Thankfully, there were no ill effects from Hagrid's interview with Rita Skeeter. No story about him had appeared in the Daily Prophet, which was a relief. Demelza and I approached Hagrid during a COMC class just before the end of term.

"So Hagrid, how did you escape Skeeter's wrath then?" asked Demelza

"Honestly, she didn't wanna know about magical creatures at all. Weren't the slightest bit interested. All she wanted to talk about was Harry"

"What did you tell her?" I said

"Nothing she wanted to hear. Think she was trying to get me to be horrible about Harry. But why would I, he's never done anything bad to me, and whenever he's broken the rules, 9 times out of 10 it's for a ruddy good reason!"

"Well Hagrid, I'm glad you stood your ground"

"Yeah" added Demelza "the last thing anyone needs is to give her more ammo"

I walked with Magda to Ancient Runes, which had become a somewhat awkward class recently due to the fact I was sitting next to Amy, and we still weren't talking. Today though, I decided I'd had enough of this.

"Magda, could you do me a favour?" I said as we were going up the marble staircase.

"Sure, what is it?"

"If Professor Babbling agrees, would you be willing to swap seats with me? It's just that it's pretty uncomfortable having to sit with Amy when we aren't currently friends"

"Can't you just make up with her?"

"I want to, I really do, but she's the one who's got to make the move. She's the one who backstabbed me, she needs to come forward and apologise. I didn't do anything wrong"

Magda hesitated

"I am really enjoying sitting with Thomas, not gonna lie" she said "Oh not in that way, don't worry, Luna is safe" she added, seeing the look on my face. "I'm lesbian. If either of us should worry about that it's me, because Luna is bi. I'm not though, we're very happy together at the moment"

"Get to the point please mate"

"Alright, alright. Look, I know this is hard for you, so I'll do it. Let's just hope Babbling agrees"

"Cheers, you're a lifesaver, honestly"

That didn't prove to be correct. We approached Professor Babbling as everyone else was settling down.

"Yes, Weasley, Sivarsson, how can I help you two?"

"We were wondering if we could swap seats" Magda said

Babbling stared at us for a moment, then said

"No, you know the rules of my class. I made it very clear in September that the seats I assigned you were to be your permanent ones"

"But Professor, I don't get on well with Amy at the moment, it's been so uncomfortable sitting with her these last couple months!" I said

"My decision is final. Please sit down and do not waste any further time"

I bit my lip and and rolled my eyes, frustrated.

"And there will be less of that attitude if you want to avoid detention" Babbling said

I turned to Magda, who shrugged her shoulders

"At least we tried"

"Yeah, thanks mate" I replied. We fist bumped before moving to our respective seats.

Amy and I sat in our usual silence for the first half an hour, before I decided that this needed to stop. We may not be getting along, but the coursework was proving to be difficult, so this was as good a time as any to at least attempt some polite, formal conversation.

"Umm, what number does fwooper represent again?" I asked tentatively, biting my lip.

Amy was silent for a while, so long in fact that I thought she hadn't heard me. I was just about to ask again, when she let out a long sigh and said "four" without looking at me.

"Thank you" I replied

Five minutes later, Amy asked me what the runic phrase "regrazi" meant.

"Sunset" I told her

We repeated this twice more, before Amy tapped me on the shoulder. I looked her directly in the eyes, and I could see that there was a lot of pain and pleading there. Her facial expression clearly stated "I really, REALLY miss our friendship".

I felt tears forming in my eyes, and I bit my lip as I nodded.

"Madam Puddifoot's?" I asked

"I regret it" she replied. "I regret it all. My continued attempts at sniffing around Karkaroff have resulted in nothing but trouble. To make it all worse, I set Ludo a deadline of Christmas for paying your brothers back, and that's fast approaching. I'm sorry Ginny, I really, really am. These last few months without you really haven't been the same, you're one of the best mates I've ever had. Losing you was horrible, and I want you back more than anything else. You were right, I should have just trusted Karkaroff. I'll learn to trust your judgement better in future"

"Thank you" I said, wiping my eyes "and I knew about that deadline. I may as well admit that I spied on you and the twins confronting him. I apologise for that"

"Honestly, I don't blame you. I know it's in your nature to eavesdrop, and I probably would have done the same thing myself. If it goes to court, we will need you as a witness anyway, so this is very good timing"

"Fancy chucking a Quaffle around later? We can get Hermione and Demelza involved, it feels like an eternity since we last played together properly"

"That would be nice, and a perfect way to re-unite to be honest. You know what, why don't we organise a full on pick up game? We can't have a year at Hogwarts without Quidditch, it's just not right!"

"I agree. So is this it, are we friends again?"

"You betcha" Amy said, smiling and holding out her fist

A massive grin spread across my face and I bumped it emphatically. It was at that moment that we remembered we were in class, and we looked around, panicking for a moment, but we saw that pretty much everyone was talking anyway, and Babbling was bent over some parchment on her desk.

"I can't wait to see D's reaction to this" I said

"Neither can I. It's such a relief to be honest, and absolutely not what I expected when I woke up this morning"

"Same here mate, same here. And to think I almost swapped seats with Magda!"

"Oh that's what you were speaking to Babbling about?"

"Yeah, this so nearly didn't happen!"

We laughed, then finally turned back to our work.