She’s holding a scrap of newspaper and crying uncontrollably. Her beautiful red hair is hanging over her face like a veil. He wants to hold her but he doesn’t, even though he’s not really sure why. He can’t help but think that something awful has happened yet he doesn’t know what. He calls her name softly at first, then a bit louder. She doesn’t even look up. He calls her name once more. When she ignores him, he walks over to her.
“Why won’t you look at me Ginny?”
Ginny puts the scrap of paper on a nearby table and sits down on the sofa. She’s crying silent tears now. She is blankly staring at the blank wall in front of her, as if she’s all alone in the room.
“Ginny, don’t cry. It’ll be okay,” he says quietly. She acts as if he’s not there. It’s as if his words are meaningless to her. She pushes her hair off her face with both hands, pulling at the roots slightly before she lets her hands fall limply onto her lap. She turns her head away from him, as if trying to tell him he shouldn’t be in the room.
“Ginny, why won’t you look at me and tell me what’s wrong?”
He’s becoming irritated now. It shows in his voice and he immediately feels bad. Ginny looks back at the wall and shuts her eyes as if there is something she’s trying not to see something. She just keeps sobbing, tears flowing silently down her pale face. He thinks for a moment that she looks older then she did the last time he saw her. The more he thinks about it, the less he can remember. He can hardly remember her from before tonight.
“Ginny, something’s not right. What’s going on?”
He’s becoming panicked now. He walks over to her and goes to shake her, to snap her out of her trance. However, when he reaches her he finds that he can’t bring himself to touch her. He doesn’t understand why he can’t just pick her up off the sofa or hug her. He walks over to the table to look at the scrap of paper, looking to see if it holds a clue. When he sees it he nearly falls to the floor. The headline reads,” You-Know-Who Wins Battle, Potter Among The Departed.”
“I’m not dead. Ginny, I’m not dead! I’m standing right here! Look at me! Ginny, please! Just look at me!”
She opens her eyes and stands up suddenly. She walks over toward him and the table. For a second he grows hopeful. Then he realizes she’s there to get the clipping. She picks it up off the table and pulls a lighter out of her jean pocket. She lights the clipping on fire and watches it burn, slowly. She looks at it sadly as it burns, as if she’s watching Harry die. Harry can only watch in horror. He yells at her but she can’t hear him. Harry is only alive in her imagination. Harry is a ghost and no one can hear the screams of a ghost.
As the paper burns to ashes in her hands, she thinks back to when things were happy. Memories flash in her mind. She thinks back to the kiss they shared and back to the walk they took that day. She remembers talking to him. Even after he was dead and gone she would talk to him. She had acted like he was still alive for so long. She doesn’t want to pretend anymore. She doesn’t want to be haunted by these memories anymore. She needs to let him go. As the paper burns, she does her best to forget him. Harry begins to fade. The more Ginny forgets him, the more he fades. The more the clipping burns, the more he fades. Soon he is hardly there at all.
Just before the flame reaches her hand she blows it out. The remaining piece if the clipping is the size of a small coin. She walks over to a window and opens it slowly. She looks down at the bustle in the street. She throws the rest of the clipping out of the window and watches as it floats, gracefully, down toward the street below. As the tiny scrap of paper lands on the grimy sidewalk below Ginny’s window, it begins to rain. It’s as if the sky is crying so that Ginny doesn’t have to. She sits on the window still, listening to the rain and gazing at the tiny scrap of paper which is hardly visible. Soon the wind begins the blow it away. She waits until it’s been blown away before she closes the window.
She pauses before closing the window and whispers, “Goodbye Harry.” Harry is no longer there to hear it. Harry’s gone. Harry can’t haunt her anymore.
Burning Memories by Wilted Black Rose
Chapter Notes: The Potter universe belongs only to JKR, I'm just playing in it.
Please read and review as this is my first fic and I want to know what everyone thinks