The next day it rained. Water poured out of the sky as though all the clouds had been slit by some celestial sword. The raindrops inundated all the fields, mixing with every particle of dirt to form the thickest of mud. It was ironic how such a life giving source could also cause such devastation. It flattened wheat that had been ready to harvest, weighed down fruits until they dropped from their boughs.
Watching this great torrent from her window, Ginny couldn’t summon up the inspiration to do anything. After having visited the Zabini house for a week, her days seemed empty.
Which was ridiculous, she scowled to herself. It was not as though she didn’t have a life of her own. She didn’t even have Hermione to confide in. Her friend had been promptly whisked away after breakfast by none other than Draco Malfoy. That had certainly caused a few raised eyebrows and alarmed reactions.
Below her bedroom floor, she could hear the general chaos as people moved in and out of her house. She was forcibly reminded of the utter silence of Zabini Manor. How peaceful and relaxing it seemed!
It wasn’t that she didn’t like company; most times she reveled at being in the center of things. She didn’t do well when she was isolated. Right now, though, the one person she wanted to talk to was miles away.
A soft knock on her door jolted her out of her reverie.
“Ginny? Can I come in?” a timid voice asked. It was Harry.
“Sure,” Ginny answered as tonelessly as she could manage.
Harry peeked in timidly, his dark hair in more disarray than ever before. Ginny remembered when that messy head would cause her stomach to flip, right now it didn’t affect her much.
“Sit down,” she instructed after Harry glanced around the room a bit lost. He gingerly perched on the edge of Hermione’s impeccably made bed. His new, hesitant attitude was such a difference from the surly Harry who had been around weeks before that Ginny felt ill at ease. This was the Harry she had known and loved, but she couldn’t help but wonder where he’d been.
“I know I said some “things”that weren’t entirely fair a while ago,” Harry began, concentrating on her knee cap.
Ginny didn’t reply, just watched his face.
“It’s just that I haven’t really been myself lately,” Harry continued. “You see, when I was with Dumbledore before he died””
He choked off and Ginny felt a peculiar mixture of annoyance and sympathy for him. Did he really need to keep bringing up Dumbledore’s death? And when would he get over it?
“We were looking for Horcruxes,” Harry hurried out. Ginny blinked and frowned.
“What are you talking about?” she questioned.
“Horcruxes,” Harry focused on her face now that he was talking about something he knew, “are dark objects. When an act of murder is committed, the soul splits. A very evil wizard will put half of their soul into another object. It helps ensure their immortality.”
“And Voldemort did that,” Ginny breathed.
“Yes,” Harry replied grimly. “He did it seven times.”
“What?! Seven pieces of his soul?”
“Well, actually six,” Harry amended. “Because one sliver of his soul still has to remain in his body.”
“So you and Dumbledore went tracking Horcruxes down to destroy them so that you could finally kill Voldemort.” The pieces were all coming into place. All the unanswered questions were being solved. Ginny silently marveled at the solution.
“Well there were already two that were destroyed, three actually, as Ron, Hermione and I found out later.” At Ginny’s inquiring look he explained, “Dumbledore destroyed one, and I destroyed another, which was the diary…”
Ginny shuddered at the mention of that awful book and the awful boy who had manipulated her through it but did not interrupt Harry. Privately, she thought it was appropriate that it should be an object of blackest magic.
“Then the Horcrux Dumbledore and I went after turned out to be a fake. Someone else had gotten there first. There was a note in it, and it was signed by an R. A. B. Later, Hermione discovered that it was Regulus Black. So we went to Grimmauld place… Do you remember that foul locket that none of us could open?”
Ginny nodded, she did remember it from their scourge of the house.
“Well that was a Horcrux. Err, a former Horcrux, because Regulus had destroyed it. He also left behind a diary which we found in the attic and it detailed his work with the Horcrux.”
“How did he know about them?” Ginny asked.
“I’m not really sure,” Harry replied, frowning. “I think it had something to do with a conversation he overheard between Voldemort and Malfoy. It was when Voldemort was giving Malfoy the”er”diary. And he conjectured that there were multiple Horcruxes and somehow tracked down the location of the locket. I’m still not sure how he did that, the diary was more about how to destroy the Horcrux.”
“How do you do that?” Ginny asked.
“It’s a nasty process, you need to be really strong,” Harry began, taking a deep breath. “Ultimately you have to absorb the sliver of soul and destroy it, while it’s inside of you. That’s why Dumbledore’s hand died. Same with Regulus, he wasn’t strong enough to survive afterwards, but I think he already knew that.”
“Have you”absorbed”a piece of soul?” Ginny inquired tentatively.
“Yeah,” Harry exhaled again. “We, Ron and Hermione and me, found Hufflepuff’s cup under the debris of a bridge Voldemort had destroyed earlier. So when I picked up the cup, the soul sor t of slithered into me. Though at first none of us had any idea what had happened. It was only after the violent mood changes that Ron started to guess that””
“Mood swings?” Ginny interrupted; her heart in her throat. She guessed that this explained Harry’s attitude towards her at the wedding and before. Some part of her didn’t want Harry to have an excuse, she wanted him to have screwed up and be over her. She couldn’t explain exactly why though.
“Yeah, that’s why I was so rude to you at the dance,” Harry explained, confirming Ginny’s suspicions. “I knew I had to apologize to you.”
“Is the Horcrux gone now?” Ginny questioned.
“Yeah, finally,” Harry replied. “Do you know that a couple of times Ron wouldn’t even let me come into the house because I was so violent and rude?” He chuckled a bit at this, though it was a hollow laugh.
“That explains a lot,” Ginny answered frankly.
“Ginny, I care a lot about you,” Harry began. “I don’t ever want to hurt you.”
“I know,” Ginny’s voice escaped from her throat, small and almost non-existent. She stared fixedly at the carpet.
She felt Harry move from Hermione’s bed to her own. The soft give of the mattress jostled her closer to him. She raised her eyes to look into his.
“Ginny,” his voice was softer than a whisper now. He took both her hands in his own. She could feel his breath against her cheek. Their faces were so close now.
“I really want to make this work,” Harry murmured. He tilted his head and Ginny responded instinctively as Harry moved in to kiss her. She closed her eyes and tried to lose herself in his embrace. She had kissed Harry frequently, it wasn’t anything new, and yet somehow it didn’t feel…right.
“Harry,” she interrupted, breaking the kiss. Harry stopped, she could feel his surprise. He held her chin comfortingly as it began to wobble.
“I’m sorry,” she choked out, on the verge of tears. “You’re wonderful, more than wonderful, you’re perfect, but””
She stopped and swallowed. She owed Harry an explanation, at least. He loved her, he would protect her and look after her. She should be happy with him. Somehow her mind kept wandering to another face when she thought of her own heart. Her body ached for the embrace of another pair of arms.
“It’s not supposed to be this way,” she whimpered. “You aren’t supposed to be so nice, it makes this so hard.”
“Makes what hard?” Harry asked searchingly.
“This,” was all Ginny could say. She put her hands on Harry’s chest. “This isn’t right. You care about me, and I care about you, but I don’t care about you to the same degree.”
She paused again and spoke even more softly, “I care about someone else.”
Harry pulled away. “I see,” he said, even though Ginny could hear in his voice that he didn’t.
“You’re a great guy, Harry. I feel horrible about doing this to you, it’s so much easier to break up with a guy because he’s a jerk. I can’t even explain why, but I…I just…”
“Ginny, you don’t need to explain,” Harry informed her, his face hardening. Ginny felt her heart drop, she didn’t want to do this to him, but the change hadn’t been expected, her feelings hadn’t been calculated.
Harry got up and left, leaving Ginny feeling more miserable than before. She fell back on her bed and stared out at the rain again. After five minutes she felt restless and jumped up. She knew what she had to do, she could worry about the consequences later.
Grumbling, Blaise conjured himself a cup of tea. All these sudden guest visits had gotten him mildly addicted to the caffeine. Nothing major, but enough that he felt out of sorts without a daily dose.
Sitting back in a thick leather chair, he pulled a heavy book onto his lap. He had been translating the old documents from his medieval ancestors out of curiosity this summer. The current document he was working on was turning into a detailed story about the old deities.
Blaise couldn’t apply himself, however. He felt distracted and jumpy. Every once and a while he felt a desire to throw himself into the Floo and”
No, you can’t do that, Blaise chastised himself. She was gone, and probably delighted to have days to herself, without tea. Shifting positions again, Blaise rearranged to book and document hoping that from a different angle he might secure motivation.
WHOOSH!
The library fireplace burst into green flames, causing Blaise to jump out of his chair in shock. Who could be arriving? Draco wasn’t away, though Blaise hadn’t seen him all day…
Sputtering, a slight figure with hair as bright as the fire advanced. Blaise found himself frozen to the spot in shock. What was she doing here? And why?
Brushing off any remaining soot, Ginny carefully stepped until she was right in front of Blaise.
“I’ve been kind of confused lately, and I don’t really know much about the future,” she began, taking a deep breath. “One thing I do know is that I want to give this”us”a shot.”
Blaise stared at her in disbelief. “There’s an ‘us’?” he croaked when he recovered his voice.
Ginny’s smile faltered slightly.
“No, that’s not what I meant!” Blaise recovered. He gave her a shaky smile, “I think we deserve a chance as well.”
Ginny’s responding smile prompted him to act for once without inhibitions. He swept his arms around her and pulled her into a deep kiss.