The Trouble With Love

Ginny was feeling very worried. It had been over a week since she had told Harry how she felt, and around five days since she had sent Pig with her letter. So, she wondered, what could be going on?

She was struck by a sudden thought. Maybe...maybe something had happened! Something terrible, like Voldemort had come...

With this she began to gnaw at her already nonexistent fingernails. She did this mindlessly- she now didn't even notice, it had become such a familiar habit. Oh, she knew it was bad, but how can you stop yourself from doing something you don't even notice you're doing?

Ginny was now pacing nervously, almost frantically. Ron, who was passing by her door, and who did not know about any of this, looked at his sister curiously.

"Is there," he said, "something you'd like to talk about?"

Ginny did not even pause, indeed, gave no sign she had even heard.

"Ginny?"

"WHAT???"

He began to back hurriedly out. "Oh, erm, nothing, nothing at all!"

Her expression softened slightly. In a much calmer tone, she said, "I didn't mean to yell. I'm just very, very worried, that's all."

He took a moment to answer.

"Well, what are you worried about?" he inquired.

"I don't think I want to tell you."

Then, at seeing the rather hurt look on his face, she hesitantly asked, "Well, do you really, really, really want to know?"

"Of course! Why wouldn't I?"

Here goes nothing...

She took a deep breath and plunged in.

"All right, well, I like Harry. A lot actually," she admitted. "But whatever you do, don't tell anyone. He knows though."

"HA! I knew it!"

"There's more."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. See, Hermoine..."

Several minutes later, Ron sat on her floor, holding his head with a rather dazed look on his features."

"Whoa, brain overload! Give me a few minutes. I need to recover from all that information you just hurled at me."

"Okay," she said in a relieved tone, glad that it was over.

So they sat, a comfortable silence filling the room.

Finally, Ron spoke.

"Wow, I didn't know, didn't even begin to suspect...but..."

"Yes?" she pressed him.

"Well..."

"I JUST TOLD YOU THE BIGGEST SECRET OF MY LIFE, AND YOU WON'T TELL ME..."

"All right, all right," he muttered.

"You see..."

And so he proceeded to tell Ginny about his feelings for Hermoine. Now it was Ginny's turn to thump onto the floor in shock.

"So...so..."

"Yup, it all just got even more complicated."

She moaned. "Can it get any worse???"

"I'm afraid so. I was just coming back from sending a letter to Hermoine."

"Telling her?"

"Yup."

Ginny murmured, "How the heck are we supposed to fix all this?"

"I'll be darned if I know..."

Ten minutes had passed by the time either of them said anything.

It was Ginny who broke the silence. "Well, the only thing to do is to all get together and discuss it. I suppose we could meet here..."

"I'm not so sure, we'll all just end up embarrassing ourselves. Especially me."

She pondered this.

"Well, I think we have to do it anyways. We have to get this out in the open, even if it does embarrass us, as I'm sure it will."

"I guess you're right," Ron admitted. "Well, when the owls get back, we'll send out letters. Sound good?"

"Yeah. Well, at least we know one thing."

Interested, he says, "Yeah, and what's that?"

"That this can't possibly get any worse than it already is."

"Yeah, thank goodness for that..."

Little do they know that it's about to get much, much worse.