Chapter 7: Between Your Heart and Mine
The train pulled into Hogsmeade station and Harry and Remus stepped onto the bitter cold platform. They had no luggage so they walked through the village and up the path towards the enormous castle just visible on the dark skyline.
Remus stopped before the great oak doors and pointed to a tree on the edge of the lake. Harry squinted and could just make out a familiar figure huddled against the thick trunk.
“I’m going to speak to Dumbledore,” Remus said and he nodded encouragingly at Harry. “Do what you need to do to put this right.”
Ginny saw Harry approaching through the dark, but she remained sitting in amongst the roots of the tree and waited until he was closer to speak, “Where did you go?” she asked, her voice cold and emotionless.
“Grimmauld Place,” Harry replied quietly, “Remus found me.”
“Oh,” she replied and looked out across the lake. A long silence hung in the air confirming Harry’s belief that this was going to be harder than he’d hoped to put right.
“Why did you leave us?” Ginny asked, hurt now revealing itself as she spoke, though she tried so hard to conceal it.
Harry frowned. “I didn’t, I came back to the hospital wing with you.”
“But then you left,” she continued in a more controlled tone.
“I had to, I had to get out,” he insisted.
“Oh,” she said again, although this time there was definite anger in her voice. “It was important then?”
“Well… yes.” Harry said, not really knowing how to respond.
“More important than us?”
Harry shook his head and moved closer instinctively. He noticed that Ginny was shivering with cold. “No, I left to protect you. I was putting you in danger.”
“How would leaving protect us?” she demanded, still not looking at him.
“I’m putting you in danger! You nearly died because of me!”
Ginny stood up and faced him, her fiery red hair blowing behind her, “But you didn’t care enough to wait and see if I was OK?”
With that she walked off towards the school, leaving Harry in a stunned silence, staring after her. “Where are you going?” he called desperately, his voice carried away by the wind.
Because it was dark Harry didn’t see Ginny wiping away the tears that were rushing down her cheeks.
***
“Let’s split up and look for her,” suggested Ron, standing in front of the portrait hole.
Hermione nodded. She was worried about Ginny. They hadn’t seen her for two hours now, since they were let out of the Hospital wing, and they had looked everywhere they could think of. Ginny had seemed extremely upset when she woke up and run off sobbing when Ron had asked what was up, it was very unlike her.
“You search Gryffindor Tower, “ ordered Hermione, ”I’ll check the corridors we haven’t already and the girl’s toilets.”
Ron agreed and clambered through the portrait hole into the Gryffindor common room.
“Ginny! Ginny!” he shouted up the stairs to the girl’s dormitories. There was no reply.
He sat down on one of the armchairs by the fire, thinking, and his gaze fell on the pile of unopened Christmas presents beneath the decorated tree. On top was a blue wrapped package with a message saying:
“To Ron,
Merry Christmas,
Love from Hermione”.
Ron smiled and thought back to a few weeks before when they had gone Christmas shopping. “Harry had tried to be so subtle going off with Ginny just to give me and Hermione some time alone,” Ron thought.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Ron was peering over Hermione’s shoulder at the window display in All That Glitters in Hogsmeade. She was looking at necklaces which had names spelt out in turquoise letters on delicate silver chains.
“They’re so pretty,” she sighed and then turned to Ron. “Ok, where shall we go now? Ron?”
“Oh err…” He hadn’t been listening to her at all; he had been too focused on how her eyes had lit up at the sight of the pretty necklaces and how beautiful one would look around her neck. He was wondering whether he should buy her one although he was sure they’d be expensive. The moneybag in his pocket was full because he’d been saving up but he hadn’t got Harry, Ginny, his brothers or his parents’ presents yet. The necklace would cost everything he’d saved. It would be worth it though, wouldn’t it? If he got her one of those necklaces she’d be so pleased. Maybe pleased enough to…
“Ron!” Hermione said impatiently. “Why, in Merlin’s name, are you stood there gawking?”
“Err…” He mumbled, but suddenly he had a plan. “I need to go see Fred and George.”
She eyed him suspiciously, “What?”
“I, err… I’ve been saying I’ll drop in ever since they opened a new branch in Hogsmeade.”
“Oh,” Hermione replied, “well, I’m not coming. I’ll see you in Flourish and Blotts in half an hour.”
Ron had known she wouldn’t come with him to see the twins after the prank they’d played on her last time. Smiling, he watched as she walked away down the high street.
The bell above the door of All That Glitters rang loudly as he entered. He’d go to Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes later.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Ron smiled. The necklace had been worth it. Even if he’d had to be Fred and George’s guinea pig for a fortnight to pay for everyone else’s presents.
***
Hermione ran down the hallway, checking all of the corridors leading off it, and into the girl’s bathroom. She swung the old door open and called Ginny’s name. It was empty. She turned to leave, but caught a glimpse of her reflection in one of the cracked mirrors on the wall. Her gaze immediately fell to the silver chain around her neck and her name spelt backwards in the mirror.
She couldn’t believe Ron had bought it; she had been so surprised when he had given it to her. As she thought back to the day she’d first seen it in the jewellery shop window in Hogsmeade she recalled Harry’s “subtle” plan to spend time alone with Ginny. He had made it sound like he was doing her and Ron the favour, letting them spend some time on their own. “Only an idiot would believe that,” she thought, grinning.
She glanced over to the new white basin on her right; it had replaced the one smashed by the troll in her first year. Seeing this made her realize how much Ron had done for her over the years. It made her smile to think that even then he had liked her and also how lucky she was to have friends who’d save her life, risking their own, even when she had barely known them.
Her mind returned to Ginny and she hurried out of the bathroom, the door banging shut behind her.
***
A short while later Hermione burst into the common room. “I can’t find her anywhere,” she said breathlessly.
“It’s OK, Harry’s seen her,” replied Ron from the comfortable armchair facing the fire. She couldn’t see his face, but she could tell by the tone of his voice how tired he was.
“Harry’s here?” she asked.
“He just stormed in, muttering to himself, then ran upstairs and came back with a wooden box. He didn’t even notice I was here till I shouted and asked if he’d seen Ginny.”
“And he had?”
“I guess,” Ron replied. “He just said, “Unfortunately yes,” then ran off. Do you think we should find them?”
Hermione shrugged and smiled inwardly, “Let them figure it out.”
She slumped down on the arm of his chair. She was exhausted.
A thought crept into Ron’s mind about how things had changed between them recently and he grinned. They were both so much more relaxed in each other’s company and yet he was still surprised by every intimate action. “It’s been a hard few days, huh?” he said softly.
Hermione said nothing, she was too tired. She rested her head on his shoulder and sighed.
Yes, things had changed.
***
Ginny walked the corridors. She had run from Harry, back to the castle, and now she was wandering aimlessly.
She wasn’t sure where she was going; she wasn’t even looking anymore, just walking, trying to get off her mind the one thing she knew would follow her. “Why does he want to hurt me?” she asked herself again.
Everywhere she looked she was reminded of him. But people and places she could run from, it was what was in her mind that was inescapable.
She turned a corner and ran right into a figure, she looked up and found the last person she wanted to see right now - Harry.
He took hold of her shoulders before she could turn and walk away, and forced her to look him in the eye.
“I know I shouldn’t have left, but I felt so alone and scared, I didn’t know what was going to happen to you. Then Snape kept saying how it was all my fault and I know it was and I just couldn’t deal with the guilt of knowing I am leading more people I love into danger.”
Ginny’s expression softened slightly, but anger and frustration were still evident in her face. “Harry this isn’t your fault, this has never been your fault, why can’t you just let some of this guilt go? It’s killing you! We stick around because we love you and we’ll follow you to whatever Voldemort has in store for us, to whatever end.”
Harry stood still for a few seconds and then dropped his head to Ginny’s shoulder and she reached her arms around him and nuzzled her face into his chest. “You know you’re still not forgiven, right?” she said smiling, her voice muffled.
Harry nodded and then carefully took her hand in his, ”Come with me,” he said quietly.
***
As they climbed the spiral staircase leading to the Astronomy Tower Ginny giggled, “This better be good.”
Harry remained silent as his heart was jumping around with every step he took.
“What’s going-“ Ginny started, but Harry shushed her softly. She gave him a confused look and he just smiled back.
Just as they reached the last turn in the spiral staircase, she heard it: a soft guitar strumming from above. They stopped on the top step, in front of the archway, which was covered by a heavy, black curtain.
Upon hearing the first line of the song a smile appeared on her face.
“It's amazing how you can speak right to my heart,”
She looked up at Harry curiously.
“Without saying a word,”
He simply returned the smile before moving to the archway.
“you can light up the dark.”
With that, he opened the curtain to reveal the astronomy tower, decorated by dozens of flickering candles, twinkling like the stars in the night sky surrounding them.
”Try as I may I could never explain
What I hear when you don't say a thing.”
Silently, Harry took her hand again and led her to the centre of the round stone tower, so high above the dark grounds. By the wall stood a small wooden music box playing the sweet melody.
“I was planning to give it you for Christmas,” he whispered.
The candlelight glittered in her eyes as Ginny beamed and Harry was suddenly reminded of his father’s proposal to Lily.
”The smile on your face lets me know that you need me,
There's a truth in your eyes saying you'll never leave me,”
She let him take her in his arms and start to gently dance, barely moving.
“The touch of your hand says you'll catch me whenever I fall.
You say it best when you say nothing at all.
All day long I can hear people talking out loud
But when you hold me near you drown out the crowd
Try as they may they can never define
What's been said between your heart and mine”
As they danced, Ginny began to sing softly, and she leaned her head on Harry’s shoulder.
“The smile on your face lets me know that you need me,
There's a truth in your eyes saying you'll never leave me,
The touch of your hand says you'll catch me whenever I fall.
You say it best when you say nothing at all.
You say it best when you say nothing at all
You say it best when you say nothing at all”
“Harry, please don’t leave again,” Ginny whispered, gripping him tighter.
“I promise,” he whispered back as he leaned in and kissed her gently.
“The smile on your face
The truth in your eyes
The touch of your hand
Let's me know that you need me”
“You say it best when you say nothing at all
You say it best when you say nothing at all …”
The soft music carried through the night and over the silent grounds, to where a lone figure stood watching the distant, dancing couple. The sight of them together took him back to happier times. Remus sighed and wrapped his cloak tighter around himself, before setting off towards Hogsmeade station.
He had promised that he would help his best friends’ son make the decisions that would let him be as happy as he deserved. And he had persuaded Harry to grasp a love and hold on tightly, as he himself had never dared to do.
He had convinced Harry that there was still hope. Now he just needed to convince himself.