Harry Potter lay in his dormitory far into the night, unable to sleep. Not that he really wanted to sleep. He knew if he closed his eyes, he'd see things he didn't want to see. Things no one should have to see.

Things like your best friends, one going crazy and one laying unconscious, possibly dying. Things like your best friend's sister, clutching a broken ankle and trying to be brave. Things like your godfather, falling through a veil and never returning.

Things that no one should ever have to go through. But Harry Potter had. Somewhere inside the Department of Mysteries, Harry Potter had gone through it all. Oh, he had emerged victorious, all right. The newspapers now said that Voldemort was back instead of selfishly and stupidly denying it. That was what he had wanted. Yet the very thing that he had tried to save by going to the Department of Mysteries was lost because he had gone there: the life of Sirius Black.

Sirius was the closest thing to a father Harry had, being his godfather and, in the Wizarding World at least, his legal guardian. Not that anyone recognized that, as the majority of the Wizarding World, and even many in the Muggle World, knew Sirius Black as a murderer. The very murderer who had slain three of his own friends in cold blood, never looking back. But Harry knew better.

And now he was gone.

Then Ron and Hermione had gone off and fallen in love. Well, they probably had been in love for a while, they just finally got the courage to admit it to each other and now spent all day snogging each other silly, except for brief respites while Hermione convinced Ron to do his homework.

Harry was happy for his friends, of course. Hermione was no longer nagging him about his own homework, and Ron was doing his. That was reason to be thankful enough. Plus, he knew after all that his friends had done for him, they deserved to have their own happiness. He only wished that they were still there to confide in. He felt a need for someone, anyone to talk to. Harry had to get all of this weight off of his shoulders.

The weight of knowing that he must murder or be murdered.

The Prophecy, made by Sibyll Trelawney before he had even taken his first breath, certified that. In the end, it would come down to Lord Voldemort and Harry Potter. No Dumbledore. No McGonagall. No Hermione. No Ron. No Neville. Just the two archenemies, finally solving the bone that they had had to pick with the other since Harry was a mere baby in his crib. And one of them would inevitably die.

...for neither can live while the other survives...

These words finalized the fate of Harry Potter. He would kill Voldemort or die trying. Yes, Voldemort had been unable to defeat Harry so far, and it wasn't that he hadn't tried. But he had been only a vapor at first, then a memory. Now he was alive and gaining power all the time. Had he not killed thousands of innocent people in his life, wizard and Muggle alike? Did Harry really have a chance?

Probably not.

Deciding that this was not something he wanted to dwell on, he slipped out of bed and into the night.

---

Ginny Weasley sat in her bed, looking out into the web of stars in the otherwise black sky. Orion was bright that night.

So much had happened, so much had changed, in the course of one year. Just last year, she had been sitting on this bed, looking into this very sky, deciding that she was done with Harry Potter for good, trying to break a habit of many years and not think about him. Trying to remember that Michael was her boyfriend now.

A year later, she was now sitting on the same bed, trying to remember that Dean was her boyfriend.

Was it possible to fall in and out of love with one person in the course of a year?

Ginny did have to admit that it had been one crazy year. No, crazy was not the word. Different, maybe. Whatever it was, it was not your typical year. The simplest thing was that Ginny had given up on Harry, burying her feelings, not letting them emerge. Therefore, she could talk to Harry freely. Why, she had even called him 'rather stupid'!

Maybe Ginny's downfall was, being a witch, she did not know the Muggle story of Jekyll and Hyde. Once something has come out, you can bury it, but it only gains power until it becomes stronger than you.

In the Department of Mysteries, this very thing had occurred. Seeing the reality of death and how easily a person can just slip away, Ginny came to a sudden realization that she could not lose Harry. Her schoolgirl crush had not been terminated, but had blossomed into something stronger. Into, most probably, love. Ginny knew that.

The problem with all of this was that she had no idea what to do about it. She could not bury it again. She had tried, and she had failed. She had broken up with Dean Thomas, only to come to her senses and realize that Harry did not love her back. It was stupid of her to believe that he might have gone through the same thing that she had. He was the Boy Who Lived, and she was Ron Weasley's Baby Sister. He could have anyone he wanted. Ginny, it seemed, could have anyone but the one she wanted.

It was no use thinking about things you could not change, Ginny reasoned, turning away from the window and pulling the covers over her head, ready to try once more to fall asleep.

It's quite likely she would have succeeded, if not for a sudden strange tugging sensation. Then she vanished.

---

Suddenly, Ginny was no longer in her dormitory, but in a large, comfortable room with a fireplace.

"Where am I?" she said to no one, frantically looking around.

"The Room of Requirement. What are you doing here?" came a voice from behind her. Ginny spun around to see Harry standing there in his pajamas, Marauders Map and Invisibility cloak in hand.

"I don't know! I was in bed, then suddenly I was here, and I don't know why!" Ginny wailed hysterically.

"Gin, it's OK," Harry said soothingly. In all reality, he was trying to remain calm himself. The Room couldn't just bring people, could it? Since it obviously could, it seemed that he had...well, required her. That was more than slightly embarrassing to think about.

Ginny, apparently, came to this same conclusion. "Harry...were you...um...thinking about me or something? That the Room brought me here, I mean," she said, trying to fight the blush creeping onto her cheeks.

"Um, well, I just walked in the door and here you were," Harry said awkwardly.

"Oh. Why were you here in the middle of the night, anyway?" Ginny asked.

"Couldn't sleep. Thinking about...stuff. I guess I needed someone to talk to," Harry explained, feeling a sense of relief at figuring out why the Room brought Ginny. She was his best friend's sister, after all. He couldn't think of her that way. Could he?

"Why didn't it bring Ron or Hermione?" Ginny asked.

"I guess they've been a bit...preoccupied lately," Harry replied, casting Ginny a knowing look.

Ginny's heart was sinking quickly with the knowledge that she was just a random choice by the Room. But the Room was rather like the Mirror of Erised, wasn't it? It saw what you really wanted? Though while the Room gave you the thing you needed at the moment, the Mirror merely showed the deepest desire of your heart. Certainly the D.A. meeting room was not the deepest desire of Harry's heart, yet the Room gave it to him when he wanted it. Therefore, she was only a temporary need. In the morning, Harry probably would not have felt any different than if he'd been talking to Hermione.

But she had to try to make him feel better. It was the duty of a friend, even if she would never be more. "Do you want to talk about it, then?"

"I suppose," Harry said awkwardly.

"Well..." Ginny prompted.

"Ginny, there's something...something more. That even Ron and Hermione don't know. Do you remember that Prophecy that smashed in the Department of Mysteries?" Not waiting for an answer, he continued. "It's not lost forever. Dumbledore has a copy. It was made before I was born, about how a child would be born in July to parents who had defied Voldemort three times. This was either me or Neville. But then Voldemort marked me as his equal," Harry touched his scar, "which is the other part of the Prophecy. So it's definitely about me. And the end of the Prophecy says," he took a large breath, "that I either have to kill Voldemort or be killed by him."

Ginny just sat in silence. "I...I think I understood all of that. It came out rather fast. But...you have to...well, kill him, or he kills you?"

"Yeah, that's the gist of it," Harry said.

Ginny's mind was swimming. So she did the only thing she could think of and threw her arms around him in a hug, letting the tears come.

---

The sensation Harry got when Ginny hugged him was unlike any vibe he had ever gotten from Cho. That she really cared this much touched him. But was there more than that? He found himself breathing in her scent. He restrained himself from running his hands through that magnificently scarlet hair. He heard a gentle sob, and his first reaction was to comfort her.

Suddenly something inside him snapped. This was Ginny. Ginny Weasley. Ron's little sister. He couldn't...

But these feelings were not totally unfamiliar. How long had he liked Ginny like this? Weeks? Months? Years? He knew that these feelings were rather overpowering. He couldn't just sit around and do nothing about them.

His train of thought was broken by Ginny pulling herself away from him. "I'm sorry, that was out of line. I was stupid, I just was rather overcome..."

She probably would have rambled on like this for quite a while if he hadn't stopped her. "It's all right, Ginny. I didn't mind."

Didn't mind? That sounded as if he'd enjoyed it. Which he most certainly had not. Of course not. It's Ginny Weasley, you know, Ron's baby sister? Get a grip, he thought.

Ginny apparently was on this wavelength, too, as she blushed. "Look, Harry, maybe I should go..."

"Don't." It came out far too quickly. What was happening to him? One stupid hug made him act like a total idiot? Since when?

"Well, if you still want to talk..."

"Well, um...do you have anything to say?"

"About...Sirius?" Ginny asked. Harry cringed at his name, but nodded.

"Well, I never really told you how close we got at Grimmauld Place. He needed someone to talk to that understood him. So did I. He said you were so much like your father, only more mature than he was at your age. But you've gone through so much, haven't you? Stupid question, don't answer it. Anyway, we talked a lot about you," Ginny confided.

"Oh really? What did you say about me?" Harry asked. "I mean, um, I know what Sirius said, so I'm just rather curious..."

"I understand. Well, I really didn't say much. He did most of the talking." It wasn't really a lie. She hadn't had much to say about Harry at that point. She had just decided to forget about him. Though Sirius knew anyway. Once, when Ginny had made a comment about Harry never noticing her, Sirius had winked and said that he had his father's genes. 'Those Potter men and redheads. I'll never understand it.'

Ginny blushed at the mere memory of his words. Sirius had been wrong. She and Harry were very different from James and Lily. Harry wouldn't notice her as more than his friend's little sister unless she married You Know Who and became known as She Who Must Not Be Named. And that was not the sort of attention Ginny wanted.

"Blushing around me again, Ginny?" Harry teased. "I thought you were over that."

This caused Ginny to blush more, innerly cursing her memories of Sirius. "Sorry. I mean, um...well...forget it."

There was a pause.

"Well, how's Dean?" Harry said, trying to break the silence.

"Wouldn't you know that better than I would?"

"I'm just his roommate, you're his girlfriend."

"Ex," Ginny clarified.

"Oh." Harry was unsure of what to say now.

"Do you care?" Ginny asked on a whim.

"Of course not. Ron might, though," Harry said.

"Of course. Can't ever forget that I'm Ron's sister, can you?" Ginny asked angrily.

"Gin, don't get mad, I - "

"No, please. I'm sorry. You've got too much to deal with anyway. I'll go." With that, Ginny sped out of the room.

"Ginny!" Harry cried, grabbing his things and tearing after her. Why did he always say the wrong thing around girls?

She twirled around. "What, Harry? Want to break my heart again, do you?"

"No, Gin," Harry whispered. "It's just that you're out in the hallway yelling at me at four in the morning."

"Shit!" Ginny swore, but Harry quickly wrapped his Invisibility cloak around her and himself. "Get away from me, Potter!" she hissed.

"It's my cloak, you know," Harry quietly reminded her.

"Why can't you just leave me alone?" Ginny asked, on the verge of tears.

"Because I've finally realized I can't ignore you anymore. Because my feelings for you are too much to put aside because you're Ron's sister. Because then I wouldn't be able to do this."

When their lips met for the first time, Harry knew that he had finally found a cure for his insomnia.

---

A/N: This was a plot bunny that hit me while, you guessed it, unable to sleep. Please review. Thanks for reading!