“I’m coming with you.”
The look in Ginny’s eyes was firm and resilient. Harry had known she would react this way, but it didn’t make it any easier.
“Ginny, you can’t…” Harry began, fruitlessly.
“Yes, I can. And I will. Hermione and Ron are, so why can’t I?” Ginny’s jaw was set in a firm line, clearly showing it was useless to argue.
Harry let out a heavy sigh. He had known what he was getting himself into when he told Ginny about the Horcruxes. Or so he thought. As soon as he had finished his tale- beginning with the private lessons with Dumbledore and ending with the mystery of R.A.B. Plus Harry’s quest to find and destroy all the Horcruxes, and eventually Voldemort- Ginny had made it clear that she, too, would be coming on his journey with Ron and Hermione. This he had expected-and dreaded. But he had hoped he would be able to dissuade her from her desire to come.
Now, as he and Ginny sat on the hill with the last rays of sun drifting below the horizon, Harry was worried about what he would do if he was unable to convince her that coming would be too dangerous.
“Ginny, I can’t risk you getting hurt, or worse. You need to stay here, stay safe. Go back to Hogwarts. Please,” Harry turned and looked her in the eye. “For me.”
Ginny’s look was unrelenting. “You say you can’t risk losing me, but what about Ron and Hermione? You’re going to put them in danger?”
Harry cringed inwardly. “It’s not like that. They’ve decided to put themselves in danger, I don’t want them to, but they are. Besides, they’re older than you, more experienced. It’s not as dangerous for them.”
“Not as dangerous for them?! Are you mad? You know as well as I do that I’m better at most magic than Ron! And don’t forget, I was at the Ministry, too, and I fought last year at Hogwarts! I’ll be just as prepared as Ron or Hermione to face what’s out there! Do you really think I’m safer here? This is a war, Harry! We’re not safe anywhere! With Dumbledore gone, Hogwarts is more vulnerable then ever. No place is safe form You-Know-Who, Harry.”
He was speechless for a moment. Everything Ginny said was true, but it did not change the fact he didn’t want her to come. Harry was beginning to regret his decision of telling her everything.
It’s too late now, a familiar voice in his head said bitterly.
“Ginny, please.” Harry begged. “I just don’t want you to get hurt.”
The look in his eyes must have shown his desperation, for Ginny unclenched her jaw and dropped her shoulders ever so slightly, as if in defeat.
They sat there in silence for many moments, before Ginny said abruptly, “I don’t want to sit here anymore. Do you want to dance?”
Harry was taken aback by this abrupt and unexpected change of subject. He stared at her, silent for a moment, before stuttering, “Er...okay.”
They stood up and Ginny grabbed his hand, leading him down the hill and back into the Weasley’s backyard, where a slow song was playing and couples were swinging dreamily on the dance floor in each others arms.
Harry held Ginny gently by the waist as they danced to the music, not really saying anything, just looking at each other.
As the song progressed Harry leaned down and whispered in Ginny’s ear. “Ginny, the thing is, I just want to know, when this-this war, this quest of mine is over, if I come back…”
“When,” Ginny interjected firmly, pulling back and looking him in the eye.
“If. Ginny, you know as well as I do, anyone can die. Dumbledore’s death proved that,” Harry said. She stared at him for another long moment, before apparently accepting the truth, or at least deciding not to argue it, and her gaze softened and she allowed herself to be swept away by the music once more.
Harry continued, more nervous than before. “I just want to know you’ll still be here…”
Ginny looked at him as an amused smile crossed her face. “What, do you think I’m going to go back to snogging Michael Corner while you're away? What kind of girl do you take me for?” Ginny said with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.
Harry could feel his face turning red. “I didn’t mean like that. Well, maybe a little. I just meant…Er…you know… be careful.” Harry finished, flustered and embarrassed.
Ginny laughed. “Be careful? You're telling me to be careful? I’m not the one going out and trying to destroy pieces of You-Know-Who’s soul!”
“Shh! Not so loud. No need to alert the entire wedding party of my plans,” Harry exclaimed.
Ginny rolled her eyes, but said nothing.
They danced in silence for several minutes before either of them said anything. Then Ginny stood on tip-toe and put her lips to his ear. She whispered, so quietly that Harry thought for a moment he had imagined it,
“I’ll be here, Harry.”
*~*~*~*~*~*
Two weeks had passed since the wedding, and Harry knew it was time for him to leave. They were packed, and Ron and Hermione had made all the arrangements that they needed. Harry and Ron had even gone in and gotten their Apparation license, at the insistence of Mrs. Weasley, who still refused to believe that the three of them were going anywhere.
In fact, after the wedding had ended and Bill and Fleur had left for their honeymoon, there really hadn’t been any reason for Harry, Ron, and Hermione to stay, save for the fact that they wanted to allay Mrs.Weasley’s suspicions about what they were really up to.
At least, that is what Harry kept telling himself. And it did not have anything to do with a certain redheaded girl. Definitely not.
And it certainly had nothing to do with the fact that Harry hadn’t had a quite moment alone with Ginny since their dance at the wedding because something always seemed to be getting in the way.
And of course it had nothing to do with the fact that Harry didn’t want to say goodbye to Ginny and be in fear every single day that he would never see her again.
It definitely had nothing to do with that at all.
But Harry knew-as did Ron and Hermione-that with the fist day of a new year at Hogwarts fast approaching, they were going to have to leave soon. They already had it planned out; they would depart in the night after everyone else had gone to bed, leaving nothing but a brief note behind saying that they had something they needed to do, a task entrusted to them by Dumbledore that nobody else could know about. That they shouldn’t come after them- they wouldn’t be able to find them, anyway.
Harry realized that this seemed like a cold and ungrateful way to say farewell to his surrogate family. He really did hope they didn’t think he was ungracious in any way for what they had done for him over the years. But at the same time, he knew that the less the Weasleys knew about where they were, the safer they would be. He also knew that the sooner they left, the better it would be for everyone, but he still could not bring himself to say goodbye, possibly for the last time, to the place that had been his home more than Privet Drive had ever been.
It was with these thoughts swirling around his head as he lay in bed one night about a fortnight after Bill and Fleur’s wedding listening to Ron’s quite snoring that Harry realized there could be no more waiting. Tomorrow night they would leave, or else he would never be able to bring himself to do it.
When he awoke the next morning he was surprised to find that Ron was not in his bed. Harry glanced at his watch and received a shock when he saw that it was eleven-thirty in the morning. Although he wasn’t surprised that he had been tired enough to sleep that long, he was surprised that Mrs.Weasley had let him sleep that long.
Harry quickly hopped out of bed and got dressed. He hurried downstairs to find the dining room empty. He entered the kitchen and was surprised when he found no one in there either. Beginning to worry, he hurried out to the back yard, only to have his worries immediately relieved when he found Mrs. Weasley magically hanging clothes to dry, while Ron and Ginny raced around on their brooms overhead and Hermione sat under a tree, face in a book.
Catching sight of Harry from above, Ron flew down and landed in front of him with a heavy thud as he slid off his broom.
“Finally, Harry!” Ron exclaimed. “I thought you were never going to wake up!”
“Well, it’s not as though you tried to keep me from sleeping in so late,” Harry grumbled.
Ron shrugged unremorsefully. “Mum told me to let you sleep. She said you’d seemed unusually tired lately.” He grinned.
Harry nodded absentmindedly. “Ron, I need to talk to you… and Hermione. Alone.” He shot a furtive glance at Mrs.Weasley, hoping that she wouldn’t overhear.
Ron’s face suddenly turned grave. “It’s time, isn’t it?” He said softly. “Time to leave?”
Harry nodded. Ron turned around to look at Hermione, who was chatting amiably with Ginny under the large tree where she had been reading her book. “Oi! Hermione! Could you come here a minute?”
Harry cringed. “Could you be any less subtle?”
“Sorry,” Ron muttered, looking a bit sheepish.
As Hermione made her way over to them, Harry watched as Ginny mounted her broom and rose back into the air, apparently either uninterested in what Ron wanted, or sensing somehow that it wasn’t something she was suppose to know about.
Hermione approached them then, took one look at their grave faces and exclaimed, “Well, it’s about time we left!”
Harry was very taken aback; this was not at all the reaction he’d been expecting. Meanwhile, Ron looked highly amused and was trying to stifle a laugh. “How did you…?” Harry began.
“I just assumed we’d be leaving any day now. We should have left sooner, really.” Hermione shook her head. “And the look on your face, so serious. I just figured that that was what you wanted to tell me.”
Harry was still stunned. Hermione would never cease to surprise him.
Hermione became more serious now. “Alright, we’re going to have to set a time. And I think I have everything packed, but I’ll double check, just to be positive.”
Harry nodded. “We’ll leave at one o’ clock tonight. That will give everyone else time to go to sleep before we leave.”
Hermione and Ron agreed, and they spent the next several minutes tying up loose ends and making a mental checklist of things to do. All the while, however, Harry was constantly looking up in the sky at Ginny, who was now practicing her Seeker skills by chasing around a Golden Snitch. He hadn’t had much time to be alone with her since the wedding, and now he was feeling a stab of remorse when he thought about how he would be leaving her tonight and he didn’t know when he would see her again.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Oi! That’s my foot you're stepping on!” Ron exclaimed in a loud whisper on their way down the stairs. Everyone else in the house was asleep, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione were tiptoeing down the stairs, wands held aloft and giving of a faint beam of light, towards the front door so they could make their escape.
“Sorry,” Harry murmured, shifting slightly to avoid trampling Ron’s feet again.
“Shh!” Hermione hissed suddenly. “I think I hear something.”
Harry strained his ears to see if he could hear anything, but the house was silent.
“Probably just the ghoul in the attic,” Ron whispered nervously.
“Maybe…” Hermione replied, but she still sounded unsure.
“Let’s just go,” Harry said, edging forward ahead of the other two and down the last few steps. Ron and Hermione followed behind, and soon they were through the front door.
They were about to run towards the gate -the Weasleys had put numerous protective spells on the house to keep anyone from Apparating in, which also meant that nobody could Apparate out- when Harry heard a quite voice behind him call his name.
He spun around, and to say he was surprised to see Ginny there in the doorway wearing a nightgown and looking very anxious would have been an understatement.
Before he could say anything however, Ron butted in. “Ginny, go back in the house. We have to leave,” he said sternly, trying to put as much authority in his voice as he could, and failing terribly.
Ginny glared at him, and Hermione pulled him aside saying, “Come on, Ron, let's just give them a moment…” She shot a worried look at Harry, but didn’t say anything.
Ron went grudgingly with Hermione, and once they were out of ear shot, Ginny stepped forward until there was only a foot between Harry and her. She looked up at him a little sheepishly. “I just wanted to get a chance to say goodbye…” She trailed off.
“How did you know we were leaving?” Harry asked.
Ginny rolled her eyes as if he were insulting her intelligence by asking. “I saw you talking to Ron and Hermione today, looking all secretive. And you’ve been more jumpy then you have the whole time you’ve been here. It didn’t take a lot to figure it out.”
Harry nodded slowing. He should have known his thinly veiled attempts at secrecy would not have fooled Ginny. She knew him too well.
They stood there for an awkward moment in silence, everything he wanted to say but couldn’t, everything he should have said but didn’t swirling through Harry’s head.
Finally, after a moment that seemed to last an eternity, Ginny inhaled loudly. “I guess you better go,” she said, a certain defiant sadness in her eyes.
“I guess you’re right,” Harry replied, unable to turn away.
Then, before he knew what was happening, Ginny had thrown her arms around his neck and was kissing him in a way that they hadn’t kissed since before Dumbledore’s funeral. Harry stiffened in surprise before relaxing and trying to forget everything. Voldemort, the Horcruxes, Ron making angry gasping noises somewhere nearby; it all didn’t matter right now.
But all too quickly, it was over. Ginny pulled away, looking flushed but not embarrassed, and Ron came stomping loudly up to them, despite Hermione’s loud protests.
“Well, I know you two have some very important snogging to do, but in case you haven’t noticed, there is a war going on here and we really need to get going!” Ron fumed.
Ginny laughed unabashedly. “Right, Ron. Go now and save the world.” She hugged him swiftly and then turned to hug Hermione. Hermione sniffed loudly as she let Ginny go and dabbed at her eyes with her sleeve.
“Goodbye,” Hermione said.
Ginny smiled slightly. “Don’t say goodbye, it sounds so final.”
Nobody spoke for a moment, thinking about just how final this goodbye might be.
Ron cleared his throat. “Er… take care of yourself, alright? And make sure Mum doesn’t do something crazy when she finds out we’re gone. The last thing we need is her chasing us down and dragging us back home.” He embraced his sister one more time before turning away quickly, and Harry was sure he saw a tear in Ron’s eye.
“I guess this is goodbye,” Harry said to Ginny. He wrapped his arms around her one more time and held her tight.
“Be safe, Harry,” she whispered in his ear.
He released her and then turned swiftly away, walking out through the gate towards where the protective border ended. They crossed the ward and prepared to Apparate away to the meeting place they had all agreed upon. As Harry pictured it in his head and began to turn, he looked back to the house, to Ginny, saving the image in his mind.
The last thing he saw before Apparating away was Ginny, standing alone out in the yard, looking somehow scared and brave, hopeful and stoic at the same time.
He only hoped he’d be able to save her -save them all- and come back to see her again.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~