Never what it seems by Rons chick
“Where are you going?” Ginny asked Harry as he pulled on his jacket and began to button it.
She hadn’t planned on waking up to him getting ready to leave. Just two days ago they, together, had told their separate and similar stories to the family. She didn’t know where Harry was planning to go, but the thought of him leaving her side again, even if only for a moment, made her cringe.
She took a deep breath as she watched him. The air in her hospital room was stuffy and she longed for the crisp odor of the world outside. Regaining her energy like her Healer had explained was no fun at all; and it had only been a week.
Harry finished buttoning his jacket and looked up at her. “To a place I thought I’d never return to again. Which is ironic considering it will be the second time I return there in three days,” he explained as if it were the simplest answer in the world.
Ginny was confused. Where was that exactly?
“What? I don’t think I understand correctly,” Ginny said with her face screwed up.
“Ginny…When I went…looking for you,” Harry sighed and then sat at the end of her hospital bed before continuing, “I was sent to…well…to the Dursley’s. But there was a…There was a Dark Mark over the house. I know I sound crazy, but I must go back.”
Ginny was starting to understand. She shook her head.
“Harry, you have no need to explain; I understand. What I don’t understand is why you didn’t tell us. I mean, did you just completely skip that part when you told everyone what happened?”
“Err…Well, yeah, I had to. I want to go back, but I want to go alone. If the rest know about it, they’ll come. This is one thing I must do alone; for me. If anything happens to me, you’ll know! And only then will you tell anyone where I am, I hope. And if something happens here, you’ll let me know, right?”
She nodded.
“I just…Ginny, I need you to let this be our secret. When I get back, I’ll tell everyone, okay? But for now, I just…Can you please refrain yourself from telling anyone?”
From the blazing look on her face, Harry knew this would be their secret; at least until he was ready for anyone else to know. He got up from the bed and looked down at her.
“I love you,” she told him.
The memory of the last time Ginny said this to him as he was leaving was fresh in his mind. But that memory wouldn’t repeat itself.
Harry walked over to her bed and kissed her.
“I love you more,” he whispered. He closed his eyes shut and disappeared.
**********
“Where’s Harry gone off to now?” Ron asked Ginny as he and Hermione entered Ginny’s hospital room.
“Yeah, we heard him Disapparate. Where’d he go?” Hermione asked as she walked over the chair beside Ginny’s bed and sat on Ron’s lap.
“Err…he didn’t want anyone else to know,” Ginny said.
“Well, when does he plan on returning?” Ron asked as he played with Hermione’s hair.
“Hmmm, I don’t know, let me think,” Ginny screwed up her face.
She thought the question over and over in her mind. It took a while and Ron and Hermione just stared in amazement. Suddenly, she smiled and let out a small giggle.
“He doesn’t know. But no later than tomorrow afternoon,” Ginny explained.
Ron was gaping at her. He turned Hermione’s head so that she was face to face with him.
“Babe, we need to learn how to do that,” he told her.
Hermione smiled. “Sure, I’ll sign us up for a class,” she said, sarcastically. “Well, it’s practically noon. What could possibly take him that long?” Hermione asked Ginny.
Ginny shrugged, trying to act as if the love of her life weren’t going to a house with the Dark Mark over it and he wasn’t, once again, putting his life at risk. But she could expect nothing less of him. The nobleness took over more of his life as he aged. She sighed.
“Bugger! I wanted to ask him about something. Oh well, I’ll just wait,” Ron said. “I’m starved! ‘Mione, get up, I want some food. You want me to bring you something? Ginny, anything? Well, I’m off,”
At the same time
’When will you be back?’ Harry smiled. The sweetest feeling filled his body at the sound of Ginny’s thoughts in his head.
’I’m not sure, but definitely before tomorrow afternoon. Ron wants to know, right?’ Harry thought hard.
’You guessed it. I miss you already,’ Ginny’s thought echoed through his mind once again.
’Likewise. Got to run; I love you,’ he thought.
’I love you more,’ she returned.
Harry took a deep breath and began to walk up toward the house he grew up in. The Dark Mark was no longer staring daggers down upon the house and Harry instantly knew that the Ministry had been there not long before him.
He approached the front door slowly with his wand held high. He was in no hurry. When he reached it, he carefully opened the door and stepped inside, closing it behind him.
“Hello? Is anyone here?” Harry shouted.
“Who the bloody hell’s there?” a shrill voice echoed throughout the house.
Harry recognized it as Aunt Petunia’s and his body relaxed a little.
“It’s…err…it’s Harry,” he yelled back.
Aunt Petunia came running toward him from the kitchen. She slapped his face hard and his eyes widened. He took a step back.
“This is all your fault, Harry Potter, you ball of filth, this is-“ she was barely understandable through her tears and Harry could tell by the way she was shaking that she was going to fall onto her knees.
He caught her before she hit the ground and he dragged her into the living room. The sofas were ripped and torn. He flicked his wrist and put the room back together. Then he brought his aunt over to a sofa and sat her down on it.
As he started to stand back up to grab a chair for himself, she clung onto him hard. He sat back on the sofa next to her and held her tight, letting her cry on his shoulder for the first time in his life.
**********
Thirty minutes and many tissues later, Petunia Dursley had half-way pulled herself back together. She sat, facing Harry next to her, on the sofa with his hands in hers.
“I’m sorry, Harry, for slapping you. I was scared; you surprised me! I thought this to be the last place you’d return to. You made that very clear your last night here. I…It’s not your fault what happened, Harry, I know that. You’re not the only wizard in the family. It’s just-“ Aunt Petunia was sniffing still and couldn’t seem to look at Harry.
“I know. I understand what you’re saying, Aunt Petunia. I was upset the day I left. After the way you treated me all of those years and then the day I was leaving you all wanted me to thank you?” Harry sighed, deciding to change the subject. “I didn’t come here to do this. I can explain better why I came, if you tell me what happened first.”
Harry waited while his aunt collected herself again and took a deep breath. She released his hands and turned so that she was facing the room.
“Well…It started about five days ago,”
**********
“Well, yes, I love him! Merlin, you and Harry really are two of a kind!” Hermione giggled at Ginny.
“What do you mean?” Ginny asked.
“Harry asked me if I loved Ron, too,” Hermione explained.
“Well, you both are so mysterious! But he loves you, too, even if he never says it,”
“I know,” Hermione whispered with a chuckle.
“So when did Harry ask you?”
“Hmm, must have been about a week ago. It was the day Umbridge took you. While she was kidnapping you, Harry and I were talking out in the waiting area,”
“That was the day I told him I loved him,” Ginny smiled at the memory.
Hermione was happy to see the twinkle in her friend’s eyes.
“Well, he loves you, too, you know,” Hermione said.
“Who loves who?” Ron asked as he entered the room with a pumpkin pasty in one hand and a glass of water in the other.
He walked over to Hermione who got up from her seat and let him sit down. When he set the water on the small table next to the chair, she sat down on his lap.
“Harry and Ginny,” Hermione explained.
“Oh, yeah. I guess I would say it is love for those two,” he said with a laugh. “Maybe for a certain other two as well,” he offered softly, the smile never fading from his lips.
“Hmm, maybe,” Hermione said. She giggled and then kissed him lightly.
“Oh no,” Ginny whispered.
“What’s wrong?” Hermione and Ron asked simultaneously. Ginny looked up at them, her face full of worry.
“It’s Harry. His uncle and his cousin are dead,” Ginny whispered.
“Serves them right, the way they treated him!” Ron said.
“Ronald! It doesn’t matter what they were like, they are his family and they didn’t deserve to die!” Hermione heaved incredulously at Ron. “You know, they apologized! Yeah, right when he was about to leave they apologized to him and they…they told him they loved him! The only part of the story that is more odd than that is the mere fact that Harry knew they were truly sorry; he could see it in their faces. But he yelled at them. He told them that he would never return to that house as long as he lived! He said…he said he could never forgive them,” she sighed. “He must be feeling terribly, with those being the last words he ever said to them! But that only means one thing: that’s where he is, isn’t it, Ginny?”
Ginny’s face was white now, and all she had the ability to do was nod.
“What is it?” Ron asked Ginny.
“He’s terrified. His aunt is alright, but he knows they will come after her. She cried for half and hour when he got there. He doesn’t know how to explain it to her. And you aren’t supposed to know where he is. Nobody is. He wanted to tell you himself. He is so angry. If Voldemort kills his aunt, he will take Harry’s last living relative,” Ginny explained.
The color came back to her face and suddenly her face was as red as her hair. She was angry.
“Hermione, he wants you to go to your parent’s house right now. He wants you to take them to Grimmauld Place and keep them there. He thinks Voldemort is after them next. We can’t let this happen. GO!” Ginny demanded.
Hermione stood up, horrified and shocked. She looked over at Ron who was now standing up behind her. He grabbed her in a big hug and kissed her swiftly.
“I’ll go with you. Ready?” Ron asked.
Hermione nodded and together, they left, leaving a useless, scared, and lonely Ginny behind. But then she heard Harry inside her head and a smile took over her face.
’Ginny, I’ll see you in ten minutes and explain more of what’s going on,’
‘I love you,’
‘I love you more,’
A/N: Hola people! Heeeeere’s chapter 11! Sorry it took me sooo long, but just be glad it is here now! Thanks for reading, now please REVIEW! Tell me what you think: what you liked, what you didn’t like! I need to know these things! Tankies again!
Manda*