Author's note:I started writing this for the 'Girl Talk' Challenge a little over a year ago over at SIYE. Thought I'd post it here too. Enjoy. :)

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"He's doing it again, Ginny. Look," Dean whined, "he's staring at you again. He fancies you, I just know it."

Ginny sighed heavily, and rolled her eyes, she determinedly kept her gaze deep in her Transfiguration book.

"Dean, honestly, you need to stop this. It's really starting to get on my last nerve," Ginny said, her voice obviously irritated.

"For the last time Harry is not, nor has he ever 'stared at me as though I were a piece of meat.' We're friends, and that's all. If there is one thing in this world that I do know, it's that Harry Potter does not fancy me! Stop obsessing over it, I need to concentrate on this Transfiguration homework. McGonagall said that this material would definitely be on our O.W.L. exams, and I'm struggling to keep up with some of the vocabulary."

"Ginny, why won't you believe me? I know what I'm talking about, he's been looking at you the way I look at you. Trust me, there is nothing 'friend-like' in that sort of gaze."

"Alright fine! You want me to look, will that get you to shut up and leave me the hell alone so I can study? Fine, lets have a look, here we go," Ginny's patience had come to an end, and her temper was beginning to rise. She glared at Dean.

To prove Dean wrong yet again, she jerked her head up from her book and stared pointedly across the library to the table where Harry Potter was sitting, to inquire, for about the hundredth time, if he was 'checking her out.' However, unlike every other time Dean had made her do this, this time Harry actually was looking directly at her.

His green eyes were fixated on Ginny. He appeared to be lost in a very nice day dream, Ginny thought perhaps it was just a coincidence, he was probably using one of Fred and George's Day Dream Charms and happened to be looking in her direction. But then their eyes met, he jumped and had an embarrassed 'caught in the act' type expression that flooded his face. He blinked awkwardly. Ginny's mouth dropped open a little. Could it be? Was Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, the Chosen One, was he actually blushing? He was! His face had gone beet-red!

After the initial shock of being caught had faded, Harry frantically began to try to recover. A goofy grin spread across his face and his eyebrows raised to an unusually high level. His hand shot into the air and he threw Ginny a very jerky wave, in an obvious attempt to make it appear that it was just a casual hello from across the library. Ginny couldn't help but smile and wave back, partly because she wanted to make him feel a little bit of warmth in his moment of humiliation and partly because she was fighting the urge to laugh hysterically at his ridiculous expression.

After he put his hand down, Harry continued grinning oddly at Ginny, then suddenly he jumped up and began to hurriedly gather his books and bag. In his rush, he dropped all of his books, which crashed loudly to the floor. His face went scarlet again, as he clumsily picked them up. Harry cast her another odd smile and head nod as he practically ran out of the the library.

"I told you, now you can't possibly deny it! Did you see the way he acted when you caught him?" said Dean his voice full of superiority.

Ginny, shook her head and absentmindedly looked back down at her book as if the whole spectacle had not affected her in the least. Yet, in reality her mind was reeling. Nevertheless, she didn't want to allow Dean the satisfaction of knowing that he might be on to something, so she acted as if nothing had changed.

"I don't see how that proves anything more. He just smiled and waved, there's nothing suspicious there. Friends do that sometimes, you know, acknowledge each other's presence while they're in the same room. Now, I've looked up and seen, again, absolutely nothing that convinces me that Harry fancies me, so I'm getting back to work now," Ginny said with an air of nonchalance. Dean looked at her incredulously, he went to open his mouth to retort, but without looking up from the page Ginny held up her hand to silence him.

"Dean Thomas if you say one more word about it, I swear I will ditch you right here and now in an incredibly loud and painful scene! So either go back up to the common room and tell someone who cares about your silly theory or sit here with me and read...in silence." Dean crossed his arms, for a moment to pout, but then soon enough he had angrily flipped open a book and began to read.

To one who didn't know better it appeared that she was entirely engulfed in her studies, but really Ginny could no longer concentrate on her homework. She couldn't get the image of Harry gazing at her from across the room. It was a gaze that she was all too familiar with, a longing, pining, and loving sort of gaze. It was the type of gaze that reminded her very vividly of a smaller, less mature, and absolutely Harry-crazy version of herself. Checking to see that Dean was thoroughly engrossed in his book, she glanced or her shoulder to see if there was somebody sitting behind her that had been the true object of Harry's strange behavior and penetrating stare. But, alas there were only bookshelves and a window, there was not a soul to be seen.

Dean had been going on about his suspicions about Harry's feelings toward Ginny for months now, but Ginny had never taken him seriously. It had only irritated her, to no end. She thought Dean was just cross at Harry because Ginny had yelled at him for laughing when Cormac McLaggen had knocked Harry out with that bludger. But, he was right tonight, it appeared that Harry had indeed been staring at her and it had been rather peculiar the way he had acted when Ginny had looked back at him...

It just couldn't be possible that Harry would fancy her! She was just Ginny, Ron's little sister, who was good for a laugh, but she was never anything more than that. At least that's what she thought Harry saw her as.

However as she began to think back on it, she recalled several recent occurrences when Harry had acted a bit bizarre around her. Like when he had hugged her after that Quidditch match, he had run over to her, thrown his arms around her, and pulled her into an unusually close and tight embrace. But then he had abruptly jumped backwards, and cast her a strange grin without meeting her eyes. The very same crooked, awkward grin he had just given her in the library.

It was true that she and Harry had certainly become closer this year. They talked more often now than they ever had before, but Ginny considered this to be just a result of perfectly platonic circumstances.

She had joined Dumbledore's Army, and she was one of the five people who had gone to the Ministry with him last year, which had automatically drawn them closer together. But aside from that, she had also spent a fair amount of their summer with him playing two-aside Quidditch with Ron and Hermione, and also just lounging around the Burrow together, poking fun at Fleur and Ron.

Now that she was on the Gryffindor house Quidditch team with him, they had practice several times a week together. Ginny knew that these were the reasons they were now friends, it was not because Harry fancied her. They had gotten to know each other and had found that they got on quite well, and that was that. There was nothing more too it...

But as she returned her focus to her Transfiguration again, somewhere deep down she could feel her stomach fluttering with little bubbles and her heart was beating very fast. She told herself that it was just due to anxiety about her homework, but she knew she was lying to herself.

Thirty minutes later she and Dean left the library, she had given up on the homework and decided that she would just ask Hermione for help with it. Dean grabbed Ginny's hand as they walked through the fourth floor corridor toward the stairs, but she jerked it away from him.

"What's the matter with you?!" protested Dean.

"Oh, I suppose you forgot you were being a jealous prat did you? Well I haven't, and I don't much feel like holding your hand," Ginny retorted, as she started up the stairs.

"Stop acting so superior Ginny, you know damn well why I'm worried! Stop pretending that you don't have any idea!"

"No, Dean sorry, but I really don't know why you have been obsessing over Harry. Maybe it's because it's [i]you[/i] who secretly fancies [i]him[/i], and you're trying to hide your unrequited love." She spat at him.

"No, the only person I have unrequited love for is you Ginny!" he said curtly.

Ginny stopped in her tracks, and turned to face him in shock.

"What?!"

"Yeah, that's right, I just said that I'm in love with you."

Ginny's heart sank, and she swallowed hard as Dean moved closer to her.

"Does that make you feel anything? Anything at all?" he asked her.

Ginny's eyes grew wide, did he really expect her to say that she loved him too? She stared at him in astonishment. After a moment she tried to pull herself together. She couldn't tell him that she loved him, because she didn't know if that word was the right one to describe how she felt for Dean. Like, definitely, but Love...

"Dean...I-" she said as she shook her head slowly.

"I thought not," he sighed. He looked hurt and turned his eyes away from her.

"Dean, that's not fair. You can't just tell me you love me in the middle of a row. You can't expect me to-"

"Yeah well, it's not exactly the way I wanted to tell you, but...but I guess I just thought it might help me make you understand."

"How on earth would that make me understand?"

"Because it shows you how high the stakes are for me, and I'm...I'm afraid." He turned back to her, and Ginny could see how sincere he was.

"What in Merlin's name are you afraid?" she asked softly.

"It's no secret that in the past you've had a major crush on Harry."

"Right, but I don't like him anymo-"

"Ginny, stop."

"Excuse me I think I can tell if-"

"I see the way you look at him, and you have never looked at me like that," he whispered. There was a great deal of pain in his voice as he spoke. Ginny reached out and touched his arm to try to comfort him.

"But Dean, I'm not with Harry, I'm with you."

At this Dean let out a sad chuckle.

"For now you are. But if I am right about him fancying you, and I know that I am, at some point you're going to realise it too, and when that happens I've got no chance."

Ginny took her hand away from him immediately, she was appalled.

"Is that really what you think of me!? That if Harry batts his eyes at me, then I'd just chuck you and throw myself into his arms?! I would never be that cruel! Do you not know me at all?! I would never do that to you! Because, in case you've forgotten, I care about you Dean!" she said hotly.

Dean looked directly into her eyes and said, "I'm sorry, but when it comes to the way you feel about Harry, I don't believe you."

Ginny's jaw dropped, as Dean walked past her and up the stairs. She was hurt, how could he think her so shallow? She hadn't spent these past nine months with him for nothing?! She truly cared for Dean, and she had thought that he knew her better than anyone. He knew how much she hated it when people messed other people around. She stood on the stairs for a long time trying to process what had just transpired, and by the time she climbed through the portrait hole of the Gryffindor common room, she was somewhere between positively fuming and heart wrenchingly confused.

"Hey Ginny," said a voice from one of the arm chairs near the fireplace. Ginny turned to see that Hermione had been the source, she was curled up with a book in her lap.

"Hello, Hermione," Ginny said as she walked toward the sofa adjacent from Hermione and plopped down onto it.

"I don't mean to pry, but are you alright? Dean came in a few minutes ago and he didn't look happy, you look a little upset as well, have you two had a row?" asked Hermione.

"Yes, a big one," sighed Ginny.

"Oh, dear. Do you want to talk about it?" Hermione said tentatively.

"Sure, why not?!" replied Ginny. "Maybe you can help me make sense of it all."

"Well, what were you arguing about?" said Hermione.

"Harry, actually. It was about Harry." Ginny said through gritted teeth.

"Harry? You had a row about Harry? Why?" Hermione's eyebrows raised.

Ginny sighed heavily and rolled her eyes before continuing.

"Because lately Dean is obsessed with the fact that he thinks Harry fancies me, and he's just told me he thinks if Harry does like me, then I'll leave him without so much as a second thought. Then Dean has the nerve to tell me the real reason he's obsessed with it all is because he's in love with me!" Ginny exploded, rather quickly, but Hermione heard it all the same.

"He told you that he loves you?!" Hermione gasped.

"Yes." Ginny answered, then she sighed again.

"What did you say to him?"

"I didn't know what to say! I guess I didn't say anything. I wasn't going to tell him that I loved him too, I'm not sure that I do."

"Well, it's good that you were honest with him, if you're unsure of your feelings. It wasn't very fair of him to tell you while the two of you were fighting," Hermione responded, her bushy hair bouncing as she nodded in agreement.

"That's what I said to him, but he said that it would help me understand why he's so upset about all this Harry stuff, because he's afraid," Ginny explained, throwing her hands in the air.

"I see," Hermione said thoughtfully.

"It's all perfectly ridiculous! But what really got me was that when I told him that even if Harry did like me, I wouldn't just ditch him, Dean told me that he didn't believe me! I mean anyone can see that number one: Harry does not like me as anything more than a friend, and number two: I am not a heartless hag! Isn't it absolutely ridiculous!"

Hermione's brow furrowed.

"Well, yes Ginny, it is ridiculous that he didn't believe you, but as for Harry's feelings toward you, I'm not so sure that Dean is off the mark," said Hermione slowly.

Ginny's eyes widened and it seemed as if she had lost all ability to speak.

"What?" she finally got out.

"Well," Hermione began with a soft smile, "do you remember me saying a long time ago that Harry might start to take more notice of you if you acted a bit more yourself around him?"

"Yes I remember that, it was ages ago," said Ginny, eyes still as large as a house-elf's.

"Granted, I'm hardly ever right when it comes to predicting what Harry will or will not do, so don't take this as absolute fact," Hermione prefaced, "but, I've noticed, lately, Harry's taken quite an interest in you."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, for example, we were talking the other day and, casually, I mentioned that you and Dean had had a row, all of a sudden he wasn't interested in anything else I had to say, and he demanded to know, with this greedy look in his eyes, what you two had argued about..."

"That doesn't prove anything, he was probably just concerned that a feud might be damaging to the Quidditch team..."

Before Ginny had finished her reasoning, Hermione began to giggle.

"What's so funny?" Ginny demanded.

"That's exactly what he said when I asked him why he was so interested," Hermione explained.

"See, it had nothing to do with me," Ginny said, feeling as though the battle had been won.

"Perhaps, but there've been other things as well. Such as: I catch him staring at you all the time, he's always going on about how you're the best chaser he's ever seen, including the ones he saw at the World Cup," Hermione said, rolling her eyes as if she'd heard this quite a lot, "and whenever you walk into a room, his face lights up and he gives you that silly grin."

"I have noticed the grin," Ginny conceded after a moment. Hermione looked at her knowingly, with eyebrows raised.

"Hermione, he just can't fancy me. He just can't," said Ginny, almost pleading.

"Ginny, I know you don't want to believe it because you gave up on him, and you don't want to get let down again. But this time I don't think you have to worry, and it's not like anything is going to happen anyway because you're with Dean, right?" said Hermione.

"Right." Ginny responded, she really hated how Hermione could read her mind sometimes.

"Well, I think I'm off to bed Hermione. See you in the morning." Ginny said after a few moments of processing their conversation.

"Alright, goodnight," said Hermione as Ginny got up and made her way to the stairs to the girl's dormitories. "And Ginny, I hope you work things out with Dean."

"Thanks," Ginny replied over her shoulder as she made her way up the stairs.

A few minutes later Ginny was snug inside the comfort of her four-poster, desperately trying to avert her thoughts from Harry Potter. She tossed and turned, and began to recite in her head all of the members of the Holyhead Harpies, but it was no use. Just before she drifted off to sleep, a vision of herself madly snogging the Boy-Who-Lived senseless in a very deserted corridor appeared flashed in her mind's eye, and she half-heartedly attempted to make it disappear.

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Ginny was outside on the grounds, it was a bright, warm day. The heat of the sun filled her up. She looked around her and admired the intense green of the grass below her feet. The reflection of the sun on the Black Lake sparkled brilliantly, and she thought that it might be nice to go and dip her toes in it. As she walked closer to the lake, something else caught her eye and she stopped in her tracks.

Underneath the large oak tree, that Ginny so loved to lie under on beautiful days such as this one, there were two people. A boy and a girl. From afar Ginny could see that the girl had long, flowing, red hair, and the boy had an untidy, jet black mop. Her heart began to pound, they had their arms around each other, and then suddenly they kissed. Curiosity, flooded Ginny, could it be that she was looking at herself and Harry from afar? Was this what her future held? She had a yearning desire to know. She had to get a closer look. However, instead of just walking discreetly over toward them, she instantly found herself directly in front of them, almost nose to nose. It was as if she had been apparated there. The young couple were now staring at her in surprise.

She was very embarrassed, she felt as though she were intruding, and she apologized profusely.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt..."

Shen knew that she should turn around and leave. But she couldn't help but stay grounded and survey them. She glanced up toward the boy's forehead, searching for a scar but there wasn't one to be found. He looked remarkably like Harry, almost identical. But as she began to scan each detail, she found that he had hazel eyes hidden behind his glasses, not the emerald green eyes that Ginny had come to know so well. He was not Harry.

As she turned her eyes to the girl, she knew instantly that it was not herself. Their eyes locked and Ginny felt a certain warmth emanating from the stranger's gaze. Ginny's mouth fell open, the boy may not have had Harry's green eyes but this girl did. They were exactly like Harry's, down to the exact shape and size. The girl smiled at her, and then at the boy. Then her eyes fell on Ginny again.

In a soft smooth and altogether warm voice the girl said slowly,

"Hello Ginny."