Harry quietly made his way through the overgrown weeds as he tried to locate his parents’ graves.
It was dark and overhead the stars hung suspended in the sky, barely giving the lonely teenage any light on the moonless night as he stopped in front of a pair of gravestones and bent forward to read the inscription on them.
United,
They stay
forever this way
joined in holy matrimony
and joined in everlasting love
Survived by their sacrifice
their valor long gone
never forgotten.
RIP
Were they his parents’ graves? There was no way of telling. There were so many unmarked graves here, a thousand unnamed tributes to a thousand martyrs.
Harry swore loudly, his voice echoing in the empty graveyard. A chilly wind blew seemingly from nowhere and clouded Harry’s vision with a flurry of brown winter-dried leaves. Harry raised a thin arm to shield his face that stung with cold tears in the chaffing wind.
“Harry?” a soft voice called out. Harry turned abruptly, recognizing the voice with a shock and came face to face with Ginny.
He had forgotten how beautiful she could look, especially since he had been forcing himself to avoid her ever since she had come to stay with him, Ron and Hermione for Christmas at their small cottage.
She was dressed a long frothy white nightgown with her long mane of red-gold hair hanging untamed behind her back. Her skin looked unusually creamy against the dark and her eyes looked large and bright.
“What are you doing here, Ginny?” asked Harry, tentatively taking a small step towards her shivering figure.
“I- you weren’t in bed so I came looking for you,” said Ginny softly, looking not at him but at the ballet of the brown leaves being danced in mid-air beside her.
“Oh- I- I couldn’t sleep,” said Harry awkwardly, thrusting his hands inside his robes and turning away from the grave stones.
“Did you find them?” she asked softly, her voice almost one with the wind. Harry didn’t need to ask what she meant by that, because Ginny knew him too well to accept any lies that he offered.
“No,”
His voice rang with sincerity as it echoed around the tiny graveyard where the entire village of Godric’s Hollow had been buried.
Ginny looked up at Harry as he brushed away a stray tear.
“Harry, I never told you this before, but it doesn’t matter if you can’t tell which one of the graves belonged to your parents, because while you’re alive, they’re never really dead,” said Ginny slowly, taking a small step towards Harry.
“I wanted to see their graves, talk to them and some day be buried alongside them. Look at this graveyard, it houses forgotten people and unnamed bodies, my parents deserve better, they all do,” said Harry miserably looking around the graveyard.
“Harry, your parents are with you, you don’t need to find their bodies or talk to them or even be buried alongside them because your parents are with you, watching every step that you take and guiding you through every stepping stone in your life,” said Ginny, daring to take another step closer towards Harry.
“I guess so, but I never know if they are watching me or if they’ve gone, slipped away to another universe or to a happier realm,” said Harry, as emerald tears glazed his sleep deprived eyes.
“That’s something that we can never truly know Harry,” said Ginny, moving even closer, till she was almost next to him.
“Then where are my parents Ginny, I need to know, you say that they are with me, but where, at least if I had their graves marked out, I would know where my parents are,” said Harry angrily, looking at the azure sky with its twinkling stars.
“They’re here, Harry, and they’ll always be,” said Ginny, placing a small white hand over his heart.
Harry’s attention was suddenly diverted back to the redhead next to him. It had been so long since they had physically come in contact with each other.
Ginny awkwardly removed her hand and shivered as another gust of cold wind picked up the brown winter leaves decorating the grassy floor of the graveyard.
“You’re cold,” Harry noted as Ginny shivered uncontrollably.
“I am, but I’m fine,” said Ginny softly, for she had forgotten how it felt to have Harry in close proximity.
“All the same, we should go back to the cottage, Ron and Hermione will be wondering where we are,” said Harry starting to walk.
“I doubt it,” said Ginny mischievously, her hazel eyes twinkling.
Harry chuckled as he pushed the heavy iron lace gates. Something was wrong, he tried to push them open again, but they didn’t budge.
“Bad news Ginny, the gates aren’t opening,” said Harry as he tried to throw all his weight against the gates.
“That’s impossible,” said Ginny, pushing the gates resolutely, “I just came through them a while back,”
But for some unknown reason the gates refused to open. Harry and Ginny pushed with all their might and even tried to pull them open, but the gates didn’t yield.
“Harry, do you have your wand?” asked Ginny anxiously.
“No, I left it back at the cottage,” said Harry, cursing himself for being so careless.
“What do we do then? How good are you at Apparation Harry?” asked Ginny, wrapping her arms around herself to keep from shivering.
“Not good enough to Apparate alone, and the cottage is too far for me to risk it,” said Harry, wishing that for once in his life he was confident of his Apparation skills.
“Then we’ll have to stay here till Ron and Hermione finish doing- I mean till they wake up,” said Ginny worriedly.
“I guess so, did you walk here?” asked Harry uncomfortably. Talking about Ron and Hermione doing anything was awkward, for if everything was alright, he and Ginny would be following Ron and Hermione's suit.
“Yes, I knew you'd be here when I saw your empty bed,” said Ginny.
“So we’re stuck here for a while, lets find a place where we can spend the night,” said Harry, trying to sound calm.
They quickly scanned the graveyard for a place to rest and finally decided to stay in a tiny alcove towards a corner that was covered in weeds and grass.
The alcove was hardly warmer than the graveyard, but it kept out the cold winds. Both realized that they were rather inadequately dressed for a cold winter night, but they had been too distracted when they had set off to think about their physical comforts.
Just as Harry thought that the night was getting slightly warmer, it started snowing. To Harry’s dismay, it was still only an hour past midnight and they had the whole night to get through, without a fire or any food supplies.
Harry quickly gathered some fallen twigs and tried to light a fire by striking two flints together, but it didn’t work. “These are great ideas just in theory,” he said angrily, kicking away the flints.
Ginny was propped up against a wall of the cave and was watching him kick and curse with blurry vision. She was too weak with the cold to help him or to even ask him why he had decided to play with stones at a time like this.
“Ginny?” asked Harry, suddenly realizing that she had not spoken for a while. When he got no reply he instantly rushed to her side and shook her wildly.
“Ginny! Ginny! Answer me, can you move you legs? Ginny! Ginny wake up! Ginny!” he cried, but the words didn’t register in Ginny’s mind for she was slipping away.
“Ginny!” Harry cried, as he slapped her hard on a cheek, trying to rouse her. He was rewarded by a feeble moan and a faint flutter of her eyes.
“Ginny, Ginny listen to me, can you hear me?” asked Harry, desperately, shaking her blue arms and cursing himself for not noticing her sooner.
Ginny slowly nodded and softly said, “So…… cold……” before sinking back into her unconscious state.
Harry felt bile rise to his throat as he tried to shake Ginny awake. He slowly rubbed her arms and legs, trying to get warmth inside her cold body. Her lips were slightly blue with the cold and Harry instinctively bent his head downwards and captured her numb lips in a steamy hot kiss.
Somewhere deep in her sub-conscious state, Ginny registered the kiss and felt an unknown warmth flow through her body. Harry still loved her! She felt as if she had been held underwater and was finally allowed to come up for air. She slowly opened her eyes and found the strength to wrap her arms around Harry and pull him closer.
Harry was relieved to see her awake again and this cemented his decision. He slowly removed his robes and laid them on the cold floor. He then gently lifted Ginny and softly laid her onto them.
The Harry quickly undressed her and threw her frothy nightdress over their naked bodies like a blanket.
Ginny hoisted herself up on one elbow, gazing deeply into Harry’s eyes. “Are you sure you want to do this Harry?” she asked softly.
“It’s our only shot at survival, and well, I- I still love you Ginny,” said Harry gently running his warm hands over Ginny’s bare shoulders and softly kissing her protruding collarbones.
“I love you too Harry, I always have,” said Ginny earnestly, as she pulled Harry closer.
“But this can’t change our decision to stay apart, at least for a while,” said Harry, slowly inching his palms downwards towards her breasts, unsure of whether to go on or not.
“I understand,” said Ginny softly, “I truly do, and after tonight, I’m ready to wait for you my entire life,” and with that she pulled Harry down to the floor again, kissing him deeply.
Unseen by Harry or Ginny two spirits were wandering outside the cave.
“That was a smart thing to do, locking them in,” said one.
“I agree, I always do the right thing,” replied the second, rumpling his already messy hair.
“Ever the conceited, at least Harry’s happy now,” said the first one fondly, linking her arm around the second one’s elbow.
“Let’s go back to our graves and do what they’re doing,” suggested the second one, gesturing towards the cave and grinning.
“You’ll never change,” said the first, smacking him lightly on the arm.
“Can’t improve perfection can I?” replied the second, rumpling his forever messy hair.
“Very funny, first let’s unlock the gates,” said the first zooming away to do so.
“You know, when our children start doing it more than us, it shows that we are old. Do you think that we can possibly be called old?” said the second one joining her at the gates.
“We’re not old and I’ll prove it to you,” promised the first as she led the second to their gravestones which were right above the tiny alcove.
* * * *
The Unmarked Graves by silverstorm
Chapter Notes: This is my first one-shot and I hope that you'll like it. Please leave a review if you do.