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He fell bonelessly to the ground, and the blood drained from Ginny's face. "Oh my god! I didn't mean to... Ron!" She leapt off of Harry's lap and ran towards her brother's still figure.

Harry scrambled after her. By the time he reached them, Ron was moving again, sluggishly. She'd got him sitting up and was peering at one eye then the other worriedly. "Can you hear me? How many fingers am I holding up? Can you talk?"

He groaned, rubbing his head. "What the hell'd you do that for? Are you mental? Damn it, Ginny, get off of me. AND PUT SOME BLOODY CLOTHES ON!"

"Well forgive me for worrying more about your skull than covering up my tits!" she yelled back. "Next time I'll remember what's important!"

"Your t-- You shouldn't have been uncovered in the first place!" he snapped, and turned a murderous glare on Harry. "Damn it, I trusted you I said you could date her, not... this! OW!" He flinched as he gingerly explored the back of his head. "Fuck Ginny, what the hell did you do? I'm bleeding!" At which, she forgot her angry retort and burst into tears.

Ron looked horrified. "Gin? What's wrong? Why are you crying?" He looked helplessly at Harry. "Why's she crying?"

Harry pulled her back against him, cradling her in his arms. "Maybe because you're yelling at her?"

Ginny shook her head, just crying harder against his chest. Guilt rolled from her in anguished waves. "I didn't m-mean to! I c-could h-have killed him!" she wailed miserably.

Ron stared at her. "Huh? What? Oh! Uh... don't be ridiculous, Gin. I'm okay. Hey, whatd'ya know, it wasn't blood after all!" he exclaimed brightly as he hurriedly rubbed his wet fingers on his dark shirt. "Must have just been sweat. I mean, it's hot out here, eh? Ginny? C'mon, don't cry..."

"It's okay," Harry said. "It's okay. He's fine."

"O-only b-because he has a thick skull!"

"Well... yeah," Harry said. "C'mon. This is Ron we're talking about, here." He gave his friend a dark look. "He's just jealous."

Ginny sniffled against his chest. "She'd be bad for him, anyway. She's too smart and he's too lazy. He'd be utterly miserable."

"Huh? Who? What? Oh to hell with it," Ron said. "Would you please put your clothes on Ginny? And you! Get off of her!"

"I'm not on her, Ron," Harry said.

"Well you were! Or she was on you. Same bloody thing and now you've got hold of her!" Ron said indignantly. "When I said you could see her I didn't expect you to take that to mean you could maul her like a ten sickle whore!"

Harry took a deep breath, pushing back his anger. "Ron, you've been my best friend for years. But if you ever call your sister a whore again, you'll regret it."

"I didn't! I said you were treating her like one!"

"I was doing what she wanted, Ron."

"She's a kid! Are you crazy? I expected you to have some sense!"

Harry winced. "She's not a kid, Ron."

"Even if she wasn't, you'd have no business treating her like that," Ron said. "That's not anyway to act with a girl you respect, Harry! C'mon, mate, you know that!"

Ginny turned on her brother, snarling. "Don't you dare talk to him that way! How he treats me is none of your business. None!"

"You have no idea how much I respect her!" Harry snapped.

"Then why did she end up naked with your hands all over her the first fucking time you're let alone with her?! She's my sister! You know damned well I've got to protect her!"

Harry winced again. "Okay, mate, you're on your own."

Ginny wriggled away from Harry and advanced on him, her hands clenched into fists, anger boiling from her in scalding hot waves. "I don't need protecting. I don't want protecting." She snarled, and her hair moved as is stirred by an unfelt breeze. "I will do as I please! And anyone who tries to stop me had best seek protection from me!" She stopped, trembling, a couple feet away from her brother, and as his face clouded and he prepared to answer-- no doubt belligerently-- Harry felt her anger surge dangerously, threatening to tear its way out of her control, and she moaned.

Harry reached for her. "Calm down," he said. "Not that he didn't dig his own grave there, but you need to be careful about getting mad."

At first, it seemed that touching her was definitely the wrong thing to do. Instead of being soothing, it reminded her of what was interrupted, and her original anger at that interruption, and the rage and resentment swelled high enough to stagger him. She screamed, a shriek of pure rage, and slammed her fists against his chest. The air grew hot, tight, and behind her the willow fronds whipped wildly, knotting themselves into a tangled snarl. She screamed again, high and piteous, and he could feel her frantically reaching for the connection they shared, holding tight to it as the emotions tore and ripped at her.

"Come to me," he whispered, trying to pull her further into his mind. She whimpered, and he could feel her struggling with herself, part of her resisting that pull and the rest gratefully reaching for the calm haven he represented. For a moment, the balance trembled on a precarious, razor-thin edge, then with a glad cry she let him enfold her, her body shaking hard against him as she let him take the anger from her, sharing it, soothing its burning hold on her soul. It wasn't without a cost, though; the killing rage he calmed in her affected his own emotions, fed his own anger... but at least his anger was normal, not a wild, uncontrollable force that fed on itself to spiral ever higher. And his own nature was far more conducive to taming it than her Dark imbued essence.

Finally she just sagged weakly against him, her eyes closed, breathing shallowly.

"What happened?" Ron asked softly, staring at her with somber, worried eyes.

"She almost got out of control," Harry said.

"So it's happening then. Already." Ron closed his eyes, looking sick.

"Yeah," Harry said. "But she'll be okay."

"How do you know?"

"Because I won't let her not be," Harry said.

"You can stop it, then?" Ron asked.

"I can help," Harry said. "But there's only one way to stop it."

"But you can keep her together until that can be done, right?"

"Yeah. We... um...." Harry trailed off, not sure how to tell Ron what they'd done.

"Go on, mate," Ron urged. "I'm not mad anymore. Not that I can't get that way again, if need be. Sometime later. When we're alone. Depending. But right now I just want to know what we have to do."

"Well--" Harry paused. "Maybe we should start with her robe? And, um, other clothes?"

"Great!" Ron agreed enthusiastically. "Brilliant, in fact! What'd you do with 'em?"

"Uh...." Harry looked around, at a loss. "Look, at the risk of making you mad again, I really wasn't paying any attention."

Ron marched down under to the base of the tree, looking around. His cheeks as red as his hair, he snagged her robe from the branch and, with two fingers, plucked her bra up by the very edge of the clasp. Averting his eyes, he held both out at arms length to Harry.

Harry took them. "Thanks."

"Why, Harry?" Ron's tone was one of puzzled disappointment, though his face wasn't visible; he'd turned his back as soon as Harry had taken the items. "I mean... I know you. You don't go that fast, either. And I know you wouldn't hurt her, but... you're too smart to think that's a good idea. So why? I just want to know. Because it's not like you."

Harry looked at Ron. "How long do we have?"

"Fred and George went the other way. They'll probably go about fifteen, twenty minutes before turning around and heading this way," he said, without turning around.

"No," Harry said, shaking his head and trying to fit the bra back on, without much success. "Ginny and I. How long do we have to live?"

"Bloody hell, don't start that again," Ron growled. "We're going to win, mate. Especially if the both of you can do that sort of thing without the wand."

"We've got a good chance, but we don't know. Dumbledore could kill us tomorrow," Harry said. "Dammit, how are you supposed to get this thing on? It came off a whole lot-- Um. Sorry."

Ron snorted. "We're not made to put em on," he said. "Just shove it in her pocket. The robe's pocket, I mean! Oh hell, just get her covered, would you?"

Harry laughed. "Abominations, I say. Maybe I should find a spell to vanish them." He stuffed the bra in her pocket and began working the robe on.

"Harry!" Ron sounded scandalised.

Ginny began to stir as the threaded her arms in the sleeves of the green robe. "Mmm?" She blinked at him. "What're you doing? I thought you liked me wi'out my robe..."

"Ron's here, remember? And the twins are coming." He looked up at Ron. "I didn't mean just hers."

"Oh, well then. Carry on, mate."

Harry chuckled. "Maybe I'll get the twins to help."

"Twins?" Ginny asked dazedly, blinking up at him like a concussed puppy. "You mean you're gonna still take me up on it?"

"What?" Harry asked.

"The twins. And... and Cho, and Pansy and Draco and everybody! Ooooooh why does my head hurt?"

"I told you, not unless you're there to make sure I do it right," Harry said. "And... Ron showed up, remember? You got mad."

"What is she talking about?" Ron asked ominously.

Ginny sat up, smoothing her hair absent-mindedly. "I told you I don't really like girls," she said. "It was just an experiment. Mad... oh... I think I remember. Ow. And before that we were... ooooooh yeah."

"Maybe you just don't like girls without a guy involved," Harry said, watching Ron's face out of the corner of his eye. He owed his friend for interrupting, after all. "Anyway, I already told you, if you want me to shag half the school, you have to help."

Ron was turning interesting shades of purple, but Ginny ignored him. Instead, she looked at Harry indignantly. "I don't want you to shag half the school. I never wanted you to shag half the school! I just thought you ought to! I don't even want to shag half the school myself, I just... you know."

"Well, I already told you my conditions," he said. "So you'll just have to be satisfied with having me all to yourself for now."

"I don't still think you ought to. Trying to make sure of that is how we got in this mess. Though I don't suppose I'd object if you wanted to try a boy, just once. But I'd want to watch."

Ginny slapped her hand over her mouth. "Did I just say that out loud?"

Harry swallowed. "Um... yes? Shit. But not Malfoy, okay?"

Ron fainted.

Ginny looked around at the soft thud. "Now look what you did, you broke my brother."

"No, you broke your brother."

"I did not. You were the one talking about shagging Draco," she said. Ron, having just started to sit up, fainted again.

"You made me."

"Don't be ridiculous. I've never made you do anything in my life," she said primly.

Harry raised an eyebrow.

"I haven't," she insisted.

"If you hadn't brought up me shagging a boy, I wouldn't have said I didn't want to shag Malfoy," Harry said.

"Well, if you hadn't been talking about shagging the twins, I wouldn't have even mentioned it."

Without bothering to sit up, Ron whimpered.

"I wasn't talking about shagging the twins. You were talking about me shagging the twins." Harry paused for a moment, unable to repress the images the phrase brought to mind. Of course, his mind wasn't exactly a lonely place anymore, and his own wisps of imagery were immediately joined by a rather complicated menagerie composed of Lavender, Ginny's twin brothers, himself, Draco Malfoy, and for some reason, a small duck.

Harry looked at Ginny, baffled. "A duck? And I am not shagging your brothers. No way in hell. I thought you meant the Patil twins."

"Twins are twins," she said, with a shrug. "And ducks are traditional. They're waterproof, you see."

"Aaaargh! Stop!" Ron rolled over covering his eyes with both hands. "You win. I give up. Whatever you want, just no more!"

"No, Ginny there's a big difference between your brothers and the Patil twins. Right, Ron?" Harry asked. "Which would you rather shag?" He still owed Ron, after all. It would take a long time to make up for what he interrupted.

"AAAARGH! I'm not going to be able to shag anyone ever again after those images!" Ron yelled, yanking his hands off of his clenched shut eyes and slamming them down over his ears. "Ever!"

"Help me out here?" Harry asked, sending Ginny an image.

Ginny rolled her eyes. "I thought you liked them, Ron. They're pretty enough girls, especially in the baths, all sleek and wet and shiny... I know you tried to find that peephole last year, you know."

"Of course they're pretty, you... how'd you know that? Nobody knows that!"

She grinned. "I know everything, Ronald. You should be glad you didn't find it."

"Why's that?" Harry asked. "He might have shown me, and then I might have seen you a lot earlier."

"Because I filled the hole with fire-eye powder I snitched from Snape's desk," she said. "You didn't need a peephole, Harry. All you had to do is put on that invisibility cloak that I know you have. If you didn't think to do that and get a much better view, you deserved what you got."

Harry shook his head. "No, if I'd thought of that, I'd have been stupid and snuck into Ravenclaw," he said. "I'm glad I didn't."

"Really glad," she said, smiling. "Ravenclaw baths are protected by heat-sensing charms. The intruder-triggered hexes are... rather amusing, really. I don't think you'd have liked being covered in purple chicken feathers, though, Harry."

"Why aren't the Gryffindor baths protected like that?" Harry asked, puzzled.

"They were. But I disabled that particular spell. I wouldn't have wanted you to get caught, after all."

"Don't you think that the other girls might have?!" Ron asked indignantly, and still shuddering internally at the thought of the fire-eye powder she thought was perfectly acceptable for him.

Ginny looked at him incredulously, and then burst out laughing. "Not bloody likely! They were awfully mad that I fixed the peephole before I explained!"

Ron glared at them. "Foul treachery from my own sister," he said, disgustedly. "And here I was going to be nice and tell Mum I found you perfectly fully clothed and picking flowers or some such innocent rubbish."

"You're just mad you didn't think of it either," Harry said. "You know I'd have let you come along."

"Oh? Oh! Ohhhh...." Ron's face took on a dreamy look.

Ginny snickered. "If she found out, do you know what she'd do to you? And do you think I wouldn't tell? Or rather, do you think you have enough to bribe me not to, given how fun it would be to watch?"

"You'd have gotten me in trouble if you did," Harry pointed out.

"I wouldn't have told if you'd been with him, love," she said, cuddling against him. "But he's not as restrained as you. He'd borrow it some night without you, and then I'd have him. I had it all planned." She sighed. "But you never bothered to try, you foolish boy."

"I never thought about it. Dammit."

"You should have asked for help," she said. "But that's okay. You don't need to sneak in anymore, so I can reactivate the heat wards."

"Now, Gin, let's not be hasty," Ron said, looking pained.

Harry felt her grin against his chest. His still bare chest, as he was becoming rather pointedly aware of, since she'd been amusing herself by tracing her fingertips along the subtle lines of muscle under his skin for the past several minutes.

"She'd kill you, Ron. You're way outclassed there, sorry," she said. "Why don't you ask Susan out? She's a sweetheart." And not, Harry noted, either confrontational or super intelligent. Not stupid, but not brilliant, either. Average, sweet, and very, very patient.

"Don't be ridiculous, Ginny," Ron said. "I wasn't thinking of anyone in particular. And Susan is dull."

Harry snorted. "Sure you weren't."

Ginny gave him a little slap on the arm. "Hush. Be nice." She smiled sweetly at Ron. "That's alright, dear. I'm sure you know your own mind, isn't that right?" There was an element of honeyed purr to the question, and if Ron hadn't been quite so beleaguered, perhaps he would have spotted the trap.

"Right! Absolutely. You can't just go around telling people what to do and who to date, you know," he said sternly. "People have a right to make their own decisions. Even if, of course, they haven't made any. Which I haven't. So there."

Her eyes glittered in the dappled sunlight. "Well then. You'll just be minding your own business from now on, won't you, dear brother? No more interruptions, objections, or blustering outbursts? No more protecting me from my own decisions?"

His face screwed up and he closed his eyes. "Aw hell. How do you do that?" He opened one eye to glare balefully at Harry. "Some mate you are, letting me fall for that."

Harry smiled beatifically. "I owe you for interrupting, mate."

"Yes, actually, you bloody well do!" Ron said. "I just yelled. Fred and George woulda got mean! And Mum would have killed you!"

Harry's grin widened. "No, she wouldn't."

"Well. Maybe not kill," Ron agreed reluctantly. "But she'd make you wish you were dead, and then, well... um. It wouldn't be pretty, that's all."

"Nope. She gave me the Talk, you know."

"Well she didn't mean you to apply it to GINNY!" Ron covered his eyes with his hand again, trying to breathe normally.

"Actually, she did," Harry said. "She gave it to me when she found out I was interested in her."

Ron looked slightly taken aback, but rallied quickly. "Well. Alright. Maybe, then. But The Talk also includes the proper way to behave, and you weren't doing that. Not by a long ways. That's the sort of thing that might... MIGHT be appropriate after a few months. Or maybe after you're engaged. Maybe. But not today!"

"I think she said I should let Ginny decide," Harry said. "So I did."

"Then possibly she'd just tear a chunk out of Ginny, and let you off with a minor scolding," Ron said. "But I don't think that'd make you feel any better, now would it? And she's the one who can't get mad. Isn't that what you said right before she screamed and fainted?" His brow wrinkled with worry. "And you never explained, not really, what was going on, what you did to stop it, what would have happened if you hadn't, and... and what the hell is going on. Okay?"

"Um. Right. Well. There was this spell, and it didn't... work quite like it was supposed to, and now we're linked," Harry said. "Speaking of which, I need to take care of a couple of things, so that we don't go to Azkaban."

"WHAT?!" Ron stared at him, horrified, then buried his face in his hands. "Calm calm, I'm calm. Not yelling. NOW EXPLAIN!"

"It was supposed to let me go into her mind," Harry said, using a spell to draw a small amount of blood out through the skin of Ginny's stomach, so that it could stain the robe. "So that I could know if it was safe to use the other spell, the one that would link our minds."

"That is totally insane? Why on ear-- what are you doing to her!? Stop that!"

"I'm not hurting her," Harry said. "But I have to make sure everything matches our cover story. I'm pretty sure we can get around Veritaserum, but I'd prefer not to have to try."

"Pretty sure, are you?" Ron asked weakly. "What cover story, then?"

"We were, um, making out, and this shard of-- Ginny? Where'd the knife go?" Harry asked, searching around. "This shard of obsidian in her pocket cut us both just as I had a surge of accidental magic."

She reached down, picking up one sharp shard without even looking. Absent-mindedly, she licked along the flat before handing it to him. "Here."

He took it and slipped it into her pocket. "Beyond that, we really aren't sure. It should work, I think."

"What? What kind of link is it? Can't you just undo it?" Ron asked. "Just end the spell."

Harry shook his head. "It's permanent. And if somehow it was broken.... I think we'd be lucky if it killed us."

Ginny lay her cheek against his chest and shuddered.

Ron sighed, looking at them. "Why would you even think of such a thing?" he asked. "You're supposed to be the smart one, Gin. Are you really so insecure you won't believe a guy fancies you unless you read it directly from his brain?"

She turned her face against Harry's chest, her cheeks heating. It was a highly overly simplification of the situation, but it could be taken as a fairly accurate one. If that wasn't the actual reason, it was at least very similar to the actual reason before it was driven in bizarre directions and to extreme extents by her even more complex than normal nature.

"Actually, Ron, it had to do with... what she is. What the Darkness is doing to her." He hesitated, looking down at her. "Is it okay if I explain?"

She shook her head, still thoroughly embarrassed. "Later. If you want. But... I don't want to talk about it right now. And we need to go, before they worry."

Harry nodded. "Okay." He looked back up at Ron. "I'll explain later. For now, just trust me that there was a good reason for it."

Ron didn't look any more convinced that Ginny felt, but neither of them argued with him. "Okay, then," Ron said. "You grabbed the piece of glass in her pocket... not that you should have been in her damned pockets mind you... and it cut you and you, being a clumsy jerk, jumped and stabbed her with it, and then there was just all this blood, and magic happened. Is that the way you're saying it happened?"

"We were... kissing, at the time. And stuff. You need to be pissed when you hear that, or they'll know something's up."

Ron ran a shaky hand through his hair. "I think I can manage that," he said, wryly. "Or, if you'd prefer, I could escort you home amidst a fit of righteous indignation. That'd suit me, too."

"What do you think, Ginny?" Harry asked.

Ginny sighed. "I'm tired," she said quietly. "And I just want to get through this as fast as possible. So I think it'd be best if Ron seems scared, rather than angry. Angry and Mum won't take it seriously. Scared, because of what we told him when he found us, and she'll know it's important."

"Right, then," Ron said. "I can certainly do scared just as well." He sighed. "Since it's the truth. You okay, Ginny? Really, I mean?"

She nodded, but curled tighter against Harry. "I'm just tired. And scared, too. But this helps, it really does. I'm not sure how long I would have made it without it. And I am sorry I hurt you by accident. I didn't know I could do that, or I would have known not to."

"Well... comes to that, I'm sorry for not being louder when I was coming up the path," Ron said, his cheeks red. "Or stepping back out when I saw the situation and... I dunno. Singing loudly or something. Hell, I know better than to sneak up on either one of you. Of course, you didn't exactly have any place you could have been hiding a wand orifyoudidIdon'twanttoknowaboutitthanks! And his hands were full."

Ginny smiled grimly. "I think you'd better consider it safe to say that, in an emergency, neither of us need a wand to be dangerous anymore."

Harry nodded.

"Right, then," Ron said, and stood up. He brushed off his pants, craning his head to check the back of him. "Look okay do I? Not like I was thrown into a tree or anything? Okay. Let's be off, then."