hard from the ground, speeding into the air.

Ron tried to catch Harry's eye to ask him for a silent explanation, but he blew his whistle hard and ordered them to return to their positions.

Ron slumped sideways in a large wing-backed armchair with his head heavily supported on his fist. From where he sat, he was sure Harry and Hermione would not be able to notice him staring at them. She never looked back, so it didn't matter much anyhow. The two of them were sitting opposite each other at a table clear across the Common Room. Their heads together, whispering. Their heads were always together these days. So close together. Had one of those heads ever just leaned forward a little more and…?

He tried to catch any hint that they'd moved their friendship to something more. Hermione touched Harry on the shoulder each time she greeted him, causing Ron's stomach to erupt in a vicious plume of envy. But had she always done that to Harry? Ron couldn't remember.

Ron wondered if Hermione would ever speak to him again. Properly speak to him. Like they used to without her being short and nasty with him. He missed the chimes of her voice as she spoke about… well… anything really.

He knew that she was angry with him, but he didn't really see the logic behind apologizing. If anything, she should be the one saying sorry to him for conjuring those frenzied birds to wildly attack him. He still had a scar on his left hand from a particularly nasty gouge. And anyway, even if he did attempt to apologize, it would only be to get her to talk to him again. All he could see that he'd done was snog Lavender. And why should she be angry about that? She'd done the same with Krum.

Krum. Krum had been too old for her. Hadn't Ron tried to warn her? But, no, she went off with him anyway. An International - eighteen year old - Quidditch star? Way too dangerous, if she'd asked him. Of course she didn't ask him. And when he told her what he thought anyway, she wouldn't concede that he might know more about what Krum was hoping to get out of that relationship than she did.

Same with McLaggen, that great mountainous oaf. What did she mean by taking him to Slughorn's Christmas party? Was it just to get back at him? Did she actually fancy McLaggen? Did they kiss at the party? Ron spent several moments reliving one of his well developed fantasies of punching McLaggen and knocking him out cold.

All this aside, Ron was realizing that even if getting together with Lavender was not a mistake, certainly staying with her was. She was always asking him questions he had no idea how to answer. Things such as "Where do you see our relationship in six months from now?" or "How often do you dream about me?" or "Do you see us as a serious couple?"

Hermione always had lots of questions. Many of which he didn't understand either, but he still very much enjoyed them. He could tell they were the type of thing that only someone who thoroughly understood the subject matter could think to ask. He loved that about her. He especially liked when she would ask him questions. However little that happened, especially these days.

Taking a deep sigh, Ron rolled his head to look at the blazing fireplace before him. He sat in the middle of three chairs, one empty on either side of him, and watched the flames dance. He couldn't help thinking how much better he liked them when they were blue.

Two practices later, Ron spun around to see Ginny rushing into the Quidditch locker room seven minutes late. Harry had just finished going over the plan for practice with floating figurines of players on a table-sized model pitch.

"You're late," Harry said, rounding on Ginny. "You know we always start right on time."

"I'm sorry, Flitwick kept me late to redo my -"

"Just get changed, the rest of the team is ready."

"I've never been late before, so care to calm down?"

"If you don't take this seriously then -"

"What? You'll kick me off the team?

"Yeah, maybe! And remember I have to fill out your Captain's assessment!"

"OH! So now you're BLACKMAILING ME?"

"I'M SAYING THAT I NEED YOU TO BE HERE ON TIME!"

"WELL, I'M SAYING YOU NEED TO CALM THE FUCK DOWN!"

In the span of several seconds, Dean stepped between Harry and Ginny with an outstretched arm as if to separate them and shouted, "HEY! Harry, you can't talk to her like that!" And Ron, seeing how Harry looked ready to slug Dean, quickly moved to put a hand on the front of his shoulder.

"SHUT UP, DEAN! I don't need you for this!" Ginny pushed Dean forcefully aside and walked straight up to Harry. She glared up at him, ignoring Ron who now stood between them. Ron saw fury in his sister's face that he'd only ever seen when attempting to escape the Inquisitorial Squad last year.

"Look Harry, it won't happen again. But you need to understand that nobody, NOBODY, cares more about this team than me! So say what you like on the Captain's assessment, but I'd call that pretty fucking unfair!"

Ginny fumed so palpably that her hair seemed to spark with static electricity. Harry's jaw jutted forward in the way that he did when he was trying to think while angry or tense. After several moments, the stalemate passed and Harry stepped back. Finally, Ron took in the rest of the room. Jimmy and Demelza stood close to each other, looking appalled and confused. Ritchie was now close to tears. And Dean had his arms crossed, eyes set on the floor.

"Just go get changed. We're late," Harry said to Ginny, and turned to go out to the pitch. Ron followed closely behind him.

Once they were out in the open air of the pitch, Ron asked, "You alright, mate?"

"M'fine," Harry replied. He summoned the Quidditch trunk over with a wave of his wand, causing it to speed out, stopping just short of where they stood.

"Okay," Ron said slowly. "I thought you knew better than to challenge a Weasley woman to a shouting match. D'you know how lucky you are that you weren't hexed?"

Harry released a Bludger from the trunk, took a beater's bat, and swung hard enough to hit it clear across the pitch.

"What's - uh - what's going on with you and -"

"I don't want to talk about it," said Harry shortly. "Will you just get the rest of the team out here?"

"Er - sure, mate."

Ron knew he'd find her there, even though it was late on a Thursday night. On these evenings she was never in the Gryffindor Tower when he got back from practice. And he knew she didn't have prefect duties this week as she wasn't on the schedule.

"Er - Hey," he said hesitantly when he found her. She was sitting with several books piled around her like a halo. It being the end of the day, her hair was slicked back into a low bun. He knew that she always liked her curls out of her face while she studied.

She didn't respond to him.

"May I sit?"

She eyed him with suspicion but did not tell him to leave. Taking this as a good omen, he sat down across from her. As he did so, he was sure to sit on the edge of his chair in case he needed to make a quick escape.

"I need to talk to you," he started. She looked pointedly down at the stack of parchment on which she had been making notes. "Do you know what's going on with Harry and Ginny?"

Her head shot up and asked, "What? What do you mean?"

Ron felt washed with relief that she'd finally responded to him.

"They've been yelling at each other during practice. Like proper screaming. Like Harry-Arriving-At-Grimmauld-Place-After-Dementor-Attack screaming."

"Really? What was it about?"

"That's just it - Quidditch. Only, it feels like something else. It's been happening all week. I don't get it because usually they really get on. It feels like it's not just about Quidditch. But I dunno - I can be thick about this sort of thing."

She snorted and closed her eyes in an attempt to hide her eye roll.

Ron hated it when she did that in response to something he said. He hated feeling like his thoughts and ideas evoked her attitude over her consideration. But he let it slide because he knew he probably deserved it.

"So, do you know what's going on?" he asked.

"No, neither of them will tell me. But they've both been stewing about something for weeks now," she said and started picking at the skin around her nails. For a long time, she seemed to be considering the news he'd brought her, puzzling it together with what she knew. He felt irritated that she didn't share her insight with him. Especially when it was he supplying her the information.

Finally she asked, "Has Harry been different at practice?"

"Yeah, he's gone sort of mad. Always talking about new strategies and how we need to be prepared for the next match. If it keeps on, he'll be yelling 'Constant Vigilance!' by next week." It was barely perceptible, but he could see the edge of her mouth twitch. Perhaps it was because he knew her so well.

"What about Ginny?

"She keeps dropping passes from the others. That's not like her."

"Have you asked either of them about it?"

"Yeah, they both just get short and say -"

"'Nothing!'," he and Hermione said in unison. This time she did smile, but it was quickly erased.

"So, what do you think it is?"

"I'm not sure, they're both so stubborn. I don't see how I can get them to talk about it," she said. Ron nodded vaguely and started thumbing the fist of his right hand on top of his left.

"Right," he said. He hoped that she'd ask him to elaborate. He had expected her to discuss this with him, or ask more questions. He thought she'd want to know more.

"Well, is that it?" she said after a long stretch of silence.

"I suppose," he replied. She returned to her reading, but he wasn't sure how she could read with her chin held that high. "Look, Hermione. I don't see why we can't just -"

"You don't, do you?"

"No. I mean, it's been months of this. Don't you think it's time -"

"You really can't figure it out?" she asked. He shook his head and shoulders shrugged, nonplussed. "Really, Ronald? You're the best in the school at Wizard's Chess, yet you can't logic your way through this one?"

"Maybe if you just told me, I could make it right," he said.

"There's a word for that. Oh, let me think -" she made a mock face of confusion, as if trying hard to think of an answer to a particularly challenging question. "Oh - That's right - cheating."

She again returned to her readings, but this time felt like a final dismissal. He looked at her for a long stretch, hoping either that she'd change her mind or that staring at the top of her head would reveal what she was thinking. Eventually he realized it was useless. So he grabbed his broom and slumped out of the library - as he so often did - without any new information than when he'd come in.

The next day, Ginny approached Ron as he sat on the bench in a corridor leading off towards Gryffindor Tower. Although March was fast approaching, it was still too cold for students to be comfortably spending time outside the warmth of their common rooms and classrooms.

"Hey, I just came from the owlry. Mum sent us some Valentine's chocolates, but they made it here late due to the inspections," she said, handing him his share.

"Brilliant, I didn't get any at the Valentine's Dinner," he said, tearing open the packaging.

She cringed and said, "You went to that?" Then shot her hand into his freshly opened box of sweets and took a raspberry filled chocolate.

"Oi! Hands off! Don't you have your own?" She simply shrugged and peered over the back of her own box's content descriptions. "What're doing out here anyway? Don't tell me, hiding from Lav-Lav?"

Ron didn't respond.

"What's it like? Snogging her? I imagine it takes you several days to rehydrate."

"Right sight better than Quidditch these days," he retorted, hoping it would shut her up. It did and earned him a sideways glare. "What's going on with you two anyway?"

"I don't want to talk about it," she said.

"That's what he said too."

"He talked to you about it?" she said quickly.

"No. What'd I just say?"

"Good," she said. She took another one of his chocolates, this time a swirl of white and milk chocolate in the shape of a heart. They sat thoughtfully chewing their treats and shivering due to the cold bench beneath them.

A familiar pang of regretful sadness hit Ron as he remembered how close they'd been before Hogwarts. She might've told him what she and Harry were arguing about if they were as open as they used to be. The pair of them, the two youngest. It went Bill-Charlie, Fred-George, and Ron-Ginny (Percy, the odd one out).

Familial sparring was a constant in their brother-sister bond, but so too had been deep confiding trust. She used to come to him for things. They used to tell each other stories, hidden in their forts made of fallen branches in the orchard. It was he she came to when one of their brothers made her cry. But now she treated him more like Fred and George always had. Which made sense, as they were there for her the most during her first year. He'd been so wrapped up with Harry and Hermione to pay her much mind. That was until he saw Ginny's name written in blood. Maybe the Chamber wouldn't have happened if he'd protected her.

Since then he'd adopted a fierce protectiveness over her. He knew she didn't appreciate it, but what was he supposed to do? It was his duty, wasn't it? To keep her safe. What else could he do?

And so they sat side by side in cold suspended silence.

"Well, bye," she said.

"Bye."

Ginny stood up to leave. She had just rounded the corner back to the Common Room when she ran straight into Harry.

"Oh, sorry," he said.

"I was just leaving," she said.

"Not storming off again, are you?"

"You'd like that, wouldn't you? Why don't you write that on the Captain's assessment, you know, so Gwenog knows exactly what she's getting into?" She tossed her long hair and yanked her bag over her shoulder to leave.

Harry's head dropped back, looking momentarily up at the ceiling. He took deep breath in and held it. When Harry exhaled, he dashed around the corner to catch up with her.

"Ginny, wait." Ron strained his ears to eavesdrop. "Please just let me explain?"

A short stretch went by during which Ron could hear no sound, so he assumed Ginny hadn't moved.

"Look, I am really sorry I can't tell you. But all of this is really sensitive stuff. If Voldemort finds out -"

"What, you think I'd snitch to him because we're former 'BFF's'?"

"For fucks sake, NO!"

Ginny's footsteps echoed through the hall as she attempted marching away. So Ron got up to peer around the corner just as Harry said "Ginny, wait!" He had now taken hold of her elbow, making the hairs on the back of Ron's neck tense up.

"I trust that you'd never voluntarily tell anyone. Especially him. I trust you. But Dumbledore made me swear not to say. He's spent years collecting this information and he's actually putting a lot of pressure on me to…"

Ron's shoulders tensed, he knew Harry had been about to reveal his task of securing Slughorn's memory. Thankfully Harry stopped himself by clenching his jaw shut tight. Harry took another deep steadying breath before continuing.

"But it's more than that. The more people who know, the more people I put in danger. I have to do what Dumbledore tells me. I have to. Or the people I care about get hurt…" Harry was silent for a moment before continuing. "And he has ways of torturing the information out of people."

"Even if he tortured me, I would never -"

"C'mon, Ginny, you know what it's like when he's in your head. And this time - if he finds out - he wins. I'm sure of it." Ron's hands clenched as he saw Harry's hand move up on Ginny's arm. "So yeah, you being involved with the Chamber and the diary, it just makes it more complicated. Or real, somehow. I wouldn't want to see that happen to you. Not again."

"I don't need a savior anymore, Harry."

"I know," said Harry with a crooked grin. His hand traveled further, settling just below her shoulder. "I'd like to see you take on that basilisk now. Bet you'd finish it off in half the time it took me. Imagine Riddle's face covered in bat bogeys and -"

"Oi! Will you get your grubby hands off my sister?" Harry backed away from Ginny by several steps, looking alarmed. He seemed to have forgotten that Ron was still nearby.

"Mind your own business, Ron," Ginny shot at him, though with much less intensity than he usually received for such things. Ron was now in full view after departing his hiding place. The three of them stood in the cold stone corridor like silent sentinels.

Harry searched her expectantly while she processed what he'd told her.

Now that she knew he had overhead, Ginny looked to Ron seeking her brother's confirmation of what Harry had told her. Ron nodded and said, "He's right, Ginny."

His sister shifted the burden of her bag to her other shoulder.

"Well, is there any way for me to help without me knowing everything?"

Ron now looked to Harry, who had a strange expression on his face.

"I'll let you know."