Dreamer of Destiny: Not a big Harry/Ginny fan, eh? I'm sorry. If it helps any they won't be so much flirting as… how shall I say… goofing off, making fun of each other, witty banter? And when they do get together…at the VERY end. It'll just be like a paragraph, then…BAM! Story over. So please, give it a chance if you don't like it, you can ignore it. But please give it a chance. Thanks for the review!

Baby Huey: I suppose you're right, I should probably decide myself how the story is gunna go. But I got a couple of reviews/PMs/Emails expressing a strong desire that Harry and Ginny never get together, so I decided 'what the hell I'll ask, can't hurt.' and I did. But anyways, not the point. I agree with ya I'm going to do what I wanna do, it just so happens that the majority of people agree with me, but even if they didn't I would still do it my way! thanks for the review!

Caellach12: I regret to inform you that you have indeed been out voted. Sorry. But I'll tell you what I told 'Dreamer of Destiny' (see above): "If it helps any they won't be so much flirting as… how shall I say… goofing off, making fun of each other, witty banter? and when they do get together…at the VERY end. It'll just be like a paragraph, then…BAM! story over. So please, give it a chance if you don't like it, you can ignore it." Now about the slash thing, no, I wasn't planning on putting any slash in, but if you're one of the people who hate gay people then maybe I will just to spite you. I have zero tolerance for closed-minded people, there is absolutely nothing wrong with being gay. Not personally gay, but some of my best friends are, and I take any and every insult to gays as a personal insult.

Fish: Well that's obvious , the Dark Lord destroyed all the records because… five minute pause…. because he's evil! and evil people are evil and I ( a non-evil person) could not possibly hope to understand the psyche of said evil person! that's why!... lol I dunno I never really though about it before. but I guess…hmmm well all the records were stored in the school and when the school was destroyed. Yea, that sounds good. Thanks for the Review!

I Write Sins Not Tragedies: lol, I dunno I don't think Ginny should sleep with Sirius. I mean how completely pissed (drunk) would you have to be sleep with your best friends godfather, who is 20 years older than you, who you think of as a father figure, who doesn't even know you:-) so yea, I don't think so. Sorry. Thanks for the review!

Thanks to everyone who reviewed! you guys fucking rule!

Chapter 10: First of Many

Harry and Ginny looked at each other as the door closed. "Did he just say Severus, Dad, and Sirius?" questioned Harry looking thoroughly shocked.

"Oh, Harry you know what they're like, is it really so hard to believe that your father got detention"

"No, its not that." said Harry shakily. "Its just... I want more than anything for my father to like me, he hates Severus. and Severus is my friend, but he hates Dad. If I'm nice to Severus, Dad and Sirius will not be pleased, and if I'm nice to Dad and Sirius, Severus will be angry. Uhhh what am I going to do?"

"Harry, I'm sorry." she said placing her hand on his. Harry sat collapsed onto the couch. "Well, I could do it by myself" she suggested.

"No" Harry replied, "I promised, I said we would do it"

"We could split them up, you take your father and godfather, and I'll take Severus."

"That might work, but where would we go?" he replied after a thoughtful pause.

"Take them to the 3rd floor, make them clean out an unused classroom, say we're going to use it for our advanced class"

Harry grinned "Thanks Ginny"

She laughed "Anytime, I feel obligated to share my brilliance with you lower beings"

Harry threw a cushion at her.

As the lunch bell rang on Thursday Harry called "Messrs Black, Potter, and Snape, please remain."

The trio made their way to the front, Harry had to stifle a laugh at the look on Severus' face, Harry could practically hear him snarl 'Potter' in the voice that had tormented him through school.

"As I'm sure you are all aware, you have each managed to land yourself in a weeks worth of detention. Professor Westly and I will be overseeing your detentions. You will be cleaning." Harry ignored the groans from his father and godfather. "Mr. Snape you will helping Professor Westly clean this room. Mr. Black, Mr. Potter, you will be cleaning a room on the 3rd floor that will be used for our advanced defense class. You will each be here in front of this classroom at 8 o'clock sharp tonight. You will not be late." He continued sternly. "Understood?"

A course of "Yes, professor"

His face broke into a grin "Alrighty then, 8pm on the dot!"

Seven hours later found three 17 year olds making there way to the Defense corridor. They arrived at 8 on the dot, just as instructed and knocked.

An Enter met their ears and they silently pushed their way in.

Harry stood "Good you're on time. Mr. Potter, Mr. Black, if you will lead the way." as he passed Severus he shot him a wink and whispered so only he could hear "Have fun."

Harry followed his father out of the room.

"Where are we going, sir?" questioned his godfather.

"3rd floor, first right passed the statue of Billius the Bemused" replied Harry

They walked in silence until they entered the classroom, Harry motioned for them to sit. They took seats opposite the teacher's desk.

"Right, well Ginny and I are planning on holding our Advanced class in this room, but as I am sure you can tell' he gestured to the stacks of dusty papers, and the filthy floor "It could use a little work"

James are Sirius nodded, "Yes, sir" they intoned.

"You each have 7 days worth of detention, so you have 7 days to completely clean this room, muggle style. If you still have time, you will construct a dueling platform. Detention ends at 11:30. Begin."

Harry watched as they began to pill the yellowing parchment and books in a corner. He leaned back in his chair, put his feet on the desk, pulled out a book and read.

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"So."

"So?"

"What did you do?" Ginny asked closed the door, and sat down at her desk. At Severus' silence she continued "Let me guess, you just couldn't help provoking the poor boys and got hexed or hit." she smirked "Right?"

Severus returned the smirk "Maybe."

She laughed and gestured for him to sit, "You really shouldn't, one day they're going to lose they're tempers and hurt you." she said good-naturedly. "If you hadn't noticed its 4 against 1"

Severus smirked again, "Yes, well, ganging up and seriously harming a fellow student is sure to get them expelled."

Ginny laughed again. "Butterbeer?" she offered pulling to bottles out from under her desk.

"Yes, please"

"Well let's see, its 8:15, 3 hours until you detention is over. Shall we order some sandwiches?"

"But, what about cleaning?"

"Please," she scoffed "we are magical, cleaning this room will take one sweep of a wand, and about 5 seconds. I never did understand it, cleaning the muggle way helps no one."

"But my punishment?"

"Being alone with me for over 3 hours is punishment enough, just ask my brothers, all six would say the same, 'If you don't want to kill yourself after listening to her for 10 minutes, you are either the most understand and patient person in the world or you're an idiot.'" she grinned "And yet each managed to survive 17 years with me."

"Six?"

Ginny's smile fell 'Oh, bugger, you're not supposed to talk about your family' she thought angrily "Yup"

Sensing that his professor didn't particularly want to talk about it he changed the subject, "Did you say 17? Wouldn't you be a 7th year then? Harry said there was a years difference between you." Said Severus remembering when his friend had said to Ginny "You're first, my second".

Ginny shifted slightly, she did not like where this conversation was headed "Yes, I skipped a year."

"Which year?" he asked intrigued

"My sixth"

Severus frowned, something was wrong with her story, Harry had said that they, meaning both Harry and Ginny had learned nonverbal spells in their sixth year. Not necessarily at the same time, but in the 6th year of their magical education, and yet Ginny had skipped that year. This was just one of the dozens of things he had noticed, little discrepancies in Harry and Ginny's stories, nothing sound enough to confront them, but enough to keep him suspicious of his friends. And this one was barely big enough for him register, if he hadn't made a habit of paying extra attention to them, he would have missed it. He didn't voice his opinion aloud but vowed to keep an even closer eye on his professors. He had not forgotten the very interesting conversation he had overheard on Halloween.

Ginny quickly changed the subject "So how are your classes going."

Severus began to tell her about his classes and the things they were learning, he joked about divination, and Ginny was happy to tell him of their dingbat of a teacher, 'Professor Tralon'. Which Severus laughed most profusely about.

At 11:15 Ginny ended their conversation, and bid Severus goodnight, she called out as he was halfway through the door. "Oh should, anybody ask, you spent 3 hours cleaning my room." he turned back in time to see Ginny wave her wand, and the room suddenly sparkle.

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James and Severus had not had such a good time, at the end of 3 hours they were covered in dust, tired, and sweaty. Harry had had an extremely goodtime watching the boys pile papers into boxes and label them. He had laughed when the got a face full of dust, and almost out of his chair in mirth when Sirius screamed and jumped after coming face to face with a spider.

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The following morning at breakfast, Severus looked up as a handsome screech owl landed in front of him. He ignored the curious looks, he very, very rarely received mail, and untied the roll of parchment on it.

Severus-

As you have detention today, I was wondering if you still wished to have your lessons, or simply forgo it this week. If you still wish to have a lesson, send a note back with Apollo (Ginny's owl) and come to my room after your last class ends.

-Harry

He pulled a quill and parchment and quickly scribbled.

See you after class,

Severus

He watched as the owl glided out the window, and looked back at his plate ignoring the looks he was getting. He sighed as the bell rang and began the long walk to the dungeons. He sped up as he saw a group of boys near the door. Just as predicted he reached the door just as the Marauders did. He strode past them keeping his face down. Half to hide his smirk, half to provoke them. There was no way Sirius Black and James Potter would let him pass with out some insult. His smirk grew as Black called out

"Snivellus."

Snape spun, the picture of a person caught off guard. He plunged his hand into his pocket but didn't draw his wand.

"I saw you got a owl today Snivelly. Sending yourself letters again, are you." Black said grinning slightly.

Snape looked around as saw his fellow Slytherins had stopped and were listening. He scoffed to himself. They never stopped to help him when he was being picked on, but when they wanted to know what was going on, in this case who the letter was from, they watched until they got the information they wanted, then moved on.

"No, actually. I leave that to you."

Black snarled "Sure, who would want you write you, you greasy little bastard."

Severus sighed mentally and looked quickly at his watch, he was going to be late if he didn't hurry, the professor was not his biggest fan, and took a huge number of points when he was late. "My brother does." he growled

The effect was immediate, the on looking Slytherins stepped between him and the Marauders. "Yes, Black, and if your quite done we have a lesson to get to." Lucius said as he guided Severus away from the confused Gryfindors.

"And how is Saxen?" Lucius asked silkily.

"Well." Severus replied shortly. He shrugged out of Malfoy's grip and entered the classroom. He took his usual seat in the back and began taking out his supplies.

Severus knocked as he always did on Harry's classroom door five minutes after the last class ended. And as usual he was greeted by Harry's 'Enter'.

He strode into the room and plopped into his usual chair. Harry greeted him with a warm smile.

"How was your day, Severus"

"Fine"

"Your enthusiasm warms my heart" Ginny said from the door way "Whatever happened to 'My day was fantastic! I learned so many knew and interesting things! I just don't know where to start!"

Harry rolled his eyes as he usually did whenever Ginny went off on one of her speeches. He gave Harry a knowing look then pulled oh his bag and began researching spells. He continued in this manner for over an hour ignoring Ginny as she tried to distract him by flicking bits of paper at him. She gave up finally and began flicking paper at Harry. He was no as adapt at hiding his annoyance.

"Ginny!" he roared after the 12th bit of paper struck him on the nose. She giggled and pouted.

"You guys are boring." She huffed "I'm going to the kitchens, want anything?"

"No, thank you" said Severus returning his attention to his books. Harry waved his hand dismissively. She slammed the door on her way out. As soon as the resounding Bam had subsided Harry closed his book and looked straight at Severus. Severus looked up cautiously. More than slightly bemused he shot a questioning look at his professor.

"How was your detention yesterday?"

Severus swallowed "Fine."

"What did you do?"

"Cleaned"

"Really?"

Severus nodded.

"I find it peculiar that you managed to clean the entire room in three and a half hours."

Severus smirked, "What can I say, I guess I'm just talented."

Harry returned the expression, "You will have your detention with me this evening."

AN: Hey guys sorry I took so long, and sorry its so dam short. I've come to the conclusion that school is an awful, awful thing and should be forever banded in all the world. SO yeah, I'll try to update soon, but in all honesty I doubt I'll be able to. my classes this semester suck! I have 2 honors English classes, Psychology, Econ, Spanish, and 2 easy classes, which are so lame I won't even go into them. But Yeah, I'm sorry I've been a terrible updater… I'll try way hard to update sooner!

the poll is as follows

A) Harry and Ginny friends nothing more: 6

B) Harry and Ginny flirt but never get together: 3

C) Harry and Ginny get together at end: 36

So yea #3 is winning by a landslide.

And I have the unhappy honor of informing you that the poll has been discontinued. I've decided to heed the advise of several reviewers and do it the way I want to, screw the little people! muwahahahhahaha:-) Thanks for your suggestions though!