Disclaimer: It's all JKR, none of it is me. I'm just a borrower.
***
In the End
Confrontation
The journey of light and color came to a halt as reality dropped back into place. The three of them landed gracefully on their feet as a result of years of practice. The luggage, however, collapsed with the paperweight fluttering down gently on top.
“Right then,” George said, straightening his collar, “welcome back to the Burrow.”
Harry couldn’t help grinning; he was too excited to be here. Here he was, barely a minute into liberation, and he was already miles and miles away from the place that was once his house.
He looked all around and the first thing he noticed was the cool air. It was nearly dusk here, and the sun was barely lingering over the mountains that surrounded the nicely secluded area. A lake sat nestled between a grove of wild trees, glistening and shimmering. Everything else was a green field, completing the sign of serenity. And just behind him was the huge tower of house on top of house that the Weasley’s called the Burrow.
“You are so lucky,” Harry complimented breathlessly.
“Yes, well, I’m not so sure you will be,” Fred said somewhat menacingly.
Harry raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“What do you mean?” Fred mimicked. “You should very well know! Ginny!”
Harry shivered involuntarily. “W-What about Ginny?”
“She’s heartbroken,” George sighed.
Harry felt his heart sink low. “S-She…you know?”
Fred nodded grimly. “Yeah. Ron told us.”
“Harry, you see,” George started. “Ginny’s a fierce girl. Heck, she’s the best jinxer in the family. She’s a strong little thing. So it’s quite a shock to see her moping around all the time. She cries everywhere, ever since she got home. I’ve got to tell you, it’s really depressing.”
“R-Really?” Harry trembled.
“Now I know that you probably had a good reason to breakup with her,” Fred said. “And we know that you wouldn’t just hurt her for the hell of it, otherwise you know that you’d have all of us, her brothers, on your tail like that.” He snapped his fingers to make his point. “We don’t mind having you here as a guest, Harry. You’re like an extended brother. So…what we’re about to say is advice. Brothers to brother. Understand?”
Harry nodded.
“Talk to her, mate. She’s never been dumped by a bloke before, nonetheless Harry Potter! She needs someone…a friend.”
Harry didn’t know what to say; he nodded even before his brain registered completely.
“Very well, then!” George said happily. “Let’s go inside! If Mum catches us out here ‘gallivanting,’ she might jinx us. Get inside now, come on…”
Once inside the Burrow, Hermione and Ron greeted Harry.
“Harry!” Hermione cried, pulling him in for a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “You’re here! I know it’s only been a week but I’ve missed you!”
“Let him go, Hermione,” Ron said, prying her away. “Let him breathe. Hey, mate.”
Harry and Ron shared a hug between brothers, smiling as they did so.
“How’ve you been?” Ron asked.
Harry made a weird noise just to show how much.
“Bad, huh? I can pretty much say the same for Ginny.”
Hermione scowled. Harry guessed that what Ron had said was some taboo.
“Oh it’s okay,” Harry lied. “I w-wanted to know how Ginny was. Um…where is she?”
Hermione sighed. “C’mon, she’s upstairs.”
Harry shook his head. “No! No, I’m fine. I-I’ll talk to her myself.”
Hermione looked as if she was about to protest, but Ron silenced her by taking her hand. Even Harry was shocked. Was this it? Were they finally together? Had the bickering become a thing of the past?
“W-What’s this?” Harry asked, already grinning.
“Um,” stuttered Hermione. “R-Really it’s nothing.”
Ron scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. “Harry, um…you see, um, s-something h-happened-”
“It’s fine,” Harry said, raising a hand. “No need to explain anything to me. I’m just glad that one of us are happy. It just so happens that it’s the two of you.”
Hermione beamed, Ron grinning. She leaned into his chest. “Thanks for understanding Harry.”
“Yeah,” Ron whispered.
“Well, I need to…you know.” He pointed upstairs.
“Sure!” Ron said, and he led Hermione by the hand to the kitchen.
Harry took a deep breath, and walked up the stairs. He continued along the balcony until he approached the door that Harry knew belonged to Ginny’s room. It was closed, and Harry got a feeling that maybe he shouldn’t go in. He was overwhelmed by discretion, but he knew that he would have to face her one way or another…
He inhaled, and turned the doorknob, opening the door.
Ginny’s room looked just as she remembered. It was painted light blue with furniture to match. Posters of international Quidditch players were posted everywhere, all of them zooming in various flying patterns. Ginny was lying on her stomach on her quilted bed, frantically writing on a piece of parchment.
She looked up and nearly fell off the bed. Even the posters went still.
“Harry!”
She stood up as fast as she could, the ink flying everywhere and the parchment falling to the ground.
“Oh damn,” she cursed.
Ginny turned around and Harry could have died there. She looked unlike he had ever seen her. Her red hair, usually kept neatly and sleek down to her elbows, was now frizzed and messed up, flying every which way. She was still wearing her pajamas, as if she had been trapped in her bedroom all day. Most of all, her eyes were rimmed red and swollen, watermarks streaming down her cheeks; she had been crying.
“Ginny,” Harry whispered softly.
Ginny looked swiftly to the parchment on the ground and said, “Um, I was just about to write you…but since you’re here…” She bent over, picking it up and ripping it apart. “It’s fine. I’m fine.”
Harry slowly approached Ginny. She backed away.
“No! I mean, no…you don’t need to come near me. I told you, I’m fine.”
“Ginny, I really don’t think you are. Come here, I need to talk to you.”
Ginny shook her head. “No! I don’t want to talk. I don’t need to talk! Everyone around here is treating me like a baby, like I’m incapable of taking care of myself or something…”
But Harry was already taking her into his arms. She flailed about, but it was useless. She was held tight already. Harry sat her down gently on the bed and he sat right by her. He ran a finger through her hair, which she protested.
“Ginny, I think you’ve earned a right to know why it is that I broke up with you.”
Ginny sat up, alert. She had been waiting for a rational reason, and now here it was.
Harry explained to her in detail everything that he had learned ever since his fifth year. He told her about the prophecy and how he and Voldemort couldn’t survive if one of them didn’t die. He then told her of all that Dumbledore taught him last year. He explained thoroughly about Voldemort’s path to immortality. He explained how the Horcruxes came into play and how two of them had already been destroyed. He told her of what Dumbledore and he were going to do, and then told her the awful truth of how he saw him die, and what he had to do with Ron and Hermione. He also told her the importance of seeing his parents.
Ginny was silent for a while, until she said, “Wow.”
He nodded grimly. “There. I told you.”
“Harry…I’ll never understand you completely. Maybe that’s why I’m attracted to you. There’s a darkness around you; you’re vague. You have such a haunted history that needs tending to. You need a normal life; you need to be able to live without having the worries that even normal adults would never have in their lifetime. I can do all these things for you. I can help you. I want to.”
“Ginny, you can’t-”
She set a finger on his lips. “Harry, I want to do these things for you because I love you. I love you.”
Harry did not know what to say. He knew how she felt about him. And he knew how he felt about her. But would it be enough to show her that she needed to stay? Was it enough to show her the importance of staying behind? He hoped so.
“Ginny, I love you, too. That’s why I can’t let you come with me. That’s why I can’t be with you.”
“Harry…”
“No, Ginny, no! I can’t! I love you too much to let you get in this kind of danger!”
“What about Ron and Hermione?” she snarled.
“T-That’s different…”
“How?” She was angry now. “Why are you like this? Why do you have to be such a coward?”
“Coward? I’m trying to do the right-”
“I know! ‘The right thing!’ It’s always the right thing, the noble thing, isn’t it Harry? You know what? It’s stupid! You think you’re being noble but you’re just hurting everyone else! To hell with our feelings, what about yours? You never listen to what you need!”
Harry was flabbergasted, incapable of speaking.
Ginny calmed down and tentatively approached Harry. Once they were dangerously close, she just lifted a hand and brushed away a thick tendril of black hair covering his forehead. She saw his lightning bolt scar, and ran a finger over it, trembling.
“Harry, if you can’t open your eyes up for even a minute, then you really aren’t the hero I thought you were. And,” she added, held back tears now glistening fiercely in her eyes, “if you can’t for once listen to this,” she said, pounding a hand over his heart, “then you’re right. We really can’t be together. It’s…it’s not possible.”
She lifted her hand to his cheek, touching him ever so gently. Then, after what seemed an eternity, she took it away. For a moment, Harry thought he saw a ghost of a smile on her face, but it was just as dark as ever. She walked past him leaving him alone in her room.
Harry groaned. She had seen things his way, but he wasn’t so sure that his way was the right way after all.
A/N: Some of you will agree with me and some of you will not, but I can safely say that Harry really needed that rude-awakening. The interesting part about writing this chapter is writing the way that Ginny feels. We've mostly been seeing Harry's side of the breakup, in this fanfic and in HBP. But we've never seen Ginny's side, and in this chapter, she really lets loose of all her emotions instead of keeping them well-hidden.