Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Through Goblet
Classification: Post-Hogwarts H/G, Post-HBP AU
Summary: For years Ginny Weasley has tried
to bring an end to her feelings for Harry Potter … she's even uprooted her life…
but what happens when it's time to come face to face with him again? A
post-Hogwarts tale revolving around Ginny's discovery of herself…while coming
to terms with her feelings for Harry.…
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters
and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including
but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and
Warner Bros. Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark
infringement is intended.
September 2005 Author's Note:
Hellloooo everyone!
:) Since reading Half-Blood Prince, I've come to a rather strange standpoint
regarding Seeking Ginny. While rereading this fic, several things have come to
my attention and I shall list them for you, my faithful, wonderful, loyal readers.
Thought/Realization #1: I have (for the most part) no problem continuing
Harry and Ginny's story as was planned in Seeking Ginny. Perhaps it's because I love the story so much
and put so much of my heart and soul into writing it, that I cannot – without
on some level breaking my heart—leave it incomplete. So Seeking Ginny will be
told as I have planned it… with some moderate changes. (See Thought/Realization #2 )
Thought/Realization #2: Characterization is the most important thing to me.
(That isn’t new, it's always been). But Ginny is now different than my orginal
perception of her. Harry is, too. The
Ginny that I started writing two and half years ago is most certainly not the Ginny Weasley from HBP… from
canon. So I have decided to go back in
and change a few things regarding Ginny's character… and a little bit with
Harry's as well. NO PLOT WILL CHANGE.
THE CHAPTERS WILL HAVE VIRTUALLY THE SAME CONTENT. But in every chapter, you will see Ginny
reacting a little differently as I try to align her with canon Ginny. You will
also see (hopefully) some grammar and sentence structure changing a bit to make
it more solid sounding.
Sound insane? Want to scream at me that the fic is already
AU, why don’t you just leave it the hell alone and finish it? Well, a) I like to torture myself and, b) it
makes me more uncomfortable to write something out of character than it does to
write a non-canon plot. Because a) all fanfic is a non-canon plot anyway, and
b) trying to get the characters as close to canon as possible is something I
believe so strongly in that I cannot simply finish this fic if I didn't adhere
to our new, wonderful, hilarious, brilliant, outgoing, more-than-Harry-worthy
Ginny.
I am going to take
down all the chapters and update them as I make corrections. HOWEVER, to avoid
hate mail, all the original chapters will remain up at fanfiction.net and
Fictionalley. So if you need a fix of another chapter, go there. Also, it will
not be months between the chapter updating process, so you may read them as
they come out if you like…in fact, I would request that you did. :)
So…
with me? Hate me? Sorry for putting you all through this and
sorry for not mentioning it sooner, I didn’t want the hate mail. ;) Just realize that it's my wish to make the
story a little bit better, a little bit more realistic… even though it
officially is an Alternate Universe
now. :)
A/N: This chapter
has been revised as of September 2005.
It was a Saturday afternoon and the
Weasleys were scattered around the garden of the Burrow enjoying the warm
summer weather. Ginny Weasley lounged on
the garden swing, her blue jeans rolled up to the knee, her mind idly thinking
of how lazy she'd become in the past month. The prospect of not having to go
back to school in September—or forever—was something that felt very lovely some
days… mostly the days when she remembered homework and exams and the horror of
her N.E.W.Ts, anyway. Kicking her bare foot on ground, she sent the swing in
motion and rested her head back on the pillow she'd Summoned
from her bedroom a little while ago.
The swing was sitting on the thick
lawn, and in the shade of a very tall, very green tree. The tree was slightly apart from the actual
garden and, therefore, slightly apart from the actual people, but Ginny didn’t
mind it at the moment. Though she
usually loved being in the middle of the action, there were times like now when
she enjoyed her solitude. She supposed
that was a result from being in such a large family, not to mention the fact
that virtually the entire family consisted of loud and obnoxious brothers.
Her eyes fell on the loudest and
most obnoxious in the whole lot, both of whom were sitting at the picnic table,
directly across from one another, with a huge bowl of fruit. Their wands were
out and every so often, Fred would examine a piece of fruit very closely and
mutter something to George who nodded knowingly. Ginny rolled her eyes, thinking it wouldn’t
be long before something inhumane happened to the unsuspecting fruit.
Mum was probably thinking the same
thing, she noted, as her mother's eyes narrowed when they landed on the twins.
They didn't stay narrowed for long, however, when they took note of Dad who was
currently standing puzzled in front of a Muggle barbecue, banging his wand
against the grate and shouting some complicated curse. At
this, Mum's eyes flashed as she fingered her own wand nervously, no doubt
expecting a fire to break out.
Between her twin sons and her husband, Mum's suspicions were probably
right on the mark; there would most certainly be a fire today. The only
question was: who would start it?
Fred and George were the obvious
candidates, but Ginny wasn't too eager to suspect them—they, at least, had
taken to only blowing things up in their lab at the shop. Yes, she'd place her Sickles on Dad. It was
long overdue; he hadn't started a fire in ages—well strike that, the new car
he'd been tinkering with hadn't done too well.
The leftover parts were still burnt to a crisp in the shed.
And so was the everyday thrill of
being a Weasley, she thought wryly.
"Ouch! Molly, look, I've
burned myself on the barbelcue."
As if to refute her thought, Dad
held out his hand and grinned excitedly at Mum, then rushed over to show Ron
and Hermione, who were sitting under the willow together. Hermione grinned and said something that
sounded like, "That’s a bad burn, Mr. Weasley," which was exactly the
thing to make him puff up with pride. Ginny thought her father was the only
person in the world who would be excited about burning their hand just because
it happened the Muggle way. She was quite certain (and rather proud) that there
would never be another.
Rolling her eyes yet again, Ginny
turned back to Fred and George and grinned as a green apple suddenly bounced
into the air, sprouted white fur and rabbit ears, and began hopping all around
the table.
Ginny laughed…and one other person
in the yard did the same. Her smiled became fixed and she snapped her eyes away
from the fruit, turning her head to gaze back at the house. She refused to look at the source of the
laugh; she'd been successfully not watching him today, using no tricks
like putting herself in a different room or doing some sort of task. It worked because she'd be damned if she
didn’t have at least some control over the situation. Besides, she knew what she would find if she
did look his way and she wasn't in the mood for self-pity or self-torture or
any sort of ill-treatment of herself. Save it for another day.
There was a burst of laughter
coming from Harry's corner as though his own laugh had caused Ron, Hermione,
and the other one to look over at Fred and George, and the loudest and happiest
of all the laughs made Ginny's back go up.
She felt an inch of her temper flaring and she drummed her fingers on
her knee. Then, with perfectly calmness,
as though she wasn't about to retch, she
reached down for the magazine that she had finished ten minutes ago and opened
it. A pretty witch holding up a new brand of Mrs. Scower's Magical Mess Remover smiled an
unnaturally large smile as she demonstrated how to use the product. Ginny wrinkled her nose, thinking – as she
had the first time she'd seen the add—what a likeness
that large, overly happy smile was to hers.
She felt the pull on her
eyes to look at her and compare the two smiles – she would obviously be smiling
now, it would be rather easy. But Ginny didn’t.
Keeping her eyes quite level with her magazine, she flipped the page
idly.
Her name was Rebecca
Stephens and she had every reason in the world to smile. She was a pretty witch, and Ginny
knew that was petty reason to add to her long list of grievances about the
girl, but …well, suffice it to say, Rebecca's face was freckle-free. She had dark hair and light eyes that
crinkled in the corners when she smiled. Her cheeks were rosy and her mouth was
always curved in a grin. She laughed a lot, something that Ginny was pained to
admit had a brilliant effect on Harry.
She wasn’t dazzling, Ginny thought to herself, chewing
on her bottom lip too hard and wincing before letting go. No, she wasn't
dazzling at all. She even had a funny
nose if you wanted to nitpick and Ginny had. Oh, yes, she'd looked at her
plenty of times. Indeed, she could probably devote the rest of her life to
thinking up new ways to watch them inconspicuously.
Those were the times when Ginny
truly questioned her sanity—was it that she liked to torture herself? It
was an active choice to watch them together, she could control the urge, she could simply distract herself by finding a new hobby or
a new boyfriend. But no. She wasn't going to do that
anymore. She was through with
pretenses—at least, the pretenses she had with herself.
And so, her eyes constantly
followed them and watched them and memorized them; she went over every detail
about them inside her head and her ears opened whenever Ron mentioned them. Ginny
didn't understand why she needed to know everything
about them—the more Ginny saw of how truly happy Harry was with Rebecca, the
more Ginny hurt—but she craved them nonetheless.
But she would not go there today. Today
was not supposed to include Ginny Weasley's Pity Session Because Harry Potter
Doesn’t Like Her. There was plenty of that to go around on
other days.
She turned her wrist to look at her
watch, noting that her best friend, Sarah Murphy would be five minutes late in
only one minute. Sarah had been her savior through all of this; every time
Harry Aparated into the Burrow with Rebecca by his side, almost automatically,
(and trying not to make silent retching motions behind their backs) Ginny
headed for the fireplace to floo to Sarah's house (where she could comfortably
make loud retching noises while telling Sarah why she'd come).
Against her better judgment, Ginny
flicked a glance to Harry and she found, as always, that looking at him was
usually more brilliant than painful. He wasn't doing anything special—just
sitting with Rebecca and listening to Ron.
She took in his appearance like she always did, felt her heart pound and
her body react. It seemed as though the physical attraction got stronger every
day that passed; every week, every month and every year he looked older, more
mature, more handsome, more like a man. She curled her toes into the cushions of the
swing, hating the sharp stab of need that pulsated through her.
The air surrounding her was
suddenly thick with the sexual tension that she was creating all by herself and
Ginny dragged her eyes from him, occurring to her now, as it so often did, how
dangerous her feelings for Harry were.
She was quite sure that her eyes often devoured him with an intensity
that anyone would recognize should they so happen to look over. Sometimes it
felt as though she wore her heart right on her sleeve for everyone to
see—including him. And then other times,
when she actually spoke to him, she could swear he was more
dense than he'd ever been.
Ginny gave a dry laugh. He would always leave her guessing, wouldn't
he?
Furious with herself,
Ginny kicked her foot at the ground again, sending the swing in a rapid motion
and thought that she might Summon from her bedroom a Muggle novel Dad had
bought her. But that wouldn’t be a
distraction, not when she was sitting in the same vicinity as him. She could go
inside—her room desperately needed a cleaning. But at that thought, she felt a
flash of temper again. She didn’t want
to leave the yard, her entire family
was out here and dinner would be ready soon and Fred and George were probably
going to turn the entire bowl of fruit into some sort of puppet show and she'd
be bloody damned if she'd miss it.
She was sick of missing things
because of him.
Her last year at Hogwarts came into her mind then and as the bitterness
crept up inside her, Ginny tried not to think about what a horrible year that
had been for her. She'd hated leaving
her family behind after the war had ended and knowing that Harry was back here
— with her.
She hadn’t been prepared for the blow to her heart when she'd picked up
some celebrity magazine to a photo of Harry on the cover walking in London and
looking absolutely relaxed…with Rebecca.
It had seemed suddenly that Harry was everywhere—in the newspapers, in
conversations she overheard about the war, in the
letters her family wrote to her, in the letters he wrote to her—some
of the most indifferent letters she'd ever received in her entire life. Ginny had
felt like she was relentlessly being reminded that she wasn't a part of his life… at least, not an
important one.
She'd always been so careful
not to burden him with her feelings, but really, what had that done in the end?
Nothing. She was still sitting apart from him, only
now there was somebody else at his side.
She should have told
him. She shouldn’t have let it go during
the war when Harry had actually thought of her as a friend. She should have been forward with him and
told him that she would still be there for him if he didn’t feel the same
way. Perhaps it would have caused him to
open his eyes a bit towards her… perhaps he may have even begun to feel…
something….
Perhaps it had been a
mistake, keeping her feelings to herself, but her only blind concern at that
time had been for Harry, of making sure that he was okay and that he didn’t
have anything else to worry over. Ginny had always thought that she was doing
something right by not troubling him with her feelings, but now she felt the regret
like a blow to her heart. She shouldn’t
have been so presumptuous to think that there would be time for them after
everything was over. She should never
have been so hopeful to think that she could help him find his peace when times
weren't so dark for him.
It just hadn't occurred
to her that he would find it with someone else
Harry was laughing.
When Ginny looked at him, she felt a resentment of such magnitude that she tore
her eyes away and stood for the house. Admitting that she'd lost yet another
battle where he was concerned, Ginny stepped into the kitchen and walked
towards the sink. Perhaps cleaning the pile of dishes would help her to lose
the image of Harry laughing out there …with her.
Stupid,
smiling, laughing, happy her.
Ginny gave a weary
laugh that had no traces of humor in it whatsoever. She was just so tired of feeling like this. It made her feel, above all,
pathetic and she was so ashamed of herself that she could hardly breathe
sometimes.
The sound of the kitchen door
opening, and then slamming nearly had Ginny jumping out of her skin. She hastily picked up her wand and focused on
washing the dishes and keeping her face void of any expression as Fred and
George piled into the kitchen.
“I’m bloody starving already, d'you
think he'll ever get it to work?" George demanded of Fred, who was
carrying the bowl of charmed fruit all of which were desperately trying to jump
out of the bowl.
“Why did Mum let him use it the
first place? She knows he tampered with it.”
“What’s the matter?” George asked
and Ginny realized after a moment's silence that he was speaking to her. She barely had time to respond when Fred
grabbed her from behind and held her in a headlock.
“What’s wrong with our ickle Ginny?
Sad you can’t see your little friends at school anymore?"
Ginny ducked out of his grasp with
practiced ease and tried to shove him away. If he hadn't been so much bigger
than she was, she might have succeeded. “You know, I thought getting older
would tame you two, but I suppose it only makes you more annoying.”
Fred looked outraged. “Ginevra
Weasley, I am irate that you would even dare--”
“Awe, leave her alone, Fred,”
George said in a serious tone that had Ginny rolling her eyes. “She's in an
awful state, our Ginny. She's lost Harry to Rebecca and now her life is
worthless.”
Ginny’s hands froze. It was the
very last thing she needed just then and she opened her mouth to tell them both
to sod off, but Fred spoke loudly.
“It is so very tragic. Don’t look now, Ginny, Harry’s just kissed
her!”
“Don’t Fred, you’ll make her cry!
Besides you’re way prettier than she is, don’t worry, Gin.”
To her absolute horror, Ginny’s
eyes filled with tears. It took her by surprise and it happened so suddenly
that she didn’t have time to blink them away. Fred glanced at her and when he
saw her face, his grin rapidly disappeared.
“Ginny.”
George looked over and his eyes
widened, but Ginny shook her head and held up a hand. She couldn’t even get
angry with them.
“Leave me alone,” she muttered and
left the kitchen.
Ginny closed the door to her
bedroom and stood in front of her chest of drawers, looking up to find her own
reflection in the mirror. Pulling her
wavy mass of hair behind her shoulders, Ginny leaned close to the mirror and
stared very intently at her face. After a minute, she let out a long, steadying
breath and began to nod. She was going
to be okay.…
Whatever Harry saw or failed to
see, she knew she was still herself.
From her window, she heard a loud
booming noise followed by bursts of laughter and she peered out to see what the
commotion was. Her father had his wand
out and was putting out the fire, which had started on top of the grill. Mum
had her own wand pointed at Dad and must have been threatening to curse him as
everyone laughed and watched the scene from a distance. Ginny’s lips quirked—but then her smile faded
very quickly when he saw Harry, in the middle of everything.
This is wrong, she thought, staring
at him and automatically feeling the pull—the same physical, emotional yank on
her body and her heart. It was traitorous and it was cruel that she could still
feel such a strong pull towards him when he was so blind towards, and so
unconcerned about her.
On a sudden thought, Ginny turned
away from the window and practically dashed over to her trunk across the tiny
bedroom. She rummaged through her old schoolbooks, stacks of parchment, dried
up quills and empty inkbottles until she found what she was looking for.
Clutching it in her hands, she climbed onto her bed.
It was a catalog, one she’d picked
up from Hogwarts library, upon one of her professor's suggestion. Its contents
were of a school in
And she would be far away from
Harry.
Just then, there was a small knock
on her bedroom door and Sarah Murphy peeked inside.
“There you are. Your family’s
wondering where you’ve got to,” she said, stepping inside the room and closing
the door. “Your dad's set the grill on fire and your mum is cooking in the
kitchen now. She looks like she’s ready
to start hexing him—what’s wrong?”
Ginny reached out and handed Sarah
the catalog.
Sarah sat down on the bed. “The school in
“Do you know why I decided not to
go?” Ginny asked, looking her friend in the eye.
Sarah bit her lip and considered
Ginny. “I have a pretty good idea.”
“Because I
didn’t want to leave Harry. He’s with someone else, and I wanted to stay
here in case he breaks up with her. It’s a five-year program—and I can’t imagine
being away from him for so long. Do you
realize how pathetic that sounds, Sarah?”
Sarah blew out a breath and tucked
her shoulder length brown hair behind her ears.
“Not pathetic…exactly …”
Ginny shook her head and pushed off
from the bed restlessly to stand by the window.
She watched as everyone walked towards the kitchen door, as Harry tugged
Rebecca's hand playfully. “I have to get
away from him, Sarah,” she said softly.
"Ginny," Sarah began
hesitantly. "I think it’s so cool that you want to do this. I really do.
But don’t do it just to get away from Harry. You need to get over him."
"Sarah," Ginny said
forcibly, turning to look at her.
"I can’t get over him when I’m around him so much. I’ve been trying to do it for years."
"Ginny, don’t you realize that
he’ll never truly be out of your life? I
mean… he and Ron won’t stop being friends. He’s practically a member of your
family—"
“Yes, I know. And everyone has a fantastic part in his
life. Except me," she snapped
angrily, her eyes hard when they landed on him, just before he disappeared out
of view. "I've barely spoken to him
all summer, Sarah. We're not even friends anymore, it's a bloody farce!
There is nothing more between us now—I'm his best friend's sister and that's all I am. And I cannot keep pretending
that it's going to change! I'm ruining my own life, stopping everything, for him. It has to end."
Sarah heaved a sigh. "Ginny, I can’t imagine what it’s like
for you. But you can’t run away from him. Sooner or later you’re going to have
to face it."
Ginny's voice was hard as she
stared blindly beyond the garden, towards the clearing, where they had all
played Quidditch hundreds of times together. "Being away from him will
help me get over him."
"You were away from him last
year at Hogwarts," Sarah said tentatively, and Ginny shook her head
impatiently.
"Hogwarts was different. A
part of me thought that Rebecca was just a stupid fling that he would get over
while I was there. But we all know that if it was a fling it would have ended
by now. Besides, Harry and I kept in touch while I was there. I was asking him
how he was dealing with the war being over and he was telling me about the
weather. It was only a reminder that I was nothing important to him—" she
broke off as her voice broke and turned to look in the mirror. Her face was pale and tears were welling in
her eyes and she hated the way it made her feel. "I have to cut all ties
with him. I can’t see him or be around
him or speak to him or write to him. I have to forget about him."
Sarah took a deep breath, obviously
contemplating whether ot not to keep on with her
argument. “It just seems… it seems wrong somehow," she said finaly,
locking eyes with Ginny.
Ginny felt panic rise in her throat
and she grabbed Sarah’s hands. “Please don’t tell me it’s the wrong thing to
do, Sarah,” she whispered, staring into her friend’s wide blue-gray eyes.
“Please… I can’t stay here watching him, I feel like I’m about to – to lose
myself, I can’t explain it— ”
“Ginny, of course, you have my
blessing," Sarah interrupted firmly. "I just… I just don’t want to
see you hurt later.”
Ginny closed her eyes and nodded.
“As long as your not… you know, angry at me, or anything.”
“Of course, I’m not angry… I’m mad
with jealousy, though.”
“Sarah, why don’t you come with?”
Ginny asked, her eyes lighting up at the thought. “The school looks absolutely
amazing and we would have the time of our lives together!”
But Sarah shook her head and said,
“Sorry, it’s just that… after Hogwarts, I don’t want to be away from home
anymore.” She broke off and her eyes
filled with tears. “But I’ll miss you
something terrible, Ginny.”
“Oh, Sarah,” Ginny said, throwing
her arms around her. “We’ll keep in touch all the time! Twice
a week.”
“Three times a week.”
“And you can come to visit me! Oh, Sarah, we’ll have such a wonderful time!
Imagine—you and I in
They both laughed and spent the
rest of the afternoon in Ginny’s bedroom talking about
Since the war, the long distance
Aparition laws had been modified; it was illegal to simply Aparate to different
countries, and the legal process was very long and drawn out. Ginny would have
to Aparate first to the new England Aparition Station to fill out several forms
of paperwork, pay a great deal of gold, and be inspected by a line of Aurors.
This process was once rumored to take fifty-seven to sixty hours, but that had
been when the war had first ended and the Ministry had not employed the
Aparition Stations accordingly. New reports said that the average time spent
was currently only thirty-four and a half hours. The next step would be to
Aparate to the France International Magical Aparition Station where Ginny would
fill out more paperwork, pay more gold and be inspected by another group of
Aurors. The length of this process was unknown since the Daily Prophet did not
cover other countries’ systems, although it was rumored that the Spain
Apparition Station was so sparse in employment that the current wait time for
travelers was over five days.
A short while after Sarah left
claiming starvation because Ginny refused to go down to dinner with the entire
family, and when Ginny knew that Harry was no longer there, Ginny went into the
kitchen and fixed herself some dinner.
She thought with a humorless laugh that it was a good idea to get away
if only for her health as she’d missed so many lunches and dinners since she’d
been home to avoid seeing Harry with … her.
Stupid, smiling, laughing, happy,
pug-nosed….
Ginny bit her lip on a smile as she
piled her plate high with food, insulting Rebecca in her mind, knowing it was
childish and not caring.
She flipped through the catalog of L’Acadèmie d’Aubervive while she ate and her excitement began to build. She was grateful that her wonderful
saving habits over the years gave her a nice chunk of gold stashed in the
bottom drawer of her chest. Her savings would come in handy for traveling;
however, she would probably need to get a job in
A short time later, while the
breeze through the open windows became cooler and the sky turned dark, Ginny
sat at the table, thoroughly engrossed in reading her catalog. Everyone had either gone to bed or left and
she enjoyed the quiet peace of the house without any activity. And then the back door opened.
She didn’t need to look up to know
it was Harry.
“Hey, Ginny,” he said, noting her
in surprise.
Ginny managed a smile. “Hey.”
“Where have you been all day?"
he asked, stepping into the room. "I didn’t see you at dinner, did I?”
“Erm… no, I wasn’t hungry,” she
said, feeling the resentment build up at his casual interest. Suppose she told
him she’d been crying in her room because she was in love with him—that’d certainly
wipe the carefree smile off his face.
“I feel like I haven’t seen you all
summer. What have you been up to?” Harry asked, pulling out a chair and sitting
down across from her.
Ginny shook her head. “Nothing
much…. I thought you’d left, were you outside?”
“No. I Aparated Rebecca home, but
I’m staying here tonight,” said Harry, grabbing an apple from the bowl in the
center of the table. He nodded towards
her catalog. “What’s that?”
“Hmm? Oh…” she closed the booklet and flipped it over, finally sliding it to
him. She watched as he picked it up and read the title, as his eyes skimmed
down to the picture of the school. He
looked up at her in surprise.
“You’re thinking about going
here?”
Her throat went dry and she nodded,
unable to speak. Without a word, Harry flipped through the booklet, taking in
the pictures and reading some of the captions.
Ginny watched him intently for some sign of sadness over the possibility
of her leaving.
“I am going there,” she
blurted. “I decided today actually.”
“Wow, that’s—that’s so cool! Does
that mean you’ll be able to speak Troll?” he asked with a hint of mischief in
his eyes.
“Among other things,” she said,
smiling in spite of herself.
“Gobbledygook,” he said with a
lopsided grin.
Ginny grinned back, but wanted to
weep. “Mermish.”
Harry pointed his finger at her and
tried to look stern despite his huge smile.
“If you ever speak Mermish to me, I’ll have to throw something at you.”
Ginny laughed—she couldn’t help it.
And she was overcome with a powerful ache behind her chest. How could she leave
him…?
“How long will you be there?” Harry
was asking, still flipping through.
She swallowed and watched his face,
his eyes closely. “It’s a five year program.”
Harry looked up at her. “You’re
kidding! Wow….”
Ask me not go, she begged silently.
"Five years is a bloody long
time, isn’t it? Who will keep Fred and George in line while you're gone?”
“You will all just have to suffer through for
five long years… or at least until Christmas. And anyway, you lot will forget
all about me, anyway.”
Harry gave her a scolding look.
“Right, it's you who'll be forgetting everything. By the time you come home for
Christmas, we won’t even recognize you — you’ll look like you came from
Beauxbatons or something.”
Ginny reached for her wand. “Take
that back before you're sorry."
Harry grinned and opened his mouth
to say something else when Ron entered the room.
“So you’re back,” he said
sarcastically to Harry, quirking a brow. “Tuck Rebecca into bed all right?”
“Shut up,” Harry retorted and threw
his apple core at Ron. But the wide grin on Ron’s face and Harry’s smirk made
Ginny so nauseous that she stood and bade them goodnight.
Although she wasn’t the least bit
tired, Ginny changed mechanically into her nightdress and climbed into bed,
Ron’s words to Harry echoing in her head.
It was all she could handle before a feeling of anguish rose in her
chest and her eyes filled with tears. She felt like the sobs had been trapped
inside her all day and now she couldn’t help but let them all out. Turning,
Ginny cried helplessly into her pillow… and longed for the day when she would
be far away from Harry….